Daily Yellowstone journal., 1889-03-24
A HOLY REBUILDING.
Oh. TALMAGE APPLIES THE EXAMPLE
or NEHEMIAH TO CHRISTIAN LIFE.

N DcAu ttty-Nchenthns u Saptite, Longs
- Rebuiid the Home Of HIS Fathers.
HIS Moonlight Ride-why and How the
heart Of aIan Must Be Reconstructed.
BROOKLYN, March 17-At the tab
emacle this morning the Rev. I. De
Witt Talmage, ID. D., ~expounded the
seventh chapter of Ecclesiastes. He
afterwards gave out the hymn begin
Z ning,
Gracei tits q charming sound,
. Harmonious TO The ear,
which was sung by the vast congre-
cation with magnificent effect The
subject Of DIR. Talmage's sermon was
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" Hesaid:
+. A dead city is more suggestive than
a 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 OF Scotland said in the lay
Of the Last Minstrel"
wouldst thou view fair Melrose aright
Go visit IL by the pale moonlight
Washington Irving describes the
Andalusian moonlight upon the AL
hAnbra ruins as amounting TO an en-
chantment. My text presents you
jerusalem in ruins. The tower down.
m 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 Nehem'ah's heart, but
they are going as a sort of body
guard. ! hear the clicking hoofs of
the horse on which Nehemiah rides,
as he guides il this way and that, into
this gate and out Of that, winding
through that gate amid the debris of
nee great Jerusalem. Now the horse
comes TO a dead halt at the tumbled
Masonry where he cannot pass. Now
he SHES off at the charred timbers.
Now he ZONES 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 b. the defaced temple, now amid
the car Of the city that had gone
down under battering ram and confla-
grafton. The escorting party knowsn not
what Nehemiah means. Is he getting
crazyf Have his own personal sor-
rows, added 10 the sorrows of the ma
ton, unbalanced his intellect Still
the midnight exploration goes on.
Nehemiah ON horseback rides through
the fish gate, by the tower of the fur
nsces, by the kings pool, by the
dragon well, 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,
Nehemiah, have you any money!
mo" Have you any kingly author
ity7" No" "Have you any elo-
quencef" 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 10 be done. but
with great enthusiasm they cried out,
"Letus rise up now and build the city,"
Some people laughed and said il could
not be done. Some people were in
friate and offered physical violence,
saying the thing should not be done.
But the workmen went right on, stand
ing OF the wall, trowel in one hand,
sword in the other, until the work was
gloriously completed. At that very
time, in Greece, Xenophon was writing
a history. and Plato was making phil
osophy, and Demosthenes was rafting
his rhetorical thunder, but all of them
together did not do SO much for the
world as this midnight, moonlight
rideo praying, courageous, homesick, |
close mouthed Nehemiah.
UPBUILDING OF ZION.
My subject first impresScs me with
the idea what an intense thing is
church affection. Seize the bride of
that horse and stop Nehemiah. Why +,
@e you riskIng your life here in the
night Your horse will stumble over
fbese ruins and fall on you. Stop this
useless exposure Of your life. No;
Nehemiah will not stop. He at last
tells US the whole story. lie lets US
know he was an exile in a far distant
land, and he was a servant. a Gun
bearer in the palace of Artaxerxcs
Longimanus, and n day, while lac
was handing the cup Of wine TO the
king, the king said 10 him.
sW1hat is the matter with youl
You are not sick. know
you must have some great trouble.
What is the matter with youi" Then
he told the king how that DO.
loved Jerusalem was broken down;
how that his fathers tomb had
been d~esecrated; how that the
Temple had been dishonored and
dafaced: how that the walls were
scattered and broken. "Well," says
King Artaxerxes, what do you wantl"
well, said the cup bearer Nehemiah,
II want TO go home. | want 10 fix up
tho grave Of my father. 1 want to re-
store the beauty Of the temple. want