The great West. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1889-18??, 1890-01-10
THE HALF NOT TOLD
DR.. Talmage is on His Way
Home From The Holy
Land.
Sermon Preached at Vienna
on The Surprises of Re.
ligion.

uSlOu.
VIENNA. Special-Rev T. De Witt Talmage,
D. D.. of Brooklyn, preached in this city on
'The Surprises of Religion. His text was l
Kings x. Z: Behold the half was not told
me-" The sermon was as follows:
Appearing before you today, my mind yet
agitated with the scenery Of the Holy Land
from which We have just arrived, you will ex-
pect me to revert to some of the scenes once
enacted there. Mark circle around Lake
Galilee and another circle around Jerusalem.
and you describe the two regions in which
custer memories of more events than in any
other two circles Jerusalem was spell of
fascination that will hold me the rest
of my life Solomon had resolved that the
city should be the center of all sacred, regal
and commercial influence. He sat himself
to work, and monopolized the surrounding
desert as highway for his caravans. He
built the city of Palmyra around one of the
principal wells of the East, SO that all the
long trains of merchandise from the East
were obliged to stop there, pay toll and, leave
part of their wealth in the hands ofSolom on's
merchants. He manned the fortress Thap-
sacus at the chief ford of the Euphrates, and
put underguard everything that passed there.
IL
pressed from the richest clusters and celebra
ed all the world over; oil, which in that hot
country. is the entire substitute for butter
and lard, and was pressed from the olive
branches until every tree in the country be-
came an oil we'll; and honey, which was the
entire substitute for sugar-these three great
products of the country Solomon exported,
and received in return fruits and precious
woods and the animals of every cline.
He went down to Ezion-geber and ordered
a feet of ships to be constructed. cver-saw
the workmen, and watched tho launching of
the flotilla, which was to go out on more
than years voyage, to bring home the
wealth OF the the then known world. He
heard that the Egyptian horses were large
and swift, and long named and round limbed d,
and he resolved to purchase them, putting
the best of these horses in his own stall and
selling the surplus to foreign potentates at
great profit.
He heard that there was the best of timber
on Mt. Lebanon, and he sent out 10000
men to hew down the forest and drag the tim
Der through the mountain gorges, to con-
struct it into RATS to be fioated to Toppa,
and from thence to be drawn by OK teams 25
miles across the land to Jerusalem. He
heard that there were beautiful flow
ers in other lands. He sent for
them, planted them in his own gar
deus, and to this very day there are flow
ers found in the ruin ofthat city such as are
found in no other part of Palestine, the lineal
defendants of the very flowers that Solomon
planted. He heard that in foreign groves
there were birds of richest voice and most
luxuriant wing. He sent out people to catch
them and bring them there, and he put them
into his cages.
Stand back now and see this long train of
camels coming up to the kings gate, and the
OK trains from Egypt, gold and silver and
nrociOra 9<On0a Qnd hoo afa 0f hnnf md
birds of every wing and fish of every scale
See the peacocks strut under the cedars, and
the hOrseman run, and the chariots WHEEL
Hark to the orchestra! Gaze upon the
dance! Not stopping to look into the won
ders OF the temple, step right on the cause.
way, and pass up to Solomon's pnlace!
Here we find ourselves amid q collection of
buildings on which the King had lavished
the wealth of many empires. The genius of
Hiram, the architect, and of the other artists
ia here seen in the long line of corridors, and
the suspended gallery, and the approach to
the throne. Traceried window opposite
traceried window. Bronzed ornaments BURST
Chapters surrounded by network of leaves in
which imitation fruit seemed suspended as in
hanging baskets. Three brancbes-so
Josephus tells us-three branches sculptured
on the MARBLE so thin and subtle that even
the leaves seemed to culver. A laver capa-
BILE OF holding 500 barrels of water on 500
bracen OK heads, which gushed with water
and filed the whole place with GOODNESS and
crystalline brightness and musical plash.
Ten tables chased with chariot wheels and
lion and cherubim. Solomon sat on a
throne of ivory. At the seating place
of the throne, on each end of the
steps, brazen lion. Why. my friends, in
that place they trimmed their candles with
snuffers of gold, and they cut their fruit with
I ~ c1ol l,os~ e.
basins of gold, and they scooped out the
ashes with shovels of gold, and they stirred
the alter fires with tongs of gold. Gold re-
fected in the water! Gold flashing from the
apparel! Gold blazing in the crown! Gold,
gold; gold!
OF course the news oil the affluence of that
place went out everywhere by every caravan
and by wing of every ship, until soon the
streets of Jerusalem are crowded with curl
osity seekers. What is thatlong procession
approaching Jerusalem? 1 think from the
pomp of it there must be royalty in the
train. smell the breath of spices which
are brought as presents, and hear the shoot
of the drivers, and l see the dust covered
caravans showing that they come from far
away. Cry the news up to the palace. The
Queen OF Sheba advances. Let all the people
come out to see. Let the mighty men of the
land come out on the palace corridors. Let
Solomon come down the stairs of the palace
before the queen has alighted Shake out the
cinnamon and the saffron. and the calamus,
and the frankincense and pass it into the
treasure house. Take up the diamonds until
they glitter in the sun.
The queen of Sheba alights. She enters
the palace. She washes at the bath. She
sits down at the banquet. The cup bearers
bow. The meat smokes. The music trem-
bles in the dash of the waters from the mol
ten sea. Then she rises from the banquet,
and walks through the conservatories, and
gazes on the architecture, and she asks Sol
ONION many strange questions and she learns
about the religion of the Hebrews and she
then and there becomes servant of the
Lord God.
She is overwhelmed. She begins to think
that all the spices she brought, and all the
precious woods which are intended to be
turned into harps and psalteries and into
ratings for the causeway between the temp
lie and the palace, and the one hundred and
eighty dollars in money-she begins to think
that all these presents amount to nothing in
such place, and she 10 almost ashamed
&lok h. L.