St. Tammany farmer., 1901-08-31
CHRIST BRINGS JOY.
Dr.. Talmage Corrects Some False
Notions About Religion.

Sermon Drawn from the Story Of
King Solomon and the Queen of
sheba-ReligiousW Ways Are
Ways of Pleasantness.
Copyright, 1901. by Louis Klopsch. N. u
Washington,
In this discourse DR.. Talmage cor
rects some of the false notions about
religion and represents it as being
Joy inspiring instead of dolorous;
text, Chronicles, $50: "Of spices
great abundance; neither was there
any such spice as the queen of Sheba
gave King Solomon"
What IS that building out yonder
gltter11g in the sun? Have you not
heard: It is the house of the forest
of Lebanon. King Solomon has just
taken to it his bride, the princess OF
Egypt. You see the pillars of the
portico and !: great tower, adorned
with 1000 shields of gold hung on
the outside of the tower-500 of the
shields of gold manufactured at Sol
omon's order, 500 were captured by
David, his father, in battle. See how
they blaze in the MONDAY sun!
Solomon goes up the ivory stairs
of his throne between IL lions in
statuary and sits down. on the back
of the golden bull, the head OF the
huge beast turned toward the people.
The family and the attendants of the
king are SO many that the caterers OF
the palace have to provide every day
100 sheep and 13 oxen, besides the
birds and the venison. I hear the
stamping and paving of 1000 fine
horses in the royal stables. There
were important officials who had
charge of the work of gathering the
straw and the barley for these
horses. King Solomon was an early
riser, tradition says, and used to take
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
cavalcade dashed through the streets
of Jerusalem, I suppose it was some
thing worth getting up at five 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 strut
ted the basaltic walk, and apes chat
tered in the trees, and deer stalked
the parks, and there were aquariums
with foreign fish and aviaries with
foreign birds, and tradition says
these birds were 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 a great rep
utation for the conundrums and rid
dies that he made and guessed. He
and King Hiram, his neighbor, 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 wealth of their king and
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 messen-
gers with a few riddles that she
- G11ovoo co1rn
a few puzzles that she would like to
have him find out. She sent, among
other things, to King Solomon a dia-
mond with hole so small that
needle could not penetrate it, asking
him to thread that diamond, and Sol
omon 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 goblet to Solomon, asking
him to fill 1t with water that did not
pour from the sky and that did not
rush out from the earth, and imme-
diately Solomon put a slave on the
back of a swift horse and galloped
him around and around the park un-
til the horse was nigh exhausted,
and from the perspiration 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. I'm
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: "I'll just go and Sc him for
myself" Yonder it comes-the caval-
and dromedaries, chari-
OTIS and charioteers, jingling harness
and gathering hoofs and blazing
shields and flying ensigns and clap
ping cymbals. The place is saturated
with the perfume. She brings Gin
namon and saffron and calamus and
and all manner of sweet
spices. AS the retinue sweeps through
the gate the armed guard inhales the
aroma. "Halt!" cry the charioteers
as the wheels grind the gravel in
front of the pillared portico of the
king. Queen Balkis alights in an at