The Opelousas courier., 1891-01-31
REV. DR.. TALMAGE
THE BROOKLYN DIVINE'S SUN
DAY SERMON.

Texts tIf I forget thee. O Jerusalem
&c my right hand forget her cuanino."-
Psalm cxxxvii., 5.
PARALYSIS OF his best hand, the whitening q
1ts muscles and nerves, is here invoked if iii,
author allows TO pass out of mind fha gr.aIt.
qeurs OF the Holy City where once he dwela
jeremiah seated by the river Euphrates
WFoee TINS psalm, and not David. Afraid /
am OF anything that approaches imprecation
and yet l can understand how any one wht
mas ever been at Jerusalem should in enthu
siasfn OF soul cry out, whether he be sitting
Dy the Euphrates, OF the Hudson, or the
thames, IF | forget thee, o Jerusalem, lei
my right hand forget her ~cunningp' Yor
see 1T is a city unlike all others for topog.
faEhy 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 c~onhagrations and
iamines, for victories and defeats.
L am here at last in this very Jerusalem.
ana on a housetops just after the dawn oil
the morning of December s, with an old in,
nanltart to point out the salient features OF
sne scenery. NOW" 1 said, where is Mount
1lonF' Here at your right. y ''WhereisMount
Ollvet?' In front of where you stands
Nv here is the Garden of G~ethsemaneF' ssIn
yonder valley.'' ''Whereis Mount Calvarya'
Before he answered I saw it. No unpretu-
diced mind can have a moments doubt as
TO where it is. Yonder l see q hill in the
shape OF a human skull, and the Bible says
that Calvary was the "place of a skuli.a
Not only is it skull shaped, but lust be-
meath the forehead of the hill is q 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 crucided outside the gate, and
this is outside the gate, while the site form
erly selected was inside the gate. Besides
mat, this skull hill was for ages the place
where malefactors were put to death, and
Christ was slain as a m~alefactor.
b Sayiour's assassination took place be-
SID a thoroughfare along which people went
"wagging their heads,' and there is the an
Gent thoroughfare. I saw at Cairo, Egypt,
q 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 7 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 December, and our
A4 SokAlN RkODSSCd ELhc dEiO ll1E15 LII UuS
other journey, but I 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 Jeremiah,s grotto,
for there the prophet wrote his book of
Lamentations. The grotto Is t~hirty-fve feet
high, and Its to- n 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
Jesus died. On the hill lay g limestone rock,
white, but tinged with crimson, the white 80
suggestive Of purity and the crimson Of sac
rifce that i said, seThat stone would be beau
tlfully appropriate for g memorial wall in
my church, now building in America: and
the stone now being brought on cameps back
from Sinai across the desert, when put under
II, hows significant Of the law and the gospel
And these lipsof stone will continue to speak
of justice and mercy long after all our living
lips have uttered their last messaRa."
So 1 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 inn
structure we have reared In this
city, and that makes it somewhat difficult,
being the third structure, a work such as
other church was ever called 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
and solemn and tremendous antiquities
ever brought together-this, rent with the
at the giving OF the law at
Sinai, the other reLt at the crucifixion on
Calvary.
Tt 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 a bluff of Cavalry, Just
enough to contain three crosses. I
said to my family n friends: Ell think
here is where stood the cross of the impeni-
burglar, and there the cross Of the
miscreant, and here between, / think, stood
the cross on which all our hopes depend.n
As [ opened the nineteenth chapter of John
to read a chill blast struck the hill and a
cloud lowered, the natural solemnity inn
pressing the spiritual solemnity. I read a
little, but broke down. / defy any emo
tienal Christian man sitting upon Col
gotba to read aloud and with unbToken voice,
or with any voice at all, the whole of that
account in Luke and John, of which these
sentences are a fragment: ssThey took Jesus
and led Him ava and He. bearing Ills cross,
went forth into a place called the place of q
skull, where they crucified Him and two 9TH
ers with Him, on either side one, and Jesus
IN the midst" Behold thy motherP' 81
thirst ssThis day shalt thou be with Me in
not what they dol IF it be possible, let this
cup pass from Me.n What signs, what sobs,
what tears, what tempests OF sorrow, what
oceans of agony in those utterancesl
While we sat there the whole scene came
before us. All around the ton and the sides
and the footof the hill q mob ragged. They
gnash their teeth and shake their elinched
fists at Him. Here the cavalry horses champ
their bits and paw the earth and snort at the
smell of the carnage. Yonder a group of
gamblers are pitching up as to who shall have
The coat of the dyinp Saviour. There are
women almost dead snth grief among the
crowd-His mother and His aunt, and some
whose sorrows He had pardoned. Here a
dips a sponge into sour wine, and by a
stick lifts it to the hot and cracked lips.
The henorrhageof the five wounds has done
its work.
The atmospheric conditions are such as the
the world saw never before or since. 1t was
not a solar eclipse, such as astronomers
record or We ourselves have seen. 1t was g
Bereavement OF the heavensl Darkeri until
the lowers of the temple were no longer visi-
bic. 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 finishedm
AS we sat therea silence took possession OF
US, and we thought, this is the centre from
which continents have been touched, and all
the world shall yet be moved. Toward this
hill the prophets pointed forward. Toward
this hilf the apostles and martyrs pointed
backward To this all heaven pointed down
ward. To this with foaming execrations
perdition pointed upward. Round it circles