The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1897-04-09
BUILDING THE CITY.
DIR. TALMAGE On NEHEMIAH'S
KIDE IN WRECKED JERUSALEM
The E~nchantment of the Moonlight and
N~ehemiah's Resolve-LOve of the Church
of God - Ruin and Redemption -1he
Great Good That Comes From Trouble.

uE IN S"N
Nehemiah's Resolve-Love of the Church
of God Ruin and Redemption Ihe
Great Good That Comes From Trouble.
From the weird and midnight expert
znces of one Of ancient times DIR. Talmage
n his sermon draws lessons startllngly
annropriate. His text was Nehemiah ii,
Il "Then went / up in the night by the
brook and viewed the wall and turned
hack and entered by the gate Of the valley
and so returned
a dead city Is more suggestive than a
living city-past Rome than present Rome
rims rather than newly frescoed cathe-
1raf- But the best time to visit a ruin is
Yv moonlight. The Coliseum is far moro
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 muIlion, but they throw their strong
est witchery by moonlight. Some of you
remember what the enchanter of Scotland
said in the Lay of the Last Minstrel
wouldst thou view fair Melrose Alright,
Co visit it by the pale moonlight.
Washington Irving describes the Anda-
gusian moonlight upon the AlhamDra
ruins as amounting to- an enchantment
Ny 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 Oh Nehen1iah :
heart, but they are going as a sort OF
DOdyguard. ! hear the clicking hoofS OF
the horse on which Nehemiah rides as
ne guides it this way and that, into TINS
~v.atp and ont of that. winding through
that gate amid the debris of once great
Jerusalem.
REBUILDING THE CITY.
Now the horse comes to dead halt at the
tumbIed masonry where he cannot pass.
Now he SHES off at the charred tinberS.
Now he comes along where the water UNI
der the moonlight flashes from the mouth
of the brazen dragO after which the gate
was named. Heavy hearted Nehemiah.
Riding in and out, now by his old nome
desoIated, now by the dcfaccd temple, now
amid the scars Of the city that had gone
down under battering ram and conflagra-
ton. The CSCOrting party knows not What
Nehemiah means. Is he getting crazy!
Have his own personal Sorrows added to
the SORROWS of the nation, unbalanced his
Intellect? Still the midnight exploration
goes OH. Nehemiah on horseback rIdeS
through the fish gate. by the tower of the
furnaces, ny the kings pool, by the drag
OF well, in and out, in and out, until the
midnight ride is completed, and Nehemiah
dismOunts from his horse, and to the
amazed and COMPOUNDED and incredulous
~bodyguard declares the dead secret Of his
heart when he says, Come, now, let us
build Jerusalem" What, Nehemiah,
have you any money! No HAY
you any kingly authority?' No Have
night, moonlight ride of Nehemiah result
ed 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 it could not be done.
Some people were Infatuated and offered
physical violence, saying the thing should
not be done. But the wOrkmen went right
on, standing on the wall, trOwel in enc
hand. sword in the other, until the work
was GIoriously completed. At that very
time in Greece Xenophon was writing a
history. and Plato was making philosophy
oricai th h'nSdie f"eBE u TSa al i Of HIN t" togefner
did not do so much for the world as this
midnight. moonlight ride OF praying, cour-
ageOus, homesick, close mouthcd Nehe-
LOVE OF THE CHURCH.
My subject first imprcsscs me with the
idea, what an intense thing is church aft
lection. Seize the bride of that horse and
stop 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 life.
No. Nehemiah will not stop. He at last
tells us the whole story. He let's us know
ne was an exile in Il far distant land, ana
he was q servant. a cupbearer in the pal
ace of ArtaXerXes LOngimanus. and one
day. while he was handing the cup of
wine to the king the king said to him:
What is the matter with you? You are
not sick. | know YOU must have some
great trouble. What is the matter with
you? Then he told the king how that be
loved Jerusalem. was broken down; nov
Grated; how that the temple had been dis
honored and defaced; how that the walls
were scattered and broken. Well" says
King Artaxerxes. what do you want?'
Well said the cupbearer Nehemiah, Il
want to go home. | want to fix up the
the beauty of the temple. l want to re-
build the masonry of the city wall. Be
sides 1 want passports so that [ shall not
be hindered in my Journey. And besides
that" as you will find in the context,
Il want an order on the man who keeps
your forest for just SO much timber as
~'How long shall you be gomez said the
king. The time of absence is arranged.
In hot haste this seeming adventurer
comes to Jerusalem, and in my text we
find him on horseback in the midnight
riding around the ruins. 1t is through
the spectacles of this scene that we dis
cover the ardent attachment of Nehemiah
FOR sacred Jerusalem, which in all ages
mas been the type of the church of God,
our Jerusalem, which we love just as
much as Nehemiah loved his Jerusalem.
The fact is that you love the church OF
God so much that there is no spot on
earth SO sacred, unless it be your own
VIEWING THE RUINS.
The church has been to you so much
comfort and illumination that there is
nothing that makes you so irate as to
have 1t talked against. If there have beer
times when you nave been carried into
captivity by sickness. you longed for the
church, our holy Jerusalem, just as much
as Nehemiah longed for his Jerusalem,
and the first day you came out to the
house of the Lord. When the temple was
an ruins. like Nehemiah, you walked
around and looked at it, and in the moon
hight you stood listening if you could moi
hear the voice of the dead organ, the
pai1m of the expired SabbathS. What Je-
rusalem was to Nehemiah. the church OF
God is to you. Skeptics and infidels may
scott at the church as an obsolete affair
AS a relic of the dark ages, as a conven-
ton of goody goody people, but all the
impression they have ever made on your
mind against the church of God is alb
Solutely nothing. You would make more
sacrifices for it today than any other in.
stitution. and if it were needful you would
die in it's defense. You can take the words
of the kingly poet as he said. IF 1 forget
thee. Q Jerusalem. let my right hand for: