The Forrest City times., 1891-05-01
TABERNACLE PULPIT.
SERMONS IN STONES, BY REV.
 T. DE WITT rALMACE.
"What Mean Ye by These Strnes?" the Text on tho Evening of the Ded- ication of the Now Brooklyn
 Tabernacle.

1uo JOTuuu, like tHe MlSSlsSlppl, mas bluffs on the one side and flats on the other |. Here and there sycamore shadows it. Here and there willow dips into 1t. It was only little over waist-deep in Decem- Der as l waded through it, but Tn the months of April and May the snows on Mount Lebanon thaw and flow down into the valley, and the Jordan overtlows it's banks. Then it is wide, deep, raging and impetuous. At this season of the year 1 hear the tramp of forty thousand armed men coming down to cross the river. You say, why do they not go up nearer the rise of the river at the old camel ford? An my friends, it IS because it is not safe to go around when the Lord tells us to go ahead. The Israelites had been going around forty years, and they had enough of 1t. do not know how it is with you, my brethren, but I have always got into trouble when went around. but always got into safety when l went ahead.
 There spreads out the Jordan, raging torrent, much of it snow-water just come down from the mountain-top; and 1 see some of the Israelites shivering at the idea of plunging in, and one soldier says to his comrade, Joseph, can you swim?" And another says: If we get across this stream we will get there with wet clothes and with damaged armor, and the Canaanites will slash us to pieces with theIr swords before we get up the other bank" But it is no time to halt. The great host marches on. The priests carrying the ark go ahead, the people follow. I hear the tramp of the great multitude. The priests have now come within a stone's throw of the water. Yet still there IS no abatement of the flood. Now they have come within four or five feet of the stream; but there is no abatement of the flood. Bad prospect! It seems as if these Israelites that crossed the desert are now
 Diprr tn hp 1rn roI ir tpht of an But "Forward !" is the cry. The command rings all along the line of the host. "For- ward n' Now the priests have come within one step of the river This time they lift their feet from the solid ground. and put them down into the raging stream. No sooner are their feet there than Jordan flies. On the right hand God piles up q great noun tain of floods; on the left the water flows off toward the sea. The great river, for hours. halls and rears. The back waters. not be- ing able to flow over the passing lsraeites, pile wave on wave, until perhaps sea- bird would find some difficulty ln sealing the water cliff. Now the priests and all the people have gone over on dry land. The water on the left hand side by this time has reached the sea; and now that tue miraculous passage has been made, stand back and see thls stupendous pile of waters leap. God takes his hand from that wall of floods, and like T hundred cataracts they plunge and roar ill thunderous triumph to the sea.
 How are they to celebrate this passage? Shalt 1t be with music? 1 suppose the trumpet and eymbals were all worn out before this. Shall 1t be with banners way ing? Oh no; they are all faded and torn. Joshua cries out: "I will tell you how to celebrate this: build monument here to commemorate the event." and every priest puts heavy stone on his shoulder, and %t.ak divinely appointed place. l see the pile growing in height, in breadth. in signlti- canoe; and, in after years, men went ny that spot and saw this monument and cried out one to another, in futilment of the prophecy of the text: "What mean ye by these stonesS"
 Blessed be God, he did not leave our church in the wilderness We have been wandering about for year and half wor- shipping in the Academy of Music, Brook lyn, and Academy of Music New York. And some thought we would never reach the promised land. Some said we had better go back, and some said there were sons of Anak in the way that would eat us up; and before the smoke had cleared away from the sky after our Tabernacle had been consumed people stood on the very sic of the place and said: "Ihis church will never again be built" We came down to the bank of Jordan; we looked off upon the waters. Some of the sympathy that was expressed turned out to be snow-water melted from the top of Lebanon. Some said: You had better not go In; you will get your feet wet /" But we waded in. pastor and people, further and further and in some way the Lord only knows how, we got through; and tonight l go all around about this great house, erected by your prayers, and sympathies, and sacrifices, and cry out in the words of my text: What mean ye by these stones!" It Is an outrage to build house like this so shsre tas oe na .ome rsa.ons s"sns for doing it; and so. my friends, l pursue you tonight with the question of my text, and demand Of these trustees and of these elders and of all who have contributed in the building of ibis structure, What mean ye by these stonesy" But before get your ans wer to my question you interrupt me and point to the memorial wall at the side of thls pulpit. and say: Explain that un- us ual group of memorials. What neon you by those so 3c-!' by permission oI tne people of my beloved charge I recently visited the Holy Lands, and having in mind by day and night during my absence thus rising house of prayer, l hethought myself. What can do to make that place significant and glorious?" On the morning of December the third we were at the foot of the most sacred mountain of all the earth, Mount Calvary. There is no more doubt of the locality than of Mount Washington or Mont Blanc. On the bluff of this mountain which is the exact shape of the human skull, and so called in the Bible "Tbe place of skull" there is room for three crosses. There l saw stone so suggestive rolled it down the hill. and transported it, It IS at the top of this wall, white stone, with crimson veins running through 1t, the white typica; of purily, tho crimson sugge, tive of the blood that paid the price of our redemption. We place 1t at the top of the memorial wall far above all in this church, for all time in sermon, and song. and prayer shall be the Sacrifice of Mount Calvary. Look ut it. That stone was one of the rocks rent at the CructiXion. That heard the cry, Ut is finished" Was any church on earth honored with such Il memorialy
 Beneath 1t are two tables of stone which I had brought from Mount Sinai where the Law was gwen. Three camels were three weeks crossing the desert 10 fetch them. When at Cairo, Egypt, l proposed to the Christian Arab that he bring one stone from Mount Sinai, he said, eve can easier brlng two rocks than one, for one must balance them on the back of the camel" and did not think until the day of their arrival how much more suggestive would be the two, because the law was written on two tables of stone. Those stones marked with the words Mount sinai" felt Inc earthquake that shook the mountains when the Law was given. The lower stone of tue wall is from Mars Hill, the place where Paul stood wien he preached that famous sermon on Tue brotherhood of the human race, declaring. God hath made of one blood all na,ion>.' Since Lord Elgin took the famous statuary from the Acropolis, the hill adioinsas Mars hut. the Greek government makes u impossible to transport to other lands any Egyptian an tiquitles and armed soldlcry guard not