The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1891-07-09
@HUMDRUM ABOLISHED
Sermon Delivered by Rev. It. De-
Witt Talmage in Brooklyn.
The Visit of the Queen of sheba to King
Solomon Typical of the Christians
Search After the Truth-The
Half was Not Told.

''Humdrum Abolished" the text being:
OF spices great abundance; neither was
there any such spice as the queen of Sheba
gave King Solomon.-Chronicles tx, g.
What is that building out yonder,
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 a
great tower, adorned with one thousand
shields of gold hung on the outside of
the tower-fve hundred of the shields
of gold manufactured at Solomon's or
der. 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 palace
have to provide every day one hundred
sheep and thirteen oxen, besides the
birds and the venison. I hear the
stamping and the paving of four thou
sand 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, ira
dition says, and used to take ride out
at daybreak; and when, in his white
apparel, behind the swiftest horses of
ali the realm, and followed by mounted
archers in purple, as the cavalcade
dashed through the streets of Jerusa-
lem, l suppose it was something worth
getting up at five o'clock in the morn
ing 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 were eclipsed by his intel
lectual power. Why, he seemed to know
everything. He was the first great nat
uralist tie world ever saw. Peacocks
from India strutted the basaltic walk,
and apes chartered in the trees, and
deer stall1ed the parks and there were
aquariums with foreign fish, and avia-
ries with foreign birds; and tradition
says tEese birds were so we'll 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 great repu-
tation for the conundrums and riddles
that he made 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 sailors, of
course, talked about the wealth of their
king, and about the riddles and eng
mas that he made and solved; and the
news spread until Queen Balkis, away
off south, heard of it, and sent messen-
gers 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 diamond
with hole SO small that a needle could
not penetrate it, asking him to thread
that diamond. And Solomon took a
worm and put it at the opening OF
the diamond, and the worm crav-led
through, leaving the thread in the dia-
mond. The queen also sent goblet to
Solomon, 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 a swift horse and
galloped him around and around the
park until the horse was nigh exhaust
ed, and from the perspiration of the
horse the goblet was filled She also
sent King Solomon five hundred BOYS
In girls dresses, wondering if he would
be acute enough to find out the decep-
ton. Immediately Solomon, when he
saw them wash their faces, knew from
the way they applied the water that it
was all cheat.
Queen Ballzis was so pleased with the
acuteness of Solomon that she said:
''I'n just go and see for myself" Yon-
der it comes-the cavalcade-horses and
dromedaries, chariots and characters,
jingling harness and Gathering hoofs,
and blazing shields, and flying ensigns,
and dfapping cymbals. The place is
saturated with the perfume. She brings
cinnamon, and saffron, and calamus,
and frankincense, and all manner of
sweet spices. AS the retinue sweeps
through the gate, the armed guards in
hale the aroma. Halt" cried the
characters, as the wheels grind the
gravel in front of the pillared portico
of the king. Queen Ballxis alights in an
atmosphere bewitehed with perfume.
As the dromedaries are driven up to the
kings storehouses, and the bundles of
camphor are unloaded, and the boxes of
spices are opened, the purveyors of
the palace discover what my text an
nounces: 'sOf spices, great abundance:
neither was there any such spices as the
Queen of Sheba gave to King Solomon. +"
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
of Sheba brought to King Solomon are
nightly suggestive of the sweet spices
of our holy religion. Christianity is not
collection of sharp technicalities, and
angular facts, and chronological tables.