The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1891-05-20
REV. DR.. TALMAGE.
THE BROOKLYN DIVINES SUN.
DAY SERMON,
Subject: "Humdrum Abolished"

TEXT: "Of Spices great abundance,
neither Dds there any such Spice as thu
Queen of Shedn gave King Solomon."-Il
Chronicles, tx, 9.
| What is that building out yonder glitter.
ing in the sun? Have you not heard? 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 great tower, adorned with
one thousand shields of gold, hung on the
! outside of the tower-fve hundred Of these
shields Of gold manufactured at Solomon's
order. five hundred were captured by David,
his father, in battle. See how they blaze in
the MONDAY sun
Solomon goes up the ivory stairs Of his
| throne between twelve lions in statuary, and
sits down on the back Of the golden bull the
head Of the bronze beast turned toward the
people. The family and attendants of the
king are so many that the caterers Of the
place have to provide every day one hundred
Sheep and thirteen oxen, besides the birds
and the venison., I hear the stamping and
paving of four thousand fine horses in the
royal stables. There were important officials
who had charge of the work Of gathering
the straw and the barley for these horses
King Solomon was an early riser, tradition
says, and used to take ride out at daybreak:
and when in his white apparel, behind the
swiftest horses Of all the realm, and followed
by mounted archers in purple. as the caval-
Isuppose 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-erowned imbecility. Al
the splendor of his palace and retinue was
eclipsed by his intellectual power. Why, he
seemed to know everything. He was the first
great naturalist the world ever saw. Pea
cocks from India strutted the basaltic walk,
and apes chatted in the trees and deer stallred
the parks and there were aquariums with
foreign fish and aviar:es 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.
More than this, he had a great reputation
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 Solo.
monic navy visited all the world, and the
sailors, of course, talked about the wealth Of
their king, and about the riddles and engimas
that he made and solved, and the news
spread until Queen Balkis, away off south,
heard Of it, and sent messengers with a few
riddles that she would like to have Solomon
solve, and few puzzles which she would like
to have him find out. She sent among other
things to King Solomon a diamond with q
hole so small that needle could not pene-
trate 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.
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
O slave on the back of a swift horse and
galloped him around and around the park
until the horse was nigh exhausted, and from
the perspiration Of the horse the goblet was
filled. She also sent King Solomon five
hundred boys in girls dress, and five hum
dred girls in boys dress, wondering il he
would be cute enough to find out the decep-
tion. Immediately Solomon, when he saw
they applied the water that it was all a cheat.
Queen Balkis was 80 pleased with the
acuteness of Solomon that she said, '.l'll just
60 and see him for myself" Yonder it
comes-the cavalcade-horses and dromeda-
res, chariots and characters, jingling har-
ness and Gathering hoofs, and blazing
shields, and flying ensigns, and clapping
cymbals. The place is saturated with the
perfume. She brings cinnamon and saffron
and calamus and frankincense and all man.
ner Of sweet spices. As the retinue sweeps
through the gate the armed guard inhale the
aroma. HALT" cry the charioteers as the
wheels grinds the gravel in front of the pill
Jared portico of the king. Queen Balkis
alights in an atmosphere bewitched with per-
fume. As the dromedaries are driven up TO
the kings store-houses, and the bundles Of
camphor are unloaded, and the sacks OF cili.
namon, and the boxes Of spices are opened,
the purveyors of the palace discover what
my text announces, ''Of spices, great abun-
dance: neither was there any such spices as
the Queen of Sheba gave to King Solomon"
Well, my friends, you know that all the
ologians agree in making Solomon 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 cassia and franlincense which
the Queen Of Sheba brought to King Solo
mon are nightly suggestive of the sweet
spices Of our holy religion. Christianity is
not collection Of sharp technicalities and
angular facts and chronological tables and
dry statistics. Our religion is compared to
frankincense and to cassia, but never to
dash Of holy light. It is sparkle of cool
fountains. 1t is an opening Of opaline gates.
1t Isl collection Of spices. Would God that
we were as wise in taking spices to our Di-
vine King as Queen Balkis was wise in TAX
ing the spices to the earthly Solomonl What
many Of us most need is to have the hum
drum driven out of our life and the hum
drum out Of our religion. The American and
English church will die Of humdrun unless
there be change.
An editor from San Francisco few weeks
ago wrote me saying he was getting up for
his paper a symposium from many clergy
men, discussing among other things, why
do not people 60 to church" and he wanted
my opinion, and I gave it in one sentence,
"People do not 60 to church because they
cannot stand the humdrum." The fact is
that most people have so much humdrum in
their worldly calling that they do not want
to have added the humdrum of religion. We
need in all our sermons and exhortations and
songs and prayers more Of what Queen Bal
kis brought to Solomon-namely, more
spice.
The fact is that the duties and cares OF this
life, coming to us from time to time, are
stupid often and inape and intolerable. Here
are men who have been bartering and ne
gotiating, climbing, pounding, hammering
for twenty years. forty years, fifty years.
One great long drudgery has their life been.
Their face anxious their feelings benumbed,
their days monotonous. What is necessary
to brighten up that mans life, and to sweeten
that acid disposition, and to put sparkle into
the mans spirits? The spicery of our holy
religion. Why, if between the losses of life
there dashed CLEAN Of an eternal gaiu; If
between the betrayals of life there came the
gleam of the undying friendship of Christ;
Il in dull times in business we found minis
tering spirits flying to and fro in our office
and store and shop, everyday life, instead of
being stupid monotone. would be glori
GUS Inspiration, penduuming between calm
satisfaction and high rapture.
How any woman keeps house without the
religion of Christ to help her is mystery to
me- To have to spend the greater part OK