Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1895-11-11
BELSE{AZZAR'S FEAST
REV. DR.. TALMAGE breaches ON THE
HANDWRITING ON THE WALL.

warning-An Echo of the Text.
WASHINGTON, Nov. 1O.-Since his
coming to Washington Dr. Talmage' s
pulpit experience has been remarkable
one. Not only has the church in which
he breaches been filed, but the audiences
have overfiowed into the adjoining
streets to an extent that has rendered
them impossible. Similar scenes wero
enacted at today's services, when tho
preacher took for his subject, Gland
being Daniel V, 30, ''In that night was
Belshazzar, the king of the Chaldeans,
slain
Night was about to come down Oh
Babylon. The shadows of her $50 tow
ers began to lengthen. The Euphratea
rolled on, touched by the fiery splendors
of the setting sun, and gates of brass,
FURNISHED and 2littering, opened and
shut like doors Of fame The hanging
gardens Of Babylon, wet with the heavy
dew, began to pour from starlit flowers
and dripping leaf q fragrance for many
miles around. The streets and sqUarea
We're lighted for dance and frOlic and
promenade The theaters and galleries
of art invited the wealth and pomp and
grandeur of the city to rare entertain
ments. Scenes Of riot and wassail were
mingled in every street, and goddess
mirth and outrageous excess and splen-
did wickedness came to the king s palace
to do their mightiest deeds of darkness
5c,t7+ OF 10 g
palace Rushing up to the gates are
chariots, upholstered with precious
cloths from Dedan, and drawn by fire
eyed horses from TOgarmah, that rear
and neigh III the grasp Of the characters,
while Il thousand lords dismount, and
women, dressed in all the splendors Oh
Syrian emerald, and the color blending
of agate, and the chasteness of coral,
and the somber glory of Tyrian purple
and princely embrOideries, brought from
afar by camels across the desert and by
ships of Tarshish across the sea.
The Guests Assemble.
Open wide the gates and let the guests
come in. The chamberlains and cup
bearers are all ready. Hark to the rustic
of the silks, and to the carol Of the
music! See the blaze of the jewels Lift
the banners. Fill the cups. Clap the
cymbals. Blow the trumpets. Let the
night go by with song and dance and
ovation, and let that Babylonish tongue
be palsied that viii not say, go King
Bel---ar, live fOreverr'
-, my friends, it was not any COM
mon banquet to which these great peo-
pie came! All parts of the earth had
sent their richest viands to that table,
Brackets and chandeliers flashed their
light upon tankards of FURNISHED gold.
Fruits, ripe and luscious, in baskets of
silver, entWined with leaves, plucked
from royal COnservatOries. Vases, inIaid
with emerald and ridged with exquisite
filed with nuts that were
from forests Of distant lands.
Wine brought from the royal watts, foam
ing in the decanters and bubbling in the
chalices. Tufts of cassia and franklin
cense waiting their sweetness from wall |
and table. Gorgeous banners unfolding |
in the breeze that came through the open
window, beWitched with the perfumes /
of hanging gardens Fountains rising up
from Enclosures of ivory, in jets of crys-
tai, to fall in Gathering rain of diamonds |
and pearls. Statues of mighty men look |
ing down from inches in the wall upon
crowns and shields brought from sub
dued empires Idols of wonderful work !
on pedestals of precious stones. |
STOPPING about the win
dows and wrapping pillars of cedar and
drifting on floor inlaid with ivory and !
agate Music, mingling the thrum of |
L L IL - l.. !
blast of trumpets in one wave of trans
port that went ripping along the wall |
and breathing among the garlands and |
pouring down the corridors, and thrill !
ing the souls of a thousand banqueters.
The signal is given, and the lords and !
ladies, the mighty men and women Of |
the land, come around the table. Pour |
out the wine. Let foam and bubble kiss |
the rim Hoist every one his cup and !
drink to the sentiment, go King Bel /
lire forever !" Bestarred head |
band and carcanet of royal beauty CLEAN |
to the uplifted chalices, as again, and |
again, and again they are emptied.
Away with care from the palace! Tear
royal dignity to tatters Pour out more
wine! Give Us more light, wilder music,
sweeter perfume Lord shouts to lord,
captain ogles to captain. Goblets clash;
1ecanters rattle. There come in the OBJ
scene song, and the drunken hiccough, |
and the slavering lip, and the guffaw of
idiotic laughter, bursting from the lips
of princes, flushed, Keeling bloodshot,
while mingling with it all I hear,
'HuZza, huzza, for great BelshazZar %
Seen on the Wall.
What is that on the plastering Of the
wall? Is it spirit? Is it a phantom? Is
it God? The music stops. The goblets
fall from the nerveless grasp. There is a
thrill. There is start. There is a thou
sand voiced shrek of horror Let Daniel |
no hrOuOht IN tO read that writing He I