The weekly intelligencer. [volume] (Lexington, Mo.) 1891-1901, 1895-01-12
TOMB n TEMPLE.
DR.. Talmage Describes the Mauso.
,leum of Queen Montaz.
1t Cost Sixty Million Dollars, and Is the
Most superb and Perfect Work OF
Art In the worid-Shah Jehan's
Black Tomb.

Inc latest sermon given out ny itcN-
T. Dewitt Talmage through the press
was upon the subject: Tomb and Tenn
pie" having reference to that most
famous and beautiful of mausoleums,
the Tai Mahal. The text selected a
''From India even unto Ethiopia
Esther /. /. The sermon is as follows:
In all the Bible this is the only
book in which the word India occurs,
but it stands for II realm of vast inter
est in the time Of Esther as i'll our time.
1t yielded then, as now, spices, and
silks, and cotton, and rice, and indigo,
and ores of all richness. and precious
stones of all sparISles, and had a civil
zation of its own us marked as Egyp-
tian or Grecian or Roman civilization.
1t holds the costliest tomb ever built,
and the most unique and wonderful
idolatrous temple ever opened. For
practical lessons, in this, my sixth dis
course in Ground the World series. l
show you that tomb and temple of In
dia.
In a journey around the world it may
not be easy to tell the exact point
which divides the pilgrimage into
halves. But there was II structure
toward which we were all the time
travelling, and. having seen that, we
feI, hat If we saw nothing more our
axned;tiop would he n srceess. That
one object was the the Tai Mahal of
india II ;s the crown of the whole
oath Tho shirts of architecture met
Tn enthrone n king. and the spirit of
the Parthenon of Athens was there;
and the spirit of st. Sophia
Of Constantinople was there; and
the shirt of st. Izaak of st. Peters.
bpro was there: and the spirit of the
Ront;stru Of p;s, ,vas there: and The
snir;t of the Great Pyramid, and of
Lnxor Obelisk. and of the Porcelain
Tower of Nanlsin, and of st. Marks Of
Venice: and the spirits of all the great
towers, great c~athedrals, great maui
soleums. great Sarcophagi, great CAPT.
for the living. and of great necrop-
olises for the dead, were there. And
the presidinp genius of the throng with
oayel of Parian marble smote the table
Russian malachite. and called the
thronp of spirits to order and called
a vote as to which spirit should
yyear the chief crown, and mount the
chief throne. and wave the chief scep.
ter. and bv unanimous acclaim the cry
was: Long live the spirit of Tai, king
all the spirits of architecture! Thine
is the Tai Mahal of India."
The building is about 6 miles from
Agra. and as we ode out in the early
dawn we heard nothing but the hoofs
and wheels that pulled and turned us
along the road, at every yard of which
our expectation rose until we had some
.houpht that we might be disappointed
Mt the first glimpse, as some say they
were disappointed. But how can n
one be disappointed with the Tai Is oil.
most as great a wonder to me as the
Tai itself. NV son said: There IL is,''
I said: s'Where?, For that which he
saw to be the building seemed to me to
be more like the morning cloud blush.
under the stare of the rising sun.
IL seemed not SO much built up from
earth as let down from heaven. For
tunately. YOU stop at an elaborated
gateway of red sandstone one-eighth
Of a mile from the Tai, an n
trance so high, so arched so
graceful, so four-dored, so painted,
and chiSeled, and ScrOlled mat you come
very gradually upon the Tai, which
structure is enough to intoxicatc the
eve. and stun the imagination, and en-
the soul. We go up the winding
stairs of this majestic entrance of the
and buy a few pictures and
examine a few curios, and from it look
off upon the Tai, and descend to the
, ,ramant of tho ara rden that rantures
everything between the gateway and
the ecstacy of marble and precious
stones. You pass along a deep stream
Of water in which all manner of bril-
liant fins swirl and float. There are
e%ipbty-four fountains that spout and
hend and arch themselves to fall in
of pearl in basins of snowy
whiteness. Beds of all imaginable
fora greet the nostrils before they
40 the eve. and seem to roll in waves
If color as Won advance towards the
vision O are soon to have of
what human genius did when il did its
best. AS you approach the door of Tai
one experiences q strange sensation of
a I'VE. and tenderness. and humility, and
The building is only grave,
Init what n grave! Built for a queen,
h ACCORDING To some was very good,
III .ooo,,a;nr IN otbers was verv had