Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1890-10-16
WHERE OUR LORD DIED.
DR.. TALMAoE DESCRIBES HIS
VIsITTo MOUNT CALVARY

Century. \
DIR. Talmage delivered his third ser
mon on his recent tour in Palestine IN
the Academy OF Music, Brooklyn Tht
doctor spoke as follows from the text
''If 1 forget thee, o Jerusalem, let my
right hand forget her cunning. psalm
cxxxvii, 5.
Paralysis OF his best hand, the wither
ing of its muscles and nerves, is here in
vOked il the author allows to pass out
of mind the grandeurs of the Holy City
where once he dwelt. 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 enthu'
siasm of soul, cry out, whether he be sit
ting by the Euphrates, or the Hudson,
or the Thames, ''If l forget thee, o Je'
rusalem,' let my right hand forget heI
cunningr' You see it is city unlike all
others for topography, for history, fol
significance, for style of population, fol
water works, for ruins, for towers, fol
domes, for rampartS, for literature, fol
tragedies, for memorable birthplaces,
for sepulchers, for confiagrations and
famines, for victories and defeats.
l am here at last in this very Jerusa-
lem, and on a housetOp, just after the
dawn of the morning of December 8,
with an old inhabitant to point out the
salient features of the scenery. 'Now,' y
/ said, ''where is Mount Zion?" "Here
at your right" ''Where is Mount Oil
vet?" SIN front of where you stand u
"Where is the Garden of Gethsemane?''
SIN yonder valley" ''Where is Mount
Calvary?" Before he answered saw it.
No unprejudiced mind can have mo-
ment's doubt as to where it is. Yonder
l see a 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 beneath the fore
head of the hill is cavern that looks
like eyeless sockets. Within the grotto
under it is the shape of the inside of a
skull. Then the Bible says that Christ
was crucitied outside the gate, while the
site formerly selected was inside the gate.
Besides that, this skull hill was for ages
the place where the malefactors were
put to death, and Christ was slain as a
malefactor.
The Saviour's assassination took place
beside thoroughfare along which peo-
Pile went ''wagging their heads" and
there is the ancient thoroughfare. / saw
at Cairo, Egypt, clay mold OF that skull
hill, made by the late General Gordon,
the arbiter of nations. While Empress
Helena, so years of age, and imposed
r,vN.N hox yfr,u hnt aaA hf1
fore her dim eyes, as though they were the
three crosses of Bible story, selected
another site as Calvary, all recent trav-
elers 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 a thousand things we
wanted to see that third day of Decem-
ber, 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 us see
ing the sacred mound. If we see moth
ing 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 Lamentations.
The grotto is thirty-fve feet high, and it's
top and sides are malachite, green,
brown, black, white, red and gray.
Coming forth from those pictured sub
terraneous passages we begin to climb
the steep sides of Calvary. AS we go up
we see cracks and crevices in the rocks,
which 1 think were made by the convul-
sions of nature when Jesus died.
1t is impossible for you to realize what
our emotions were as we gathered, a
group of men and women, all saved by
the blood of the Lamb, on bluff of CAL
vary, just wide enough to contain three
crosses. said to my family and friends:
81 think here is where stood the cross of
the impenitent burglar, and there the
cross of the miscreant, and hear between,
/ think, stood the cross on which all our
hopes depend" As opened the nine
teenth chapter of John to read chill
blast struck the hill and cloud lowered,
the natural solemnity impressing the
spiritual solemnity. Tread little, but
broke down. defy any emotional
Christian man sitting upon Golgotha to
read aloud and with unbroken voice, or
with any voice at ALL the whole of that
in Luke and John of which these
sentences are a 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 crucifed
Him and two others with Him, on either
side one, and Jesus in the midst" BE
hold thy mother!' II thirst" ssThis
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 sor-
row, 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 a mob
ragged. They gnash their teeth and
shake their clinched fists at Him. Here
the cavalry horses champ their bits and
paw the earth and snort at the smell of
the carnage. Yonder group of gam
blers 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
comforted and whose guilt He had par
doned. Here a man dips a sponge into
sour wine, and by stick lifts it to the
hot and cracked lips The hemorrhage
of the five wounds has done it's work. e
The atmospheric conditions are such
as the world saw never before or since.