The Fulton County news. [volume] (McConnellsburg, Pa.) 1899-current, 1901-08-08
INSPIRING RELIGION.
Or. TaImake breaches on Solomon $
Wisdom--swee Spices Of
Christianity.
n couutersets All Trouble .' No Do'orous
Music Needed.


WASHINGTON, ID. Gin this discourse
DR.. Talmage corrects some Of the false
notions about religion, and represents 10
as being Joy inspiring instead of dolorous;
text, II. Chronicles TX, o, "Of spices great
abundance; neither was there any such
spice as the Queen Of sheba gave King
Solomon" -.
What is that building out yondcr, gilt
terinQ in the sun? Have you not heard!
II ia Ia the house Of the forest of Lebanon.
King Solomon has just taken to it his
bride, the Princess of Egypt. You see the
adorned with 1000 shields of gold, hung
on the outside of the tower, 500 Of the
shields of gold manufactured at Solomon's
order; 500 were captured by David, his
father, in battle See how they blaze in
the MONDAY sum
Solomon goes up the ivory stairs OF his
throne, between twelve lions in statuary,
and sits down on the back of the golden
bull. the head OF the huge beast turned to-
ward the people. The family and the at
tendants Of the king are SO many that the
caterers of the palace have to provide
every day 100 sheep and thirteen oxen,
besides the birds and the venison. | hear
the stamping and paving of 1000 fine
horses in the royal stables. There were
importan. officials who had charge. of the
work OF gathering the straw and the bar
lev for these horses. King Solomon was
an early riser, tradition says, and used to
take a ride out at daybreak, and when IN
his white apparel, behind the swiftest
horses Of all the realm and followed by
mounted archers in purple, as the caval-
cade dashed through the streets Of Jeru-
salem / suppose it was something worth
getting up at o'clock in the morning to
look at.
Solomon was not like some Of the kings
of the present day-crowned imbecility.
All the splendors Of his palace and retinue
were eclipsed by his intellectual power.
Why, he seemed to know everything. He
was the first great naturalist the world
ever saw. Peacocks from India strutted
the basaltic walk, and apes chartered in
the trees, and deer stalked the parks, and
there were a1uariums with foreign fish
and aviaries with foreign birds, and tradi.
tion SAYS these birds we're SO well tanned
that solomon might walk clear across the
city under the shadow of their wings as
they lowered and fitted about him.
More than this, he had great reputa-
ton for the conumdrums and riddles that
he made and guessed. He and King Hi
ram, his neghbor, used to sit by the hour
and ask riddles, each one paying IN money
if he could not answer or guess the riddle.
The Solomonic navy visited all the world,
and the sailors, OF course, talked about
the riddles and enigmas that he made and
solved, and the news spread until Queen
Balkis, away off south, heard of it, and
sent messengers with few riddles that
she would like to have Solomon solve. and
a few puzzles that she would like to have
him find out She sent, among other
things, to King Solomon a diamond with
ahole so small that needle could not pen
citrate it, asking him to thread that dia-
mond. And Solomon took worm and
put it at the opening in the diamond and
the worm crawled through, leaving the
thread in the diamond. The queen also
sent a goblet to Solomon. asking him to
fill il with water that did not pour from
the sky and that did not rush out from
the earth, and immediately Solomon put
slave on the back of a swift horse and
galloped him around and around the park
until the horse was nigh exhausted, and
from the perspiraton of the horse the
goblet was filed. She also sent to King
Solomon 500 boys in girls dress and 500
girls in boys dress, wondering if he would
be acute enough to find out the deception.
Immediately Solomon, when he saw them
wash their faces, knew from the way they
applied the water that it was all cheat.
Queen Balkis was so pleased with the
acuteness of Solomon that she said. III
just go and see him for myself" Yonder
it comes-the cavalcadc-horses and dro-
medaries, chariots and charioteers, }ing-
ling harness and gathering hoofs and baz-
ing shields and flying ensigns and clapping
cymbals The place is saturated with the
perfume. She brings cinnamon and saf.
from and calamus and frankincense and all
manner of sweet spices. AS the retinue
sweeps through the gate the armed guard
ioteers as the wheels grind the gravel in
front Of the pillared portico of the king.
Queen Balkis alights in an atmosphere be-
witched with perfume. As the dromeda-
ries are driven up to the kings store
houses and the bundles of camphor are
unloaded and the sacks of cinnamon and
hnwaC al aFa ha
veyors of the palace discover what my text
announces: "Of spices, great abundance
Neither was there any such spice as the
Queen of sheba gave to King solomon"
Well, my friends, you know that all the
ologians agree in making Solomon type
Of Christ, and in making the Queen Of
Sheba a type of every truth seeker, and |
will take the responsibility of saving that
all the spikenard and cassia and franklin
cense which the Queen OF Sheba brought
70 King Solomon is nightly suggestive of
the sweet spices of our. holy religion.
Christianity is not collection OF sharp
technicalities and angular facts and chro-
biological tables and dry statistics.
Our religion is compared to frankincense
and to cassia, but never to nightshade.
II is bundle of myrrh. II is dash of
holy light. 1t is sparkle of cool foun-
tains. 1t is an opening of opaline gates.
1t is a collection of spices. Would God
that we were as wise in taking spices to
our divine King as Queen Ballkis was wise
in taking the spices to the earthly Solo
mon.
The fact is that the duties and cares of
this life, coming to us from time to time,
are stupid often and inane and intolerable.
Here are men who have been battering,
climbing, pounding, hammering for twenty
years. forty years, fifty years. One great,
long drudgery has their life been, their
faces anxious, their feelings benumbed,
their days monotonons. What is neces-
sary to brighten up that mans life and to
sweeten that acid disposition and to put
sparkle into the mans spirits? The spic-
cry Of our holy religion. Why, If between
the losses Of life there dashed the gleam
OF an eternal gain, II between the betray-
als of life there came the gleam Of the un-
dying friendship OF Christ, il in dull times
in business we found ministering spirits
flying to and fro in our Office and store
and shop, everyday life, instead of being
stupid monotone, would be glorious in
spiration, penduluming between calm sat
isfaetion and high rapture.
How any woman keeps house without
the religion of Christ to help her is a
mystery to me. To have to spend the
greater part of ones life, as many women
dos IN planning for the meals, and stitch
ing, garments that will soon be rent again
and deploring breakages, and supervising
tardy subordinates, and driving of dust
that soon again will settle, and doing The
SAINT tning day In and day out and year
IA ana year out until the hair silvers, and
sne PACK sloops, and the spectacles crawl