The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1890-10-29
REV. DIR. TALMAGE.
THE BROORLYN DIVINE'S SUN
Day SERMON,
Subject: "In Jerusalem"

TEXT: "If forget thee, O Jerusalem
let my right hand forget her cunning."-
Psalm cxxxvii., 5.
Paralysis Of his best hand, the whitening Of
its muscles and nerves, is here invoked if the
author allows to pass out Of mind the gran
deurs of the Holy City where once he dwelt.
jeremiah, seated by the river Euphrates,
wrote this psalm, and not David. Afraid
am of anything thatapproaches imprecation,
and yet can understand how any one who
has ever been at Jerusalem should in enthu
siasm, of soul cry out, whether he be sitting
by tie Euphrates, or the Hudson, or the
Thaues, ''If forget thee, o Jerusalem. let
see it Is city unlike all others for topog-
rarhy, for history, for significance, for style
of population, for water works. for ruins,
for towers, for domes. for ramparts, for lit
erature. for tragedies, for memorable birth
places, for sepulchers, for conhagrations and
famines, for victories and defeats.
I am here at last in this very Jerusalem,
and on housetop, just after the dawn OF
the morning of December 8, with an old In
habitant to point out the salient features OF
the scenery. "Now," said, where Is Mount
ZionY' "Here at your right. j." .Where isMount
Olivet?n I'm front Of where you stand?
"Where Is the Garden Of Gethsemanes' SIN
yonder valley" Where is Mount Calvaryp'
Before he answered I saw it. No unpreju-
diced mind can have a moments doubt as
to where it is. Yonder see hill in the
shape of human skull, and the Bible says
that Calvary was the "place Of skull. !"
Not only is it skull shaped, but just be-
meath the forehead Of the hill is cavern
that looks like oyeless sockets. Within
the grotto under it Is the shape Of the In
side OF skull Then the Bible says that
Christ was crucif1ed 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 placa
where malefactors were put to death, and
Christ was slain as malefactoT.
The Saviour's assassination took place be-
side thoroughfare along which people went
'wagging their heads" and there is the an
cient thoroughfare. saw at Cairo, Egypt,
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 as 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.
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 II We
went elsewhere, and sickness or accident
might hinder our seeing the sacred mount.
If 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 Jeremiah's grotto,
for there the prophet wrote his book of
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 think were
made by the convulsions 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 a memorial wall IN
my church, now building in America; and
the stcne now being brought on cameps back
from Sinai across the desert, when put under
it, how significant OF the law and the gospel!
Aud these lips Of stone will continue to speak
of justice and mercy long after all our living
lips have uttered their last message"
So rolled it down the hill and trans
ported it. When that day comes for which
many Of you have prayed-the dedication
of the Brooklyn Tabernacle, the third i'm
mense structure We have reared in this
city, end that makes it somewhat difficult.
being the third structure, a work such as
no other church was ever cal!e1 on to un-
dertake-we invite you in the main en-
trance of that building to look upon a me-
mortal wall containing the most suggest
i've and solemn and tremendous antiquities
ever brought together-this, rent with the
earthquake at the giving OF the law at
Sinai, the other reLt at the cruclh1lon on
Calvary.
1t is impossible for you to realize what
our emotions were as We gathered group
of men and women, ell saved by the blood
of the Lamb, on bluff Of Cavalry, just
wide enough to contain three crosses. I
said to my family and friends: II think
here is where stood the cross Of the impeni-
tent burglar, and there the cross Of the
miscreant, and here between, think, stood
the cross Oh which all our hopes depend"
As opened the nineteenth chapter OF John
to read a chill blast struck the hill and
cloud hovered, the natural solemnity i'm
pressing the spiritual solemnity. I read q
little, but broke down. I defy any emo
tional Christian man sitting upon Col
eotba to read aloud and with unbr oxen voice,
or with any voice at all. the whole of that
account in Luke and John, of which thes,
sentences are fragment: "They took Jesus
and led Him away, and He, bearing His cross,
went forth into place called the place Of
skull, where they crucified Him and two 9th
ers with Him, on either side one, and Jesus
in the midst; Behold thy motherm u
thirst:'' This day shalt thou be with Me in
Paradise;" Father, forgive them, they know
not what they do" IF 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 of the hill mob ragged. They
enash their teeth and shake their cllnched
fists at Him. Here the cavalry horses champ
smell of the carnage. Yonder group of
gamblers are pitching up as to who shall have
the coat of the dying Saviour. There are
women almost dead with grief among the
crowd-His mother and His aunt, and some
whose sorrows He had pardoned. Here
man dips sponge into sour wine, and Dy
stick lifts it to the hot and cracked lips.
The hemorrhage of the five wounds has done
its work.
The atmospheric conditions are such as tht
the world saw never before or since. 1t wa:
not a solar eclipse, such as astronomers
record or we ourselves have seen. 1t was
bereavement of the heavens! Darker! until
the towers of the temple were no longer visi
BILE. Darker until the surrounding hills dis
appeared. Darker! until the inscription
above the middle cross becomes illegible
Darker until the chin Of the dying Lord falls
upon the breast, and He sighed with this last
sigh the words, 1T Is fnishedm
As we sat there silence took possession OF
-, o,a no tbo,,obt thjs is the contra from