Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1897-04-14
RRV. DR.. TALMAGB.
The Eminent Divine's Sunday
Discourse.
Subjects ''Tho Triumph Of Sadness.

TEXT: 'sThen went I up in the night by
the brook and viewed the wall, and turned
back, and entered by the gate Of the valley
and so returned "-Nehemtah H., Is.
A dead city Is more suggestive than a liv.
Ing city-past Rome than present Rome
ruins rather than newly frescoei cathedral.
But the best time to -isit ruin is by moon.
light. The Coliseum Is far moro fascinating
to the traveller after sundown than before.
You may stand by daylight amid the monas
tic ruins of Melrose abbey. and stuIy
shafted oriei and rosetted stone and null
hon. but they throw their strongest witchery
the enchanter OF Scotland said in the Lay
of the Last Minstrel;''
"WouIdst thou view fair Melross Alright?
Go visit It by the pale moonlight"
Washington Irving describes the Anialu-
sian moonlight upon the Alhambra ruins
as amounting to an enchantlient. My text
presents you Jerusalem in ruins. The tower
down. The gates down. The walls down.
Everything down. Nehemiah on horseback,
by moonlight looking upon the ruins. While
ne rides there are some friends on foot go.
ing with him, for they do not want the
many horses to disturb the suspicious Of the
people These people do not know the
secret of Nehemiah's heart, but they are GO
ing sort OF bodyguard.
hear the clicking hoofs OF the horse on
which Nehemiah rides. as he guides it this
way and that. into this gate and out Of that,
winding through that gate amid the debris
| OF once great Jerusalem. Now the hors.,
comes to dead halt at the tunblei masonry
where he cannot pass. Now he shies OF at
| the charreL timbers. Now he comes along
where the water under the moonlight flashes
| IRON the mouth OF the braZen dragon after
which the gate was named. Heavy hearted
| Nehemiah riding in and out, now by his old
home desolated, now by the defaced tenn pie.
now amid the scars OF the city that had gone
down under battering ram an ! contlagration!
The escorting party knows not what Nehe-
miah means. Is ho getting crazy? Have
his own personal sorrows, added to the sor-
rows of the nation. unbalanced his intellectS
| Still the midnight exploration goes on.
Nehemiah on horseback rides through the
| fish gate, by the tower of the furnaces, by
the king pool, by the dragon we'll, in aud
| out, until the miduight ride is completed.
and Nehemiah dismounts from his horse
and to the amazed and confounled and in
| credulous bodyguard, declares the dead
secret of his heart when he says,
"Come, now, let US build Jerusa-
lem" EN- What. What ..S Nehemiah ali. have you
kingly authority" NO." 'Have YOU any
sloquence3" mo" Yet that midnight.
moonlight ride of Nehemiah resulted In the
glorious rebuilding Of the city of Jerusalem
The people knew NOT how the thing was to
be done, but with great enthusiasm they
| cried out. LET US rise up now and build the
city," Some people laughed and said 1t
could not be DONE Some people were in
furiate and offered physical violence, saying
the thing should not be done. But the work.
| men went right on, standing on the wall,
trowel in one hand. sword iu the other, un-
til the work WAS gioriously completed. At
| that very time In Greece, Xenophon was
writing II history, and Plato was making
| philosophy. and Demosthenes was rafting
his rhetorical thunder. But all of them
| together did not do 80 much for the world
As this midnight. moonlight ride Of pray,
Ing, courageous, homesick, close mouthed
Nehemiah.
My subject first impresses me with the idea
what an intense thing Is church affectioI
Seize the brtdie of that horse and stop,
Nehemiah. Why are you risking your life
here in the night? Your horse will stumble
over these ruins and fall on you. Stop this
useless exposure Of your lie. No; Nehemiah
will not stop. He ut last tells US the whole
story. He lets us know he was AN exile in q
far distant lani, and ne was a servant. a cup
bearer In the palace Of Artaxerxes Lonigma-
nus, AMI one day, while he was handing the
cup of vino to the king, the king said to
MIN: "What Is the matter with you? You
| are not sick. l know you must have some
great trouble. What is the matter with you?"
Then he told the king how that beloved
Jerusalem was broken down, how that his
| fathers tomb had been desecrated, how
that the temple had been dishonored and
defaced, how that the walls were scat
/ tered and broken. "Well,'' says King
Artaxerxes, ''what do you want?"
"WeIl." said the cupbearer. Nehemiah,
II want to go home 1 want to fix up the
grave Of my father. I want to restore the
| beauty of the temple want to rebuild the
masonry OF the city wall. Besides. want
passports so that shalt not be hindered In
my journey. and besides that, AS you will
| lind In the context, 81 want au order on the
man who keeps your forest for just so much
timber rs may need for the rebuilding OF
the city," How long shall you bs gomez
said he king. The time Of absence Is ar
| ranged. In hot haste this seeming adven-
turer comes to Jerusalem, and In my text We
find him on horseback. in the midnight. rid
ing around the ruins. Ii is through the
spectacles of this scene that We discover the
ardent attachment OF Nehemiah for sacred
Jerusalem, which In all ages has been the
type Of the church Of God, our Jerusalem,
which We love Just as much as Nehemiah
| loved his Jerusalem. The fact ID that you
love tie church of God SO much that there ia
own freside. The church has been to you so
| much comfort and illumination that there Is
nothing that makes you so iIate as to have
II talked against.
II ther have been times when YOU have
been carried into captivity by sickness, you
iOuScu iOT Tue cuutcn, our nOlS JeruSdtein.
just as much as Nehemiah longed for his
Jerusalem. AMI the first day you came out
you came to the house of the L ord. When
the temple was in ruins, like Nehemiah, you
walked around and looked at it, and in the
moonlight YOU ~ ood listening IL you could
not hear the voice of the dead organ, ths
psalm Of the expired Sabtaihs. What Jeru-
sal. IN WAS To Nehemiah the church of God Is
to you. Skep les and iniliels may scoff ar
the church as an obsolete affair, relic of
be dark ages, as u convention of goody
gooIy people. but al. the impression they
hav.. ever made on your mind against the
church OF God is absolutely nothing. You
would make more sacrifices for it to-day than
any other institution, and IL 1t were needfui
you would die in its defense. Y. u can take
the words of the kingiy poet rs he said, III
l forget thee, o Jerusalem, let my right
in your own experience the pathos, tie home
sickness, The courage. the holy enthusiasm
of Nehemiah In his midnight ride az ,und
the ruins OF his beloved Jerusa en-.
Again, my text impresses me with the fact
that, before reconstruction, there must be an
exploration of ruins. Why was not Nehe-
miah asleep under the cover? Why was not
his horse stabbed in the midnight? Let the
police cf the city arrest this midnight rider,
out on some mischief. No. Nehemiah is
going to rebuild the city, and he is making
the preliminary exploration In this gate.
out tnat gatp, east, west, nortn. SOGtn. An
through the ruins. The ruins must be x.
plored before the work of reconstruction can
begin.
The reason that so many people in this day
apparently do not stay converted is because
they did not first explore the ruins of theil
own heart. The reason that there are SC
many professed Christians who in this day
| lie and forge and steal and commit abomina
tions and go to the penitentiary is because
! they first do not learn the ruin Of their owr
heart. They have not found out that ''tht
| heart is deceitful above all things and des
| peraiely wicked" They had an i'd a thai
they were almost right, and they built reli
| gion as a sort Of extension, rs an ornamental
| xupola. There was a superstructure Of reli
ion built on a substratum OF unrepentet
| sins. The trouble with a good deal OF mod
| ,,cu theology is that instead of building OF
| ne right foundation it buii.is On she dehrt
i an unrsgen-rated nature. They attoMp
--rehniid Jerusa EN- before, in the midniSh
| fconvi tion, they have seen the ghastiines
| IN, rrin They w.. Such n moor fOundA