The united opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1881-1970, 1889-10-11
EXCEEDING GOOD ADVICE.
DR.. TALMAGE breaches A SERMON
ON THE WORLDS FAIR.

Let Rival Cities Cease yiinging Mud u
Each Other. He says-shall the Fair n
blessing or u Curse?
BROOKLYN, Oct. 6.-The Rev. 7. Dt
Witt Talmage, d. D., preached in the
Tabernacle this morning Oh the sub
iect, 1.-THE Coming Worlds Fair, Shall
1t Be Made Blessing or Curse9'
His text was Ezekiel xvii, 10; "They
traded in thy fairs" He said.
Fairs may be for the sale of goods
or for the exhibition of goods ON a
small scale or large scale, for county
or city, for one nation or for all ma
tons. My text brings us to the fairs
Of ancient Tyre, a city that is now ex-
tinct. Part of the city was on an
island, and part on the mainland.
Alexander, the conquerer, was much
embarrassed when he found so much
of the city was on an island, for he had
no ships. But his military genius
was not to be baked. Having march
ed his army to the beach, he ordered
them to tear up the city on the main
land and throw it into the water and
build a causeway two hundred feet
wide to the island. So they took that
part of the city which was on the
mainland and with it built causeway
of timber and brick and stone, on
which his army marched to the cap
ture of that part of the city which was
on the island, as though a hostile
army should put Brooklyn into the
East river and over it march to the
capture of New York. That Ty-
rian causeway of ruins which Alex
ander's army built, is still there, and
by alluvial deposits has permanently
united the island to the mainland. so
that it is no longer an island but a
promontory. The sand, the greatest
Of all undertakers for burying cities,
having covered up for the most part
Baalbec' and Palmyra and Thebes and
Memphis and Carthage and Babylon
and Luxor and Jericho, the sand, so
small and yet SO mighty, is now grad
ually giving rites of sepulture to what
was left of Tyre. But, oh, what mag
nificent city it once was! Mistress of
the sea! Queen of international com
merce! All nations casting their
crowns at her feet Where we have
in our sailing vessels benches of wood,
she had benches of ivory. Where we
have for our masts of ships sails of
coarse canvas, she had sails of richest
embroidery.
The chapter from which my text is
taken after enumerating the richest
countries in all the world says Of Tyre:
''They traded in thy fairs" Look in
upon worlds fair at Tyre. Ezekiel
leads us through one department and
it is horse fair. Under fed and over
driven for ages, the horses of today
give you no idea of the splendid ami
mails which, rearing and plunging
and snorting and neighing, were
brought down over the plank of the
ships and led into the worlds fair at
Tyre until Ezekiel, who was min
lister of religion and not supposed to
know much about horses, cried out in
admiration 'They of the house Of
Togarmah traded in thy fairs with
horses. Here in another department
of that worlds fair at Tyre, led on by
Ezekiel the prophet, we find every
thing all ab1aze with precious stones.
Like petrified snow are the corals;
like fragments of fallen sky are the
and here is agate a-blush
with all colors. What is that aroma
we inhaler It is from chests of cedar
which we open, and find them filed
with all styles of fabric. But the aro-
mates increase as we pass down this
lane of enchantment, and here are
cassia and frankincense and balm.
Led on by Ezekiel the prophet, we
come to an agricultural fair with a
display of wheat from Minnith and
Pannag. rich as that of our modern Da-
kota or Michigan. And here is min
eralogical fair, with specimens of iron
and silver and tin and lead and gold.
But halt, for here is purple, Tyrian
purple, all tints and shades, deep al
most unto the black and bright almost
unto the blue; waiting for kings and
queens to order it made into robes for
coronation day; purple not like that
which is now made from the Orchilla
weed, but the extinct purple, the lost
purple, which the ancients knew how
to make out of the gasteropod mollusks
of the Mediterranean. Oh, look at
those casks of wine from Helbon! See
those snow banks of wool from the
back of sheep that once pastured in
Gilead. Oh, the bewildering riches
and variety of that worlds fair at
Tyre!
THE FAIRS OF THE WORLD.
But the world has copied these Bible
fairs in all succeeding ages,
and it has had its Louisthe Sixth fair at
Dagobert, and Henry the First fair on
st. Bartholomew day, and Hunga-
rian fairs at Pesth, and Easter fairs at
Leipsic, and the Scotch fairs at Perth,
(bright was the day when I was at one
of them), and afterward came the Lon
don worlds fair, and the New York
worlds fair, and the Vienna worlds
fair, and the Partisan worlds fair, and
it has been decided that, in commemo-
ration of the discovery of America in
1899, there shall be held in this coun-
try in 1892 worlds fair that. shall
eclipse all preceding national exposi-
tons. l say, God speed the move
mentl Surely the event commemorate
ed is worthy of all the architec-
ture and music and pyrotechnics
= a.