Fisherman & farmer. [volume] (Edenton, N.C.) 1887-19??, 1890-10-24
REV. DIR. TALMAGE.
THE BROOKLYN DIVISE,s sim
DAY SERMON.
Subject: 'In Jerusalem -"

~ JoTgeI hee, y Jerusalem.
1et my right hand forget her cunniI1g."TT
Fsalm cxxxvii., 5.
>. Paralysis of his best hand, the witkerinp Of
ICs muscles and nerves. is here invoked if the
author allows to pass out of mind the gran
oeurs of the Holy City where once he dyyeIt
jeremiah, seated by the river Euphrates
wrote this psalm, and not David Afraid
az % any tnng that approaches imprecation,
ana yet can understand how any one who
mas ever been at Jerusalem should in enthu-
slasm or soul crZ out, whether he be sitting
DDy the Euphrates, or the Hudson, or the
1names, IF forget thee o Jerusalem, let
my right hand forget her cunniner' You
see it is city unlike all others for topog-
raFhy, for history, for significance, for style
or population, for water works. for ruins
Tor towers, for domes. for ramparts. for lit
erature. for tragedies, for memorable birth
places, for sepulchers, for conf1agrations and
Iamlnes for victories and defeats
am here at last in tins very Jerusalem
ana on housetop, just after the dawn of
the morning of December 3, with an old in
naoltant to point out the salient features Of
the scenery. Now" / said, where is Mount
Zion" Here at your right" ''WhereisMount
Ohvet" In front of where you stand?
where is the Garden of Gethsemaneg' ssIn
yonder valley" Where is Mount Caivary?'
Before he answered I saw it. No unpre1u-
diced mind can have moments doubt as
to where it is. Yonder / see a hill in the
shape of a human skull, and the Bible says
that Calvary the ''place of skull"
Not only is it skull shaped, but Just be-
meath the forehead of the hill is a cavern
that looks like eyeless sockets. Within
the grotto under it is the shape of the in
side of a skull. Then the Bible says that
Christ was crucifed outside the gate, and
this is outside the gate, while the site form
erly selected was inside the gate. Besides
that this skull hill was for ages the place
where malefactors were put to death, and
Christ was slain as a malefactor.
The Saviour's assassination took place be-
side thoroughfare along which people went
''wagging their heads" and there is the an
Gent thoroughfare. / saw at Cairo. Egypt,
a clay mould of that skull hill, made by the
late General Gordon. the arbiter of nations
While Empress Helena, eighty years of age,
and imposed upon by having three crosses
exhumed before her dim eyes, as though
they were the three crosses of Bible story,
selected another site Calvary, all recent
travellers agree that the one point out to
you was without doubt the scene of the most
terrific and overwhelming tragedy this
planet ever witnessed.
There were thousand things we wanted
to see that third day of December, and our
dragoman proposed this and that and the
other journey, but said: "First of all show
us Calvary. Something might happen if we
went elsewhere and sickness or accident
might hinder our seeing the sacred mount.
Ii we see nothing else we must see that, and
see it this morning." Some of us in carriage
and some on mule back, we were soon on the
way to the most sacred spot that the world
has ever seen or ever will see. Coming to
the base of the hill we first went inside the
skull of rocks. 1t is called Jeremah's grotto
for there the prophet wrote his book of
Lamentations The grotto is thirty five feet
high, and its top and side are malachite
green, brown black, white, red and gray.
Coming forth from those pictured subter-
raneous passages we begin to climb the steep
sides Of Calvary. AS we go up we see cracks
and crevices in the rocks, which l think were
made by the commissions of nature when
Jesus died. On the hill lay limestone rock,
white, but tinged with crimson, the white so
suggestive of purity and the crimson of sac
rifce that said, THAT stone would be beau
tifully appropriate for memorial wall in
my church, now building in America; and
the stone now being brought on camers back
from Sinai across the desert, when put under
it, how significant Of the law and the gospel
And these lips of stone will continue to speak
of justice and mercy long after all our living
lips have uttered their last message"
SO I rolled it down the hill and trans
ported it. When that day comes tor which
many of you have prayed-the dedication
of the Brooklyn Tabernacle, the third i'm
nense structure we have reared in this |
city, and that makes it somewhat difficult,
being the third structure, a work such as
no other church was ever called on to I'M
dertake-we invite you in the main en-
trance of that building to look upon me- |
IIOIldl wall GIAS 4lLOSO Su5SCSC-
We and solemn and tremendous antiquities
brought tOgether-this, rent with the |
uake at the giving Of the law at |
b. he other reLt at the cruclhxion on |
Calvary.
1t is impossible for you to realize what |
oul. emotions were as we gathered a group |
of men and women. all saved by the blood |
OF the Lamb, on a bluff of Cavalry, just |
wide enough to contain three crosses. I |
said to my family and friends: II think
here is where seood the cross of the impeni-
tent burglar, and there the cross Of the |
niscreant and here between, think, stood |
the cross on which all our hopes depend" !
AS opened the nineteenth chapter of John
to read chill blast struck the hill and a
cloud lowered, the natural solemnity i'm
pressing the spiritual solemnity. | read a
little, but broke down. l defy any emo
tional Christian man sitting upon Col
gotha to read aloud and with unbToken voice,
or with any voice at all, the whole of that
,.ccount in Luke and John, Of which these
sentences are fragment: ''They took Jesus
and led Him away, and He, bearing His cross,
went forth into place called the place OF a
skull, where they crucified Him and two 9th
ers with Him, on either side one, and Jesus
in the midst" "Behold thy motherp" II
thirst" This day shalt thou be with Me In
Paradise" Father, forgive them, they know
not what they do;' eff it be possible, let this
cup pass from Me-" What sighs, what sobs,
what tears, what tempests of sorrow, what
surging oceans of agony in those utterances!
While we Sat there the whole scene came
before us. All around the TOP and the sides
and the foot or the hill mob ragged. Ihey
pnash their teeth and shake their chnched
fists at Him Here the cavalry horses champ
their bits and paw theearth and snort at the
smell of the carnage. Wonder a group or
gamblers are pitching up as to who shall have