Abilene weekly reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1888-1935, 1889-12-19
TALMAGES SERMON.
The Brooklyn Pastor Delivers q
Discourse at Jerusalem.
The Mighty Past of the Historic CITY Re-
called With It's Wealth of Interest
and Incident-The New Jeru-
salem Of the Future.

new i. DehlGL L alInage delivered In0
following discourse while in Jerusalem,
taking for his text
Jerusalem! Jerusalem Matthew xiii, 81.
This exclamation burst from Christ's
lips as He came in sight of this great
city, and although things have marvel
ously changed, who can visit Jerusalem
to-day without having its mighty past
roll over on him, and ordinary utter
ances must give way to the explanatory
as we cry: o Jerusalem, Jerusalem!
Disappointed with the Holy Land many
have been, and l have heard good
friends say their ardor about sacred
places had been so dampened that they
were sorry they ever visited Jerusalem.
But with me the city and its surround
ings are a rapture, sOlemnity, an over
whelming emotion. o Jerusalem, Jeru-
salem! The procession of kings, con-
puerOrs, poets and immortal men and
women pass before me as / stand
here. Among them are Solomon,
David and Christ. Yes, through these
streets and amid these surroundings
rode Solomon, that wonder of splendor
and wretchedness. 1t seemed as if the
world exhausted itself on that man. 1t
wove its brightest flowers into his gar
land. 1t set its richest gems in his
coronet. It pressed the rarest wine to
his lips. 1t ROBBED him in the purest pur-
pie and embroidery. 1t cheered him
with the sweetest music in that land of
harps. 1t greeted him with the glad
est laughter that ever leaped from
mirth's lip. 1t sprinkled his cheek
with spray from the brightest fountains.
Royalty had no dominion, wealth no
luxury, gold no glitter, flowers no
sweetness, song no melody, light no
radiance, upholstery no gorgeOusness,
waters no CLEAN, birds no plumage,
prancing coursers no mettle, architect
IRE no grandeur but it was his. Across
the thick grass of the lawn, fragrant
with tufts of campfire from Engedi, fell
the long shadows Of trees brought from
distant forests.
Fish pools, fed by artificial channels
that brought the streams from hills far
away, were perpetually rufied with fins,
and golden scales shot from water cave
swirl, attracting the gaze of foreign po-
tentates. Birds that had been brought
from foreign aviaries glanced and fiut-
tered among the foliage, and called to
their mates far beyond the sea. From
the royal stables there came up the
neighing of twelve thousand horses,
standing in blankets of Tyrian purple,
chewing their bits over troughs of gold,
waiting for the Kings order to be
brought out in front of the palace, when
the official dignitaries would leap into
the saddle for some grand parade, or,
harnessed to some of the fourteen hun
dred chariots of the King, the fiery
chargers with Haunting name and
throbbing nostril would make the earth
jar with the tramp of hoofs and
the thunder of wheels. While within
and without the palace you could not
think of single luxury that could be
added, or of single splendOr that could
be kindled, down on the banks of the
sea the dry docks of Ezion-geber rang
with the hammers of the shipwrightS
who were constructing larger vessels for
a still wider commerce, for all lands and
chimes were to be robbed to make up
Solomon's glory. No rest till his keels
shall cut every sea, his aXmen hew
every forest, his archers strike every
rare wing, his fishermen whip every
his merchants trade in every
bazaar, his name be honored by every
tribe; and royalty shall have no domin- !
ion, wealth no luxury, gold no glitter, |
song no melody, light no radiance, wa
ters no CLEAN, birds no plumage, pranc-
ing courserS no mettle, upholstery no |
architecture no grandeur, |
but it was all his.
If wealth and wisdom could have sat |
isied man, Solomon would have been |
satisfied. To say that Solomon was |
gives but very imperfect |
idea of the property he inherited from |
David, his father. He had at his COM
mand gold TO the value of six hundred |
and eigty million pounds sterling, and |
he had silver to the value of one billion, |
twenty-nine million, three hundred and
seventy-seven pounds sterling. The |
Queen of Sheba made him q nice little |
present of seven hundred and twenty |
thousand pounds sterling, and Hiram |
made him present of the same amount. |
If he had lost the value of a whole realm |
out Of his pocket it would hardly have |
been worth his while to stoop down and |
pick it up. lie wrote thousand and five |
songs. He wrote three thousand proverbs. |
lie wrote about almost every thing. The
Bible says distinctly he wrote about |
plants, from the cedar of Lebanon to the |
hySsop that groweth out of the wall, and
about birds, and beasts, and fishes. No |
doubt he put off his royal robes, and put |
on hunters trapping, and went out with
his arrows to bring down the rarest |
specimens of birds; and then, with his /
fishing apparatus, he went down to the
stream TO bring up the denizens
Of the deep, and plunged into the forest /
and found the rarest specimens of flow
erS; and then he came back to his study |
and wrote books about zoology, the sci /
ence of animals; about ichthyology, the |
science of fishes; about ornithology, the |
science of birds; about botany, the sci /
ence of plants. Yet, notwithstanding |
all his wisdom and wealth, behold his /
"ASVOuCNhSoS anu ASV hAih pass Oh' bAu
any other city ever behold so wonderful |
a man? o Jerusalem, Jerusaleml But /
here passes through these streets, as in
Imagination see him, quite as wonder
full and far better man. David, the |
conqueror, the King, the poet Can it
be that l am in the very city where he /
lived and reigned? David, great for
power and great for grief. He was
wrapped up in his boy Absalom. He
was splendid boy, judged by the rules
of worldly criticism. From the crown /