Milford chronicle., 1889-03-22
A HOLY REBUILDING.
DR.. TALMAeE APPLIES THE EXAMPLE
OF NEHEMIAH TO CHRISTIAN LIFE.

A Dead City-Nehemiah, a Captive, Longs
to Rebuild the Home of His Fathers.
His Moonlight Ride-why and How the
Heart of Man Must BE Reconstructed.
BROOKLYN, March l7.-At the tabernacle
this morning the Rev. T. De Witt Talmage,
D. D., expounded the seventh chapter of Ee-
clesiastes. He afterwards gave out the hymn
beginning,
Gracel it's a charming sound,
Harmonious TO the ear
which was sung by the vast congregation
with magnificent effect The subject of DR..
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 en-
tered by the gate of the valley, and 50 re-
turned he said:
dead city is more suggestive than liv-
ing city-past Rome than present Rome
ruins rather than newly frescoed cathedral.
But the best time to visit ruin is by moon
light The Coliseum is far more fascinating
to the traveller after sundown than before.
You may stand by daylight amid the monas
tic ruins Of Melrose Abbey and study shafted
oriel, and rosetted stone and mullion, but
they throw their strongest witchery by moon
light. Some of you remember what the en-
chanter of Scotland said in the Lay Of the
Last Minstrel"
Wouldst thou view fair Melrose Alright,
Go visit it by the pale moonlight
Washington Irving describes the Andalu-
sian moonlight upon the Alhambra ruins as
amounting to an enchantment My text pre-
sents 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
the people. These people do not know the
secret Of Nehemiah's heart, but they are go
ing as a sort Of body guard hear the
clicking hoofs of the horse on which Nehe-
miah 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 Je-
rusalem. Now the horse comes 10 a dead
halt at the tumbled masonry where he cannot
pass. Now he SHES off at the charred tim
bers. 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 Rid
ing 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 and connagration. The escort
ing party knows not what Nehemiah means.
Is he getting crazy! Have his own personal
sorrows, added to the sorrows of the nation,
unbalanced his intellect Still tho midnight
exploration goes on. Nehemiah on horseback
rides through the fish gate, by the tower Of
the furnaces, by the kings pool, by the
dragon well, in and out, in and out, until
the midnight ride is completed, and Nehe-
miah dismounts from his horse, and to the
amazed and confounded 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 monevg' 'No.n "Havo you
any kingly authorityl' "No." Have you
any eloquencep' mo" 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 infuriate and
offered physical violence, saying tho thing
should not be done. But the workmen went
right on, standing on the WALL trowel in one
hand, sword in tho other until the work was
gloriously completed. At that very time, in
Greece, Xenophon was writing a history,
aud Plato was making philosophy, and De
nnosthenes was rattling his rhetorical thun-
der, but all of them together did not do so
much for the world as this midnight, moon
light ride of praying, cousageous, homesick,
close mouthed Nehemiah.
UPBUILDING OF ZION.
4. = L..
what an intense thing is church affection.
Seize the bride Of that horse and stop Nehe-
miah Why arc you risiing your life here
in the nightl Your horse will stumble over
these ruins and fall on you. Stop this useless
exposure of your life. No; Nehemiah viii
not stop. He at last tells us the whole story.
He lets us know he was an exile in far dis
tant land, and he was a servant, a cup bearer
In the palace Of Artaxerxes LOngimanus,
and ono day, while he was handing the cup
of wine to the king, the king said to him;
"What is the matter with you9 You are not
sick | know you must have some great
trouble. What is the matter with your
Thea he told the king how that beloved Jeru-
salem was broken down; how that his
fathers tomb had been desecrated; how
that the Temple had been dishonored
and defaced; how that tho walls were
scattered and broken "Well,n says King
Artaxerxes, "what do you wantp well" "
said the cup bearer Nehemiah, Il want to go
home want 10 fix up the grave of my IA
ther. | want to restUc the beauty of the
Temple / want to rebuild the masonry Of
the city wall Besides want passports 50
that shall not be hindered in ny journey.
And besides that" as you will find in the con-
text, ~ want an order on tho man who keeps
your forest for Just so much timber as may
need for the rebuilding Of the city" How
long shall you be goneT said the king. The
time Of absence is arranged. In hot haste
this seeming adyenturer comes to Jerusa-
lem, and in my next text we find him on
horseback, in the midnight, riding around the
ruins. It is through the spectacles Of this
scene that we discover She ardent attach
ment of Nehemiah for sacred Jerusalem,
which in all AGES has been the type Of the
church Of God, our Jerusalem, which we
love Just as much as Nehemiah loved his
Jerusalem. The fact is that you love the
church Of God 50 much that there is no SPOT
on earth so sacred, unless it is your own fire
side The church has been to you so much
comfort and illumination that there is moth
ing that makes you 50 irate as to have it
talked against. If there have been times
when you have been carried into captivity
by sickness, you longed for the church, our
holy Jerusalem, just rs much as Nehemiah
longed for his Jerusalem, and the first day
you came out you canic to the house Of the
Lord When the Temple was il ruins as
ours was years ago, like Nehemi9h, you
walked around and looked at it, and in
the moonlight you stood listening if you
could not hear tho voice Of the
dead organ, the psalm of the expired
Sabbaths What Jerusalem was to Nehe-
miah, the church Of God is to you. Skeptics
AMI infdels may scoff at The church as an
obsolete affair, as relic Of the dark ages, as
a convention Of goody goody people, but all
the impression they have ever made on your
mind against the church Of God is absolutely
nothing You would make more sacrifices
for it today than for any other institution,
and If it we're needful you would die in its
defense. You can take tho words of the
irf.,o.l,r v.,af ne h5 eafI I for.eraf faaa n