The county record. [volume] (Kingstree, S.C.) 1885-1975, 1897-04-15
BUILDING THE CITY.
Or. TAlMAGE ON NEHEMlAH'S RIDE
IN WRECKED JERU SALEM.

IN WRECKED JERU SALEM.
The Euchantmept of the Moonlight and
Nehemiah's Resolve-Love Of the Church
Of God-Ruin and Rsdemption-The
Great Good That Comes From Trouble
" WASHINGTON, April 4-From the
weird and midnight experiences OF one
of ancient times DR.. Talmage in his
sermon draws lessons startlingly 40
propriate. His text was Nehemiah II
Is, "Then went / up in the night by
the brook and viewed the wall anc
turned back and entered by the gate oi
the valley, aud so returned"
A dead city is more suggestive than
a living city-past Rome than present
Rome rather than newly fres
coed cathedral. But the best time tc
visit q ruin is by moonlight. The Co
Iiseum is far more fascinating to the
traveller after sundown than before,
You may stand by daylight amid the
monastic ruins of Melrose abbey an6
study shafted oriel and rosetted stone
and mullion, but they throw their
strongest witchery by moonlight
Some of you remember what the en-
.chanter of Scotland said in the "Lay
of the Last Minstrel"
Wouldst thou view fair Melrose Alright,
Go visit it by the pale moonlight.
Washington Irving desert bes the
Andalusian moonlight upon the Al
hambra ruin as amounting to an en-
,chantmeut. My text presents you Je'
'rusalem 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 60.
ing as a 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 Jerusa'
lem.
Now the horse comes to dead halt at
the tumbled masonry where he cannot
pass. Now he SHES off al the charred
Itimbers. Now he comes along where
the water under the moonlight flashes
from the mouth of the brazen dragon
sitter which the gate was named.
Heavy hearted Nehemiah! Riding in
and out, now by his old home desolat-
ed, now by the defaced temple, now
amid the scars of the city that had
gone down under battering ram and
.conflsgration. The escortirg party
knows not what Nehemiah means. Is
he getting crazy2 Have his own per-
,sonal sorrows, added to the sorrows of
the nation, unbalanced his intellect?
Still the midnight exploration goes
on. Nehemiah on 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 COM
pleted, and Nehemiah dismounts from
his horse, and to the amazed and con.
founded and incredulous bodyguard
declares the dead secret of his heart
when he says, Come now. let us
build Jerusalem" What, Nehemi-
ah. have you any money!" ''No. "
Have you any kingly authority
'sNo." ''Have you any eloquencea'
''No." Yet that midnight, moonlight
ride OF Nehemiah resulted in the glo.
rious rebuilding of the city of Jerusa.
lem. The people knew not how the
thing was to be done, but with great
enthusiasm they cried out, LET ui
rise up now and build the CITY," Some
people laughed and said it could moi
be done. Some people were infuriated
and offered physical violence, saying
the thing should not be done. But the
workmenwent righto standing on tn,
wall, trowel in one hand, sword in ths
other. until the work was gloriously
completed. At that very time in
Greece Xenophon was writing a histo
~, and Plato was making philosophy,
and Demosthenes was rafting his rhe
torical thunder. But all of them TO-
.gether did not do so much for the
world as this midnight, moonligh,
ride Of praying, courageous, homesick,
close mouth Nehemiah.
Ny subject first impresses me with
the idea, what an intense thing is
church affection. Seize the Dridle 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 life. No.
Nehemiah will not stop. He at last
tails us the whole story. He lets us
know he was an exile in far distant
land, and he was servant, a cupbear,
er in the palace of Artaxerxes Lopgi.
manus, and one day, while he was
handing the cup of wine to the king
the king said to him. "What is the
matter with you2 You are not sick.
I know you must have some great
trouble. What is the matter with
you9" 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