The Leon reporter. (Leon, Iowa) 1887-1930, 1901-08-08

Queen of sheba Gave King Solomon
II Chronicles TX: o.
Copyright, 1901, by Louis Klopsch. N. VI
Washington, Aug. Ain this dis
course DR.. Talmage corrects come of
the false notions about religion and
represents it as being joy inspiring in
stead of dolorous. Text H. Chronicles
TX, 9: "Of spices great abundance;
neither was there any such spice as
the queen Of Sheba gave King Solo
| mon"
What is that building out yonder
glittering in the sun? Have you not
heard? 1t 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 por-
tico and great tower, adorned with
1000 shields of gold hung on the out
side Of the tower-50O of the shields of
gold manufactured at Solomons or
der, 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 twelve 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 thirteen oxen, besides
the birds and the venison. 1 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, ira
dition 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
of Jerusalem I suppose it was some
thing worth getting up at 5 o'clock in
the morning to look at.
Seeing for Oneself.
Queen Balkis was so pleased with
the acuteness of Solomon that she said,
'I'll just go and see him for myself"
Yondon it comes-the cavalcade-
| horses and dromedaries, charots and
charioteers, jingling harness and clat-
| terink; hoofs and blazing shields and
| flying ensigns and clapping cymbals.
| The place is saturated with the per-
fume. She brings cinnamon and SAT-
from and calamus and frankincense
and all manner of sweet spices. AS
the retinue sweeps through the gate
the armed guard inhales the aroma
Haiti" cry the charioteers, 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 drom-
edaries are driven up to the kings
storehouses, and the bundles of cam
phor are unloaded, and the sacks of
cinnamon and the boxes of spices are
| opened, the purveyors 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
theologians agree in making Solomon
type of Christ and in making the
queen of Sheba a type of every truth
seeker, and I will take the RESPONSE
bility of saying that all the spikenard
and cassia and frankincense which the
queen of Sheba brought to King Solo
mon are nightly suggestive of the
sweet spices of our holy religion.
Christianity is not collection OF
sharp technicalities and angular facts
and chronological tables and dry sta
tistics. Our religion is compared to
frankincense and to cassia, but never
to nightshade. 1t is a bundle of myrrh
1t is dash of holy light. 1t is a
sparkle of cool fountains. 1t is an
opening Of opaline gates 1t is col
lection of spices Would God that we
were as wise in taking spices to our
Divine King as Queen Balkis was wise
in taking the spices to the earthly Sol
omon
Christ Brings CheerfuIness.
How any woman keeps house with
out the religion of Christ to help her
is mystery to me. To have to spend
the greater part of ones life, as many
women do, in planning for the meals
and stitching garments that will soon
be rent again and deploring breakages
and supervising tardy subordinates
and driving off dust that soon again
will settle and doing the same thing
day in and day out and year in and
year out until the hair silvers and the
back stoops and the spectacles crawl
to the eyes and the grave breaks open
under the thin sole of the shoe-oh, it
is long monotony! But when Christ
comes to the drawing room and com es
to the kitchen and comes to the nuT-
sery and comes to the dwelling, then
how CHEEKY become all womanly du-
ties! She is never alone now. Martha
gets through fretting and joins Mary
at the feet of Jesus. All day long
Debora is happy because she can help
Lapidoth, Hannah because she can
make coat for young Samuel, Miriam
because she can watch her infant
brother, Rachel because she can help
her father water the stock, the widow
of Sarepta because the cruise of oil
is being replenished o woman, hav-
q 7