Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1897-04-05
.EA FOR COURAGE.
REV Dr.. TAlMaGE ON RUIN AND RES
TORATtON.

For the Discouraged
WASHINGTON, April 4-From the
weird and midnighs experiences Of one
of ancient times Dr.. Talmage in his ser
mon draws lessons startlingly appropri-
ate. His text was Nehemiah ii. Is,
tsThen went up In the night by the
brook and viewed the wall, and turned
back, and entered by the gate of the val
ley, and so returned
A dead city is more suggestive than a
living city-past Rome than present
Rome-ruins rather than newly frescoed
cathedral. But the best time to visit a
ruin is by moonlight. The Coliseum is
far more fascinating to the traveller after
SHUTDOWN than before. You may stand
by daylight amid the monastic ruins of
Melrose abbey, and study shafted oriel
and rosetted stone and mullion, but they
throw their strongest witchery by moon
light. Some of you remember what the
enchanter of Scotland said in the clay
of the Last MINSTREL
Wouldst thou view fair Melrose Alright?
Go visit it by the pale moonlight.
Jerusalem I'm Ruins.
Washington Irving describes the An
dalusian moonlight upon the Alhambra
ruins as amounting to an enchantment.
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
he rides there are some friends ON foot
going 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 going as a sort of bodyguard.
I hear the clicking boots 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 Jerusa-
lem. Now the horse comes to dead halt
at the tumbled masonry where he CAN
not pass. Now he SHES off at the charred
timbers. Now he comes along where the
water under the moonlight flashes from
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 temple, now amid the scars
of the city that had gone down under
battering ram and confiagrationl The
escorting party knows not what Nehe-
miah means. Is he getting crazy? Have
his own personal sorrows, added to the
sorrows of the nation, unbalanced his
intellect? Still the midnight explora-
ton goes ON. Nehemiah Oh horseback
rides through the fish gate, by the tower
of the furnaces, by the kings pool, by
the dragon well, in and out. in and out,
until the midnight ride is completed,
and Nehemiah dismounts from his
horse, and to the amazed and confound-
ed and incredulous bodyguard, declares
the dead secret of his heart when he
says, "Colne. now, let us build Jerusa-
lem" "What, Nehemiah, have you
any money?'' tsNo" "Have you any
kingly authority?'' mo" 'tHave you
any eloquence?'' mo Yet that mid
night. moonlight ride of Nehemiah re-
suited 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, 'sLet
us rise up now and build the city,
Some people laughed and said it could
not be done Some people were infuriate
and offered physical violence, saying the
men went right on, standing on the
wall, trowel in one hand, sword in the
other, until the work was gloriously
completed. At that very time in Greece,
Xenophon was writing a history, and
Plato was making philosophy, and De-
mosthenes was rafting his rhetorical
thunder. But all of them together did
not do so much for the world as this
midnight, moonlight ride of praying,
courageous, homesick, close mouthed
Nehemiah.
Church Affection.
My subject first impresses me with the
idea what an intense thing is church af-
lection. Seize the bride of that horse
and stop, Nehemiah. Why are you risk
ing your life here in the night? Your
horse will stumble over these ruins and
fall on you Stop this useless exposure
of your life. No; Nehemiah will not
stop. He at last tells us the whole story.
He lets US know he was an exile in
far distant land, and he was a servant,
a cupbearer in the palace of ArtaxeIxes
Lonigmanus, and one day, while he was
handing the cup of wine to the king,
the king saidto him: "What is the mat
ter with youa You are not sick. know
you must have some great trouble.
What is the matter with you?" Then he
told the king how that beloved Jerusa-
lem was broken down. how that his ia
theirs tomb had been desecrated, how
that the temple had been dishonored and
lefaced, how that the walls were scat
tered and broken. ''Well," says King
Artaxerxes, what do you want?''
'tWell,' said the cupbearer, Nehemiah,
81 want to go home. 1 want to fix up
the grave OF my father. want to re-
store the beauty of the temple. I want