The united opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1881-1970, 1889-03-22
A HOLY REBUILDING.
DR.. TALMAGE APPLIES THE EXAMPLE
OF NEHEMIAH TO CHRISTIAN LIFE.

"A Dead City-Nehemiah, a Captive. Long
, to Rebuild the Home Of His Fathers
His Moonlight Ride-why and How tn
Heart of Man Must BE Reconstructed.
BROOKLYN, March l7-At the tab
ernacle this morning the Rev. T. d.
Witt Talmage, D. D., expounded tn,
seventh chapter of Ecclesiastes. HI
afterwards gave out the hymn begin
ming,
Grace It's charming sound,
Harmonious to the ear.
which was sung by the vast congre
cation with magnificent effect The
subject of DR.. Talmage's sermon was
1.-THE Moonlight Ride, and the text,
Nehemiah ii, Is: ''Then / went up in
the night by the brook, and viewed
the wall and turned back, and entered
by the gate of the valley, and SO re-
turned" He said:
A dead city is more suggestive than
q living city-past Rome than present
Rome ruins rather than newly fres-
coed cathedral. But the best time to
visit a ruin is by moonlight. The
Coliseum is far more fascinating to the
traveller after shutdown than before.
You may stand by daylight amid the
monastic ruins of Melrose Abbey, and
study shafted oriel, and rosetted stone
and mullion, but they throw their
strongest witchery by moonlight.
Some of you remember what the en-
chanter.o of Scotland said in the LAY
Of the Last Minstrel"
wouldst thou view fair Melrose Alright,
Go visit 1t by the pale moonlight,
Washington Irving describes the
Andalusian moonlight upon the Al
hambra ruins as amounting to an en-
chantment. My text presents you
Jerusalem in ruins. The tower down.
The gates down. The walls down.
Everything down. Nehemiah on
horseback, by moonlight looking upon
the ruins. While he rides, there are
some friends on foot going with him,
for they do not want the many
horses to disturb the suspicious Of
thepeople. These people do not know
the secret of Nehemiah's heart, but
they are going as a sort of body
guard. i hear the clicking hoofs Of
the horse on which Nehemiah rides
as he guides it this way and that, into
this gate and out of that, winding
through that gate amid the debris Of
once great Jerusalem. Now the horse
comes to dead halt at the tumbled
masonry where he cannot pass. Now
he SHES off at the charred timbers.
Now he comes along where the water
under the moonlight flashes from the
mouth Of the brazen dragon after
which the gate was named Heavy
hearted Nehemiah Riding in and
out, now by his old home desolated,
now by the defaced temple, now amid
the scars of the city that had gone
down under battering ram pnd conAar
grafton. The escorting party knows not
what Nehemiah means. Is he getting
crazy9 Have his own personal sor-
rows, added to the sorrows of the ma
ton, unbalanced his intellect9 Still
the midnight exploration goes on.
on horseback rides through
the fish gate, by the tower of the fur
naces, by the kings pool, by the
dragon we'll, in and out, in and out,
until the midnight ride is completed,
and Nehemiah dismounts from his
horse, and to the amazed and con-
founded and incredulous body
guard, declares the dead secret
Of his heart when he says, Come,
now, let us build Jerusalem. What,
have you any money!"
'No." Have you any kingly author
ity2" No" "Have you any elo-
quence9' No" Yet that midnight,
moonlight ride of Nehemiah resulted
in the glorious rebuilding of the city
Of Jerusalem. The people knew not
how the thing was to be done. but
with great enthusiasm they cried out,
LET us rise up now and build the city,"
Some people laughed and said it could
not be done. Some people were in
furiate and offered physical violence,
saying the thing should not be done.
But the workmen went right on, stand
ing on the wall, trowel in one hand,
sword in the other, until the work was
gloriously completed. At that very
lime, in Greece, Xenophon was writing
a history, and Plato was making phil
osophy, and Demosthenes was rattling
his rhetorical thunder, but all of them
together did not do so much for the
world as this midnight, moonlight
ride of praying, courageous, homesick,
close mouthed Nehemiah.
UPBUILDING OF ZION.
My subject first impresses me with
The idea what an intense thing is
church affection. Seize the bride of
that horse and stop Nehemiah. Why
are you risking your life here in the
nights Your horse will stumble over
these ruins and fall on you. Stop this
useless exposure of your life. No;
Nehemiah will not stop. He at last
ellis us the whole story He let's us
know he was an exile in far distant
and. and he was servant, cup
bearer in the palace of Artaxerxes
Longimanus, and one day, while he
vas handing the cup of wine to the
xing, the king said to him,
What is the matter with your
You are not sick. know
you must have some great trouble.
What is the matter with your" Then
lie told the king how that be-
owed Jerusalem was broken down;
low that his fathers tomb had
,een desecrated; how that the
Temple had been dishonored and
&c k0,, <1o4 H.