Connecticut western news., 1897-04-08
REV. DIR. TALMAGE ON RUIN AND RES TORATION.

REV. DR. TALMAGE ON RUIN AND RES TORATIoN.
 There Must Be Exploration Before Re-
 construction-Instance of the Triumph
 of eadness-words of Hope and Cheer ! For the Discouraged.
 WASHINGTON, April 4.-From the weird and midnight experiences of one of ancient times Dr. Talmage in his ser mon draws lessons startingly appropri- ate. His text was Nehemiah ii, 15, Then went up in the night by the brook and viewed the wall, and turned beck, and entered by the gate of the val ley, and so returned.
 A dead city is more suggestive than living city-past Rome than present Rome-ruins rather than newly frescoed cathedral. But the best time to visit ruin is by moonlight. The Coliseum is far more fascinating to the traveller after sundown than before. You may stand by daylight amid the monastic ruins of Melroee 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 enohanter of Scotland said in the Hay of the Last Minstrel:''
 wouldst thou view fair Melrose arightf
 Go visit it by the pale moonlight.
 Jerusalem In Ruins.
 Washington Irving describes the An daluaian 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 Eehemiah's s heart, but they are going as a sort of bodyguard.
 I 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 Jerusa- lem- Now the horse comes to dead halt Ut the tumbled masonry where he can- not pass- Now he shies of at the oharred timbera 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 confagrationl The eecorting 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- tion goes on. Nehemiah on horseback rides through the fish gate, by the tower of the furnaces, by the king's pool, by the dragon we'll, 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 inoredulous bodyguard. declares the dead secret of his heart when he says, "Come, now, let us build Jerusa- lem" "What, Nehemiah, have you any money?'' "No." Have you any kingly authority2'' "No" "Have you any eloquencer' "No." 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, "Let 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 thing should not be done. But the work 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 rattling 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 bridle 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 let's us know he was an exile in . far distant land, and he was servant, a cupbearer in the palace of Artaxerxes Lonigmanus, and one day, while he was handing the cup of wine to the king, the king said to him: "What is the mat ter 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 beloved Jerusa- lem was broken down. how that his fa- ther's tomb had been desecrated, how that the temple had been dishonored and defsced, how that the walls were scat tered and broken. Well, says King Artaxerxes, "what do you want?" "Well," said the cupbearer, Nehemiah, "I want to go home. want to fix up the grave of my father. want to re- store the beauty of the temple. want to rebuild the masonry of the city wall. Besides, want passports so that shall not be hindered in my journey, and be- sides that," as you will find in the con- text, "I want an order on the man who keeps your forest for just so much tim Der as may need for the rebuilding of the city" "How long shall you be gone?" said the king. The time of ab- sence is arranged. In hot haste this seeming adventurer comes to Jerusalem, and in my text we find him on horse back, in the midnight, riding around the ruins. It is through the spectaoles of this scene that we discover the ardent attachment of Nehemiah for sacred Jeru- salem, which in all ages has been the type of the church of God, our Jerusa- lem, which we love just as much as Nehemiah loved his Jeursalem. The e~zk s, Slxuk x,1x. love Ea oi,-rab af noJ