The Union times. [volume] (Union, S.C.) 1894-1918, 1897-04-09
DR.. TALMAGE'S SERMON.
The Noted Washington Divlne's
Sunday Subject,
Subject: ssTRIUMPH OF SADNESS. {,

-
TEXT: "Then went up in the nigh. by
back, and entered by the gate OF the valley.
and so returned. ."-Nehemiah IL. Is.
:, A dead city Is more suggestive than liv-
ing cfty-past Rome than presen: Rome
ruins rather than newly frescoed cathedral.
But the best time to visit a 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-
ttc ruins OF Melrose abbey, and study
shafted oriel and rosetted stone and null
zion, but they throw their str ongest witchery
Ry moonlight. Some OF you remember what
the enchanter Of Scotland said In the "Iav
OF the Last MINSTREL"
"Wouldst thou view fair Melrose Alright?
q Go visit 1t by the pale moonlight"
Washington Irving describes tho Andalu-
sian 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.
py moonlight looking upon the ruins. While
he rides there arei some friends on foot GO
ang with him, Tor 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 AS sort OF bodyguard.
near the clicking hoofs OF tho 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
o1 once Great Jerusalem. Now the horse
comes TO dead halt at tho tumbled masonry
where hft cannot pass. Now he SHES or at
the chafred tmbcrs. Now he comes along
wherY the water under the moonlight flashes
from the mouth OF the brazen dragon after
W1Sch the gate was named. Heavy hearted
Sehemiah, 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 AMI conflagration!
Ihe escorting party knows not what Nehe-
miah means. Is he getting crazy? Have
his own personal sorrows, added to the sor-
rows Of tho nation. unbalanced his intelloctP
Still tho midnight exploration goes on.
Nehemiah on horseback rides through the
fish gate, by the tower Of tho furnaces, by
the kings pool, by the dragon well, in and
out, until the midnight ride is completed.
and Nehemiah dismounts from his horse,
and to the amazed and confounded and in
credulous bodyguard, declares the dead
secret Of his heart when he says,
lem" "What, Nehemiah. have % you
any, any money!, money!" "No:% Have you any
eloquenco2" 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, bnt with great enthusiasm they
cried out, "Let us rise up now and build the
city,: Somo 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 tho wall,
trowel In one hand, sword in the other, uu-
I'll the work was gloriousy completed. At
that very time In Greece, Xenophon was
writing history. and Plato was making
philosophy, and Demosthenes was rafting
his rhetorical thunder. But all of them
together did not do SO much for tho world
ms this midnight moonlight rlde OF pray
ing, courageous, homesick, close mouthed
Nehemiah.
My subject first impresses me with the idea
what an intense thing Is church affection.
Seize the bride of that horse and stop
Aseemlaa. WY; are YOU Tisli sonr iifu
here in tho night? Your horse will stumble
over these ruins and fail on you. Stop this
useless exposure Of your life. No; Nehemiah
will not stop. Ho ut last tells us tho whole
story. He let's us know he was an exile in q
far distant land. and ne was n servant, a cup
bearer In the palace Of ArtaxerxeS LoniSma-
nus, and one day, while he was handing the
cup OF wine to the king. the king said to
him: "What is the matter with youl You
are not sick. / know you must have somo
great trouble. What is the matter with you?"
Then he told tho king how that beloved
Jerusalem was broken down, how that his
fathers tomb had been desccrated, how
tnat tho temple had been dishonored and
defaced. how that the walls were scat
Artaxerxes, "what do you want?''
"Well," said the cupbearer. Nehemiah,
81 want to 80 homo want to fix up the
grave OF my father. 1 want to restore the
beauty OF the temple. want to rebuild the
masonry OF the city wall. Besides. want
passports 80 that shall not be hindcred In
my journey. and besides that" as you will
find In the context, ~ want an order on tho
man who keeps your forest for just so much
timber as may need for tho rebuilding o:
the CITY," "How long shall you be gomez"
said the 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. 1t is through the
spectacles OF this scene that We discover tho
ardent attachment Of Nehemiah for sacred
Jerusalem, which In all ages has been tho
type OF the church OF God, our Jerusalem,
loved his Jerusalem. The fact Is that you
love the church OF God 80 much that there Is
no spot on earth 50 sacred unless II be your
own dreside. The church has been to you so
much comfort and illumination that thore is
nothing that makes you so iIate as to have
It talked against.
If there have been times when YOU have
been carried into captivity by sickness, you
longed for the church, our holy Jerusalem.
Just as much as Nehemiah longed for his
Jerusalem. and tho first day you came out
you came to tho house OF the Lord. When
the temple was in ruins, like Nehemiah, you
walked around and looked at it. and in the
moonlight you stood listening il you could
not hear the voice Of the dead organ, tho
psalm Of the expired Sablaths. What Jeru-
salem was to Nehemiah the church OF God is
to you. Skeptics and inlldels may scoff at
the church as an obsolete afrair, as q relic Of
tho dark ages. as q convention Of goody
Soody people. but all the impression they
have ever made on your mind against the
church OF God is absolutely nothing You
would make moro sacrifices for it to-day than
any other institution, and ii il were ncc,lful
you would die in its defense. You can take
the words OF the kingly poet as he said. "lf
forget thee, Jerusalem. let ny right
hand forget her cunning" You understand d
in your own experience the pathos. the home
sickness, the courage, the holy enthusiasm