Milford chronicle., 1889-10-11
A BLESSING OR A CURSE7
DR.. TALMAeE SPEAKS OF THE
COMING WORLDS FAIR.

His Text Is from Ezekiel xvii, IL; "They
Traded In Thy Fairs''-Pointed Cues
riOns OF National Significance Asked by
the Great Divine.
BROOKLYN, Get. 6-The Rev. T. De Witt
Talmage, D. D., preached in the Tabernacle
this morning on the subject, 1.-THE Coming
Worlds Fair Shall it Be Made a Blessing OF
Cursor His text was Ezekiel xvii, ~
"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 a
large scale, for county or city, for one nation
or for all nations. My text brings US to
the fairs of ancient Tyre, city that is now
extinct. Part Of the city was on an island
! and part on the mainland. Alexander, the
conqueror, was much embarrassed when he
! found so much Of the city was OH an island,
/ for he had no ships. But his military genius
was not to be baked Having marched his
army to the beach, he ordered them to tear
| up the city on the mainland 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 a causeway of
| timber and brick and stone, on which his
army marched to the capture 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 Tyrian causeway Of
ruins which Alexander's army built is still
there, and by alluvial deposits has perma-
nently united the island to the mainland, so
that it is no longer an island but a promon-
tory.
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 gradually giving rites
Of sepulture to what was left of Tyre. But,
oh, what magnificent city it once was Mis-
tress of the seal Queen Of international com
merce All nations casting their crowns at
aer feetl Where we have in our sailing yes
sells 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 a
worlds fair at Tyre
Ezekiel leads US through one department
and it is a horse fair. Under fed and over
driven for ages, the horses Of today give you
no idea Of the splendid animals which, rear
ing 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 a minister of religion
and not supposed to know much about horses
cried out in admiration; "They Of the house
of Togarinah traded in thy fairs with horses. "
Here in another department of that worlds
fair at Tyre, led on by Ezekiel the prophet,
we find everything all ablaze with precious
stones Like petrified snow are the corals
like fragments of fallen sky are the sap
phires, and here is agate a-blush with ali
cOlors. What is that aroma we inhale! 1t
Is from chests Of cedar which we open, and
find them filled with all styles Of fabric.
But the arOmatics increase as we pass down
this lane Of enchantment, and here are cassia
and frankincense and balm. Led ON by Eze-
kiei 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 a meteorological fair with spec
linens Of iron and silver and tin and lead
and gold. But halt, for here is purple, Ty-
rian purple, all tints and shades, deep almost
unto the black and bright almost unto the
bluei 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 Helvon. See those snow banks Of
wool from the back Of sheep that once pas
tured in Gilead. Oh, the bewildering riches
aud variety of that worlds fair at Tyre
THE FAIRS OF THE WORLD.
But the world has copied these Bible mem
toned fairs in all succeeding ages and it has
had its Louis the Sixth fair at Dagobert, and |
Henry the First fair on st. Bartholomew |
day, and Hungarian 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 after them came the London |
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 commemoratiOn Of the /
discovery Of America in l492 there shall DO |
held In this country in 1899 a Worlds fair /
that shall eclipse all preceding national expo |
sitions. l say, God speed the movement /
Surely the event commemorated is worthy |
OF all the architecture and music and pyro- |
technics and eloquence and stupendous plan
ming and monetary expenditure and con-
greSsional appropriations which the most san
guine Christian patriot has ever dreamed OF.
Was Rny voyage that the world ever heard |
of crowned with such an arrival as that Of .
Columbus and his meni
After they had been encouraged for the
last few days by fight Of land birds and
floating branches Of red berries, and while
Columbus was down in the cabin studying
the sea chart, Martin Pinzon, standing on
deck and looking to the southwest, cried:
'Landl Land Landl" And "Gloria in
RIeelsisn was sung with raining tears on all
the three ships OF the expedition Most ap-
prOpriate and patriotic and Christian will be
u commemorative worlds fair in America in
1892, Leaving to others the discussion as 70
the site Of such expOsition-apd ! wonder
not that some five or six Of our cities are
to have it, for 1t will give to any
city 20 which it may be assigned an impulse
Of prosperity for a hundred years. say,
leaving 70 others the selection Of the partic
ulaP locality to be thus hOnoFed, ] want to
say some things from the point of Christian
patriotism which ought to be said, and the
earlier the better, that we may get thousands
Of people talking in the right direction, and
that will make healthful public opinion. !
beg you to consider prayerfully what ! feel
called upon Of God as an American citizen
and as a preacher of Righteousness to utter.
CITIES SHOULD NOT DEPREcIATE EACH OTHER.
Ny first suggestion is that it is not wise, as
it is not Christian, to continue this
wide and PERSISTENT attempt Of American cit
les to bslittle and depreciate Other cities II
has been going on for years, but now the
spirit seems to eliminate IN this discussion as
to where the Worlds fair shall be held,
style Of discussion which has a tendency to
injure the Success Of the fair as great moral
and patriotic enterprise, after tho legality
has been decided upon. There is snoh q
thing as healthful rivalry between cities,
but you viii bear me out in saying that there
can be no good TO come from the uncanny
things said about each other by New York
and Chicago, by Chicago and st, Louis, by
st. Paul and Minneapolis, by Tacoma ana
Seattle, and all through the states by almost
evesy two proximate cities
An cities like iudiyiduals have their Vir-