The Forrest City times., 1890-10-18
THE GOLDEN CITY.
OR TALMAGE'S THIRD SERMON
 ON THE HOLY LANn
Graphic Picture of the Scenes and Incidents of the Cruciiiction and shc Sie&es and Destruction of the Holy City.

BROOKLYN, Oct, 1e-This morning D ralmagc delivered his third sermon on bis recent tour in Palestine, in the Academy of Music in this city. The large building was crowded, and numbers went away disap- pointed. The Doctor spoke as follows from he text: "lf 1 forget thee. Q Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning" Psalm t3I; ,,
 Paralysis of his best hand. the withcring of it's muscles and nerves, IS hero invoked IL the author allows to pass out of mind tho yrandeurs of the Holy City whore once ha dweit- Jeremiah. seated by the river Euphrates. wrote this psalm and not David. Afraid | am of anything that approaches imprecation, and yet can understand how any one who has ever been at Jerusalem should in enthusiasm of soul cry out. whether hc be sitting by tho Euphrates or the Hudson or tl,e Thames, .'lf forget theo Q Jerusalem, may my right hand forget her cunnning." You see it Is a city, unlike all others for topography, for history. for signi- hcance. for style Of population for water works, for ruins. for towers. for domes, for rampArts, for literature, for tragedies, for memorable birth places, tlr sepulchres for conhagrations and famines, for victories and defeats.
 l am here at last in this very Jerusalem and on housetop, just after tho dawn of the morning of December 2, with an old in habitant to point out the salient features of the scenery. Now" l said. where Is Mount Zionf" Here at your right" Where is Mount olivets" .In front of where you stand.' ''Where Is the Garden of Gethsemane? .In wonder valley" Where is Mount Calvary" Before he an- swered. l saw it No unprejudiced mind can have . moments doubt as to where 1t is. Wonder see hill in the shape of human Rkt ~,xA ko ~ the place of skull" Not only is 1t skull shaped, but just beneath the forehead of the hill Is cavern that looks like eyeless sockets. Within the grotto under 1t, Is the shape of the inside of skull. Then the Htole says that Christ was crucifed outside the gate, and this Is outside the gate. while the sight formerly selected was inside the gate Beside thaf.this skull hill was for ages the placee wher indicators were put to death, and Christ was slain as male- factor.
 The Saviour's assassination took place be- aldo a thoroughfare along which people went ''wagging their hnads," and there Is the 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 oi y, all recent travellers agree that the one point out to you was. without doubt, the scene of the most terrific and overwheln- ing tragedy this planet ever witnessed.
 There were thousand things we wanted to see that third day of December and our dragoman proposed this, that and the other Journey, but l said. First of all show us Calvary. Something might happen if VIC went elsewhere and sickness or nccident might hinder our seeing the sacred mount. 1T we see nothing else. we must see that and sec 1t this morning." Some of us in car. rtaRe and some on mule back, we were soon on the way 10 the most sacred spot that the world has ever seen or ever will sec. Com- ing to the base of the hill we first went ln- side the skull of rocks, It Is called Jere- miah's RrottS. for there the prophet wrote hls hook Of lamentations. The grotto is 8 feet high and Its top and side arc malachte green. brown. black. white. red and gray.
 Coming forth from those pictured subter- ranean passages, we begin to climb the steep sides of Calvary. As we go up. we see cracks and crcvices In the rocks which think were made by the convulsions of nature when Jesus died. On the hill lay limestone rock, white but tinged with crirn- son, tho white so suggestive of purity and the crimson of sacrifice. that said. That stone would be beautifully appropriate for memorial wall In my church, now build ing In America; and the stone now being brought on camcl's back from Sinai across the desert, when put under it. how signih- cant of the law and tho Gospel, And these lips of stone will continue to speak of jus tice and mercy long after all oar living lips hAve uttered their last message." So l rolled 1t down the hill and transported It. When that day comes for winch many of you have prayed-the dedication of the Brooklyn Tabernacle. the third i'm uense structure we have reared in this ci ', and that makes Ii somewhat difficult Delng the third structure. a work such as no other church was ever called on to undertake we Invite you in the ma in entrance of that building to look upon memorial wall con taining the most suggestive. and solemn and tremendous antiquities ever brought to- xether; this, rent with tho earthquake at the giving of tho law Ut Sinai, the other rent at the crucihxion of Calvary.
 It is impossible for you to realize what our emotions were as we gathered. group Of men and women, all saved by tho blood of the Lamb, on bluH of Calvary, just wide euouRh.to contain three crosses. said to my family and friends: Il think here Is where stood tho cross of tho impcnitent burglar, and there the cross of the miscre- ant. and here oetween, l 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 cloud lowered. the natural solcinnity impressing tho spiritual soleninitv. l read a little. but broke down. defy any emotional Christian man sitting upHn Golxotha to read aloud and with unbroken voice. or with any voice at all, the whole of that account in Luke and John. of which these sentences arc u Fragment: They took Jesus and led him away. and he bearing his cross went forth Into place called the place of skull where they cruciaed him and two others with him, on either side one. and Jesus in tho midsti 'Bchold thy mother!'' .I thirst" This day shalt thou be with me tu Paradise; Father. forgive them, they know not what they do !" If it be possible let this cup pass from me" What signs what sobs, what tears. what tcmpests of sorrow, what sarging oceans of agony In those utterances
 While we sat there. tho whole scene came bofor~ us. All around the top and the sides and the foot of the hiii a mob ragged They Sashed their tecth and shake their clenched asts at him Hero the cavalry horses champ their bits, and paw the earth and snort at the smell of the carnage. Wonder n group of gamblers arc pitching up as to who shall have the coat of the dying Saviour Therc arc women almost dead with grief among the crowd. his mother and his aunt And some whose sorrows He had conifurtcd and whose guilt he had pardoncd. Here n man dips sponge Into sour wine, and hy n sttck lifts it to the hot. and cracked lips w s'S''Vsf""6N VI tbV Hfr houuus bhS lone it's work.
 The atmospheric conditions are such as the world saw never before or since. IL was not . solar eclipse. such as astronomers record or VIC ourselves have seen. IL was n bereavement of the heavens Darker, untii tho towers of the temple were no sonGcy visible. Darker, rntii the surround lng hills disappeared Darker, untn the inscription above the middle cross becomes lliegibae Darker! Until the chin of the dyiue Lord falls upon the breast. aud he siehcd with this last sigh. the words. .'It is sntshed!'
 As wc sat therv. silence took possession os us and we thought; this is the centre from which continents have been touched and all tho world shall yet he moved. To- yard this hIll. tho prophets pointed forward. Towards this hill. the apostles and martyrs pointed backward. To this all heaven pointed downward. To this with foatninx ssecrAtions perdition pointet upward. Round 10 circles all history. all time. all sternity, and with this scene, painters have covered the mishticst canvas. anu scuiptnrs cue tho richest marble. aud orcheStras eollcd their grandest oratorios. and churches lifted their greates, doxologies. and heaven built Its highest thronss
 Unable longer to endure the pressure of tAtS scene. we moved on. and into garden 1f olives. c garden yh ,ch in the right sc ann