News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1891-05-07
DIR. TALMAGES SERMON.
HE URGES PEOPLE TO MAKE THEIR
RELIGION LIVELY.

The Queen of Sheba Brought Wonderful
Spices to Solomon, the Great King.
Why should Not the Church Offer the
Spice of Energetic Religion to God?
BROOKLYN, May 3.-The capacity of
the New Tabernacle was fully tested
this morning by the vast audience
which assembled to hear DR.. Talmage
in his handsome and spacious church.
He is now preaching there morning and
evening, and The Christian Herald
services in New York have been dis
continued. This has caused much re-
gret to many people in that city. A
memorial was prepared and signed by
influential citizens asking DIR. Talmage
to continue the services. He could not
see his way to comply at the time, but
as he was evidently impressed by the
warmth of the welcome given him in
the metropolis, and deeply moved by
the good that was done, it is not i'm
probable that in the near future he
will again be found duplicating his use,
fulness by ministering to two congre-
cations, as he has been doing during
the past seven months. His subject
this morning was "Humdrum Abol-
ished," and his text II Chronicles tx,
9, "Of spices great abundance; neither
was there any such spice as the queen
of Sheba gave King Solomon.
What is that building out yonder,
glittering in the sum- Have you not
heard2 1t is the house of the forest
of Lebanon. King Solomon has just
taken to it his bride, the princess of
Egypt You see the pillars of the
portico, and a great tower adorned
with one thousand shields of gold hung
on the outside of the tower-five hun
dred of the shields of gold manufactured
at Solomon's order, five hundred were
captured by David, his father, in bat
tie. See how they blaze in the noon
day sun.
THE STORY OF SOLOMON.
Solomon goes up the ivory stairs of
his throne between twelve lions in stat
uary, and sits down on the back of the
golden bull, the head of the beast
turned toward the people. The family
and attendants of the king are so many
that the caterers of the palace have to
provide every day one hundred sheep
and thirteen oxen, besides the birds and
the venison. | hear the stamping and
paving of four thousand fine horses in
the royal stables. There were impor-
tant officials who had charge of the
work of gathering the straw and the
L IL
was an early riser, tradition says, and
used TO take a ride out at daybreak,
and when in his white apparel, behind
the swiftest horses of all the realm, and
followed by mounted archers in pur
pie, as the cavalcade dashed through
the streets of Jerusalem | suppose it
was something worth getting up at five
o'clock in the morning to look at.
Solomon was not like some of the
kings of the present day-crowned i'm |
becility All the splendor of his palace |
and retinue was eclipsed by his intel
lectual power. Why, he seemed to |
know everything He was the first |
great naturalist the world ever saw.
Peacocks from India strutted the basal
tic walk, and apes chartered in the
trees, and deer stalked the parks, and
there were aquariums with foreign fish,
and aviaries with foreign birds; and
tradition says these birds were so well
tanned that Solomon might walk clear
across the city under the shadow of
their wings as they lowered and fitted
about him
HIS WISDOM.
More than this, he had great repu-
tation for the conundrums and riddles
that he made and guessed. He and
King Hiram, his neighbor, used to sit |
by the hour and ask riddles, each one |
paying in money if he could not answer
or guess the riddle. The Solomonic |
navy visited all the world, and the sail |
ors. of course, talked about the wealth |
of their king and about the riddles and
enigmas that he made and solved; and
the news spread until Queen Balkis,
awav off south, heard of it, and sent
messengers with a few riddles that she
would like to have Solomon solve, and
a few puzzles which she would like to
have him find out. She sent among
other things to King Solomon a dia-
mond, with n hole SO small that a
needle could not penetrate it. asking
him to thread that diamond And
Solomon took worm and put it at
the opening in the diamond, and the
worm crawled through, leaving the
thread in the diamond.
The queen also sent a goblet to Sol
onion, asking him to fill it with water
that did not pour from the sky, and
that did not rush out from the earth;
and Immediately Solomon put a slave
on the back of swift horse and gal
Hoped him around and around the park
until the horse was nigh exhausted,
and from the perspiration of the horse
the goblet was filed. She also sent |
King Solomon five hundred boys in
girls dress and five hundred girls in
boys dress, wondering if he would be |
acute enough to find out the deception
Immediately Solomon, when he saw
them wash their faces knew from the |
way they applied the water that it was |
all cheat
Queen Balkis was SO pleased with the |
acuteness of Solomon that she said, |
I'm just go and see him for myself"
Yonder it comes, the cavalcade -
horses and dromedaries, chariots and
characters, jingling harness and clat-
tering hoofs, and blazing shields and
flying ensigns and clapping cymbals.
The place is saturated with the per-
fune. She brings cinnamon and SAT
from and calamus and frankincense and
an manner of sweet spices. As the ret
inue sweeps through the gate the armed
guard inhale the aroma. HALT" cry
the characters, as the wheels grind the
gravel in front of the piIlared portico
OF the king. Queen Balkis alights in
an atmosphere bewitched with per-
fume. As the dromedaries are driven
up to the kings storehouses, and the
bundles of camphor are unloaded, and
the sacks of cinnamon and the boxes
of spices are opened, the purveyors of
the palace discover what my text an
nounces, "Of spices. great abundance;
neither was there any such spices as
the Queen of Sheba gave to King Solo
mon"
THE SPICE OF RELIGION.
Well, my friends, you know that all
theologians agree in making Solomon
a type of Christ, and making the queen
of Sheba type of every truth seeker;
and | shall take the responsibility of
saying that all the spikenard and cas-
STA and frankincense which the queen