The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1899-08-04
THE IVORY PALACES.
DR.. Talmage on the Glories of the
World to Come.
The Attractiveness of Christ, Who
Opens the Way for His Faithful
FOlIOwers-The Christians
Guide to Heaven.
copyright. 1899, Louis Klopsch.l
Nyacbinu4an T,,Ix,

forth the glories of the world to come
and the attractiveness of the Christ,
who opens the way; text, Psalms, ASS:
"All thy garments smell Of myrrh and
aloes and cassia out of the ivory pal
aces
Among the grand adornments of the
city of Paris is the church of Notre
Dame, with its great towers and elab-
crate rose windows and scupturing of
the last judgment, with the trumpet
ing angels and rising dead; its battle
ments of quatre foil; its sacristy, with
ribbed ceiling and statutes of saints.
But there was nothing in all that great
building which more wildly appealed
to my plain republican tastes than the
costly vestments which lay in oaken
presses-robes that had been embroid-
cred with gold and been worn by popes
and archbishops on great occasions.
There was a robe that had been worn
by Plus VII. at the crowning of the
first Napoleon. There was also a vest
ment that had been worn at the bap-
tism of Napoleon II. AS our guide
opened the oaken presses and brought
out these vestments of fabulous cost
and lifted them up the fragrance of the
pungent aromatics in which they had
been preserved filled the place with a
sweetness that was almost oppressive.
Nothing that had been done in stone
more wildly impressed me than these
things that had been done in cloth and
embroidery and perfume. But to-day
| open the drawer of this text, and |
look upon the kingly robes of Christ,
and as l lift them, flashing with eter-
nal Jewels, the whole house is filled
with the aroma of these garments,
which ''smeH of myrrh and aloes and
cassia out of the ivory palaces"
In my text the King steps forth. His
robes rustic and blaze as he advances.
His pomp and power and glory over
master the spectator. More brilliant is
He than Queen Vashti, moving amid the
Persian princes; than Marie Antoi-
nette on the day when Louis XIV. put
upon her the necklace of 800 diamonds;
than Anne Boleyn the day when Henry
VIII. welcomed her to his palace-alI
beauty and all pomp forgotten while
we stand in the presence of this i'm
perial glory, King of Zion, King of
earth, King of Heaven, King forever!
His garments not worn out, not dust
bedraggled, but radiant, and jeweled,
and redolent. 1t seems as if they must
have been pressed a hundred years
amid the flowers of Heaven. The
wardrobes from which they have been
taken must have been sweeter
with clusters of campfire, and franklin
cense, and all manner of precious wood.
Do you not inhalc the odors? Aye, aye,
''They smell of myrrh and aloes and
cassia out of the ivory palaces"
Your first curiosity is to know why
the robes of Christ are odorous with
myrrh. This was a bright-leafed Abys-
sinian plant. 1t was trifoliated. The
Greeks, Egyptians, Romans and Jews
bought and sold it at high price. The
first present that was ever given to
Christ was a sprig of myrrh thrown on
His infantile bed in Bethlehem, and the
last gift that Christ ever had was
myrrh pressed into the cup of His cru
cifXion. The natives would take a
stone and bruise the tree, and then it
would exude a gum that would saturate
all the ground beneath. This gum was
used for purposes of merchandise. One
piece of it no larger than chestnut
would whelm a whole room with odors.
1t was put in closets, in chests, in draw
ers, in rooms, and its perfume adhered
almost interminably to anything near
it. So when in my text l read that
Christ's garments smell of myrrh l i'm
mediately conclude the exquisite sweet
ness of Jesus.
! know that to many He is only like
any historical person-another John
Howard, another philanthropic Ober-
lin, another Confucius, grand subject
for a painting, a heroic theme for
poem, beautiful form for a statue,
but to those who have heard His voice
and felt His pardon and received His
benediction He is music and light and
warmth and thrill and eternal fra
GRANGE, sweet as a friend sticking to
you when all else betray, lifting you up
while others try to push you down, not
so much like morning glories that
bloom only when the sun is coming up,
nor like -four o'clocks,' that bloom
only when the sun is going down, but
like myrrh, perpetually aromatic, the
same morning, noon and night, yester-
day, to-day, forever. 1t seems as if we
cannot wear Him out. We put on Him
all our burdens and afflict Him with
all our griefs and set Him foremost in
all our battles, and yet He is ready to
lift and to sympathize and to help. We
have so imposed upon Him that one
would think in eternal affront He
would quit our soul, and yet to-day He
addresses us with the same tenderness,
dawns upon us with the same smile,
pities US with the same compassion.
There is no name like His for us. 1t
is more imperial than Caesars, more
musical than Beethoven's. more con-
quering than Charlemagne's, more elo-
quent than Cicero's. 1t throbs with all
life. 1t weeps with all pathos. II
groans with all pain. 1t stoops with all
condescension. 1t breathes with all
perfume. Who like Jesus to set
broken bone, to pity a homeless or
phan. to nurse a sick man. TO take
prodigal back without any scolding, to
illumine cemetery all plowed with
graves, to make a queen unto God out
Of the lost woman, to catch the tears of
human sorrow in a laehTymatory that
shall never be broken? Who has such