Fisherman & farmer. [volume] (Edenton, N.C.) 1887-19??, 1895-01-18
REV. DIR. TALMAGF,
THE BROOKLYN DIVINE'S sim
DAY SERMON.
Subject: "Tomb and Temple.o

Subject: ''Tomb and Temple.o
TEXT From India even unto Ethiopia. {"
Esther j.. l.
In all the Bible this is the only hook in
| %hch the word India occurs, but it stands
! Tor realm of vast interest in the time OF
Ts'her, as IN our time. 1t yielded then as
| now, spices aud silks AMI cotton and rice
ana indigo and ores of all richness and
| precious stones Of all sparkle and had a
! clVliiZat1On Of its own as marked as Epyp-
| tan or Grecian Or Roman civilization. II
| holcs The costliest tomb ever IuiIt and tho
most unique and wonderful idolatrous tenn
PIE ever opened. For practical lessons in
thls, my sixth discourse in round the world
series, show You that tomb and temple of
! India.
In journey around the world it may not
| be easy to tell the exact point which divides
the pilgrimage into halves. But there was
! one structure toward which we were all the
time travelling, and having seen that we felt
tha1 II we saw nothing more our expedition
would be success. That one object was the
1aJ Mahal OF India. It is the crown of the
whole earth. The spirits of architecture
met 10 enthr0ne king, and the spirit of the
It'fthenon t OF Athens was there, and the spirit
Oh 81: Sophia Of Constantinople was there,
ana the spirit of st. Izaak of St. Petersburg
was there, ami the spirit of the Baptistery of
tIsa was there. and the spirits of the pyramid
ana OF Luxor obeIisk, and of the Porcelain
tower of Nankin, and of ST. Marks of
venice, and the spirits of the great towers,
great cathedrals, great nausoleums, great
sarcophagi great capitos for the living and
OF great necropolises for the dead were there
And the presiding genius of the throng with
gavei OF Parian marble smote the table of
russian malach1te, and called the throng Of
spirits to order, and called for a vote
as to which spirit should wear the
chlei crown, and mount the chief throne,
and wave the chief scepter, and by unani-
nous acclaim the cry was "Long live the
spirit OF Tai, king of ali the spirits of archi-
lecture Thine is the Tai Mahal of India r.
The building is about six miles from Agra,
and az we rode out in the early dawn we
heard nothing but the hoofs and wheels that
pulled and turned US alongthe road, at every
yard of which our expectations rose until
we had some thought that we might be dis
appointed at the first glimpse, as some say
ehey were disappointed. But how can any
one be disappointed with the Tai is almost as
great wonder to me as the Tai itself.
1here are some people always disappointed,
and who knows but that having entered
heaven they may criticise the architecture Of
the temple and the cut of the white robes,
and say that the River Of Life is not quite up
to their expectations, and that the white
horses on which the conquerors ride seem a
little spring halt or spawned?
My son said, "There it is !" I said,
"Where?' For that which he saw to be the
building seemed to me to be more like the
morning cloud biushing under the stare of
the rising sun. 1t seemed not so much built
up from earth rs let down from heaven.
fortunately you stop at an elaborated gate
way OF red sandstone One-eighth Of a mile
from the Tai, an entrance SO high, so arched,
so graceful, 80 four domed, 80 painted and
chiseled and scrolled that you come very
gradually upon the Tai, whioh structure is
enough to intoXicate the eye and stun the
imagination and entrance the SOUL We 60
up the winding stairs of this majestic en-
trance of the gateway, and buy few pic
lures. and examine few curtos, and from
II look off upon the Tai, and descend to the
pavement of the garden that raptures every
thing between the gateway and the ecstacy
OF marble and precious stones. You pass
along deep stream of water in which all
manner of brilliant fms swirl and float.
There are eighty-four fountains that spout
and bend and arch themselves to fail in
showers of pearl in basins of snowy white
ness. Beds of all imaginable flora greet the
noStril before they do the eye and seem to
roll in waves of color as you advance toward
the vision you are soon to have of what hu-
man genius did when it did its best moon
flowers, lilacs, marigOlds, tulips and almost
everywhere the lotus thlckets of bewilder-
ing bloom; on either side trees from many
lands bend their arborescence over your
head or seem with convouted branches to
reach out their arms toward you in welcome.
On and OF you go amid tamarind and cy-
press and poplar and Oleander and yeW and
sycamore and banyan and palm and trees
OF such novel branch and leaf and Sirth you
cease to ask their name or nativity.
AS you approach the door Of the Tai one
experiences q strange sensation of awe and
tenderness and humility and worship. The
building is only grave, but what a grave!
Built for a queen. who, according to some,
was very good, and according to others very
bad. l choose to think she was very good.
At any rate, If makes me feel better to think
that this commemorative pile was set up for
the immortalization of virtue rather than
vice. The TAI is a mountain of white
marble, but never such walls faced each
other with eXqusiteness never such tomb
was cut from block OF alabaster never such
a congregation of precious stones frightened
and gloomed and blazed and chastened and
gorified a building since sculptor's chisel
cut its first curve, or painters pencil traced
its first figure, or mason's plumb line
measured its first wall, Or architects COM
pass swept its first circle.
The Tai has sixteen great arched win
dows, four at each corner also at each of
the four corners of the Tai stands nlinaret
1877 feet high also at each side ofthis build
ing is a splendid mosque of red sandstone.
Two hundred and fifty years has the Tai
stood, and yet not wall is cracked nor a
mosaic loosene6, nor an arch sagged, nor
panel dulled. The storms of $50 winters
have not marred nor the heats of $50 sum-
mers disintegrated IA marble. There is no
story of age written by MOSES on its white
surface. sontaz, the queen, was beautiful,
and Shah Jehan, the king. here proposed to
let all the centuries of time know it. She
was married at twenty years of age and
died at twenty-nine. Her life ended as an
other life began. AS the rose bloomed the
rosebush persisted.
To adorn this dormitory Of the dead, at
the command of the king, Bagdad sent to
this building its cornelian and Ceylon its
lapis lazuli, and Punjab its jasper, and
Persia its amethyst, and Thibet its turquoise,
and Lanka its sapphire, and Yemen its agate,
and Puma its diamonds and blood stones,
and sardonyx and chalcedony and moss
agates are as common as though they were
pebbles. You find one spray of vine beset
with eighty and another with 100 stones.
Twenty thousand men were twenty years in
building il, and although the labor was
slave labor, and not paid for, the building
cost what would be about $50, 100000
of our American money. Some OF the
Jewels have been picked out of the
wall by iconoclasts or conquerors, and
substitutes of less value have taken their
places. but the vines, the traceries, the
arabesques, the spandrels, the entablatures
are SO Wondrous that you feel like dating
the rest of your life from the day you first
saw them. In letters of black marble the
whole of the Koran is spelled out in and on
this august pile. The king sleeps in the
tomb beside the queen, although he intend
ed to build palace as black as this was
white on the opposite side Of the river for
himself to sleep in. Indeed the foundation
Of such metropolis of black marble is still
there, and from the white to the black tenn
pie OF the dead bridge was to cross, but
the son dethroned him and imprisoned him.
and 1t is wonderful that the king had any
place at all in which to be buried. Instead
of windows to let in the light upon the two
tombs, there Is a trellis work of marble,
marble cut so delicately thin that the sun
shines through it as easily as through glass.
Look the world over and find so much trans
luency, canopies, trtceries, lace work, en-
broideries OF stone.
We had heard of the wonderful resonance
of this Tai, and so l tried it: l suppose
L alnRnc in