Milford chronicle., 1905-02-03

Prussia. l lift before your eyes thl
beautiful diamonds and pearls whicl
the Hohenzollern queens have worn fol
generations. Then l say to you, "WheI
the eldest daughter of Queen Victoria
married the Crown Prince Frederick
she wore these gems" What would
you answer? "Ah," you would reply
''her wedding dress must have been
made Of very expensive material to
have been appropriate for such adorn-
ments as those" Suppose should tell
you that when the noted German ar
chaeOlOgist DR. .Schliemann made his ex-
plOratiOns under ancient Troy he found
there the cOstliest of feminine and
masculine adOrnments. There were
Wristbands of gold, earrings Of gold,
bracelets of gold, headbands of gold,
tiaras of precious stones, finger rings
Of gold. "Ah," you say, 'if the ancient
inhabitants of Troy had such rich
Wristbands as these, truly the ancient
dresses and robes must have been of
the most expensive materials" No won
der, then, that Agrippina, wife Of EN-
perOr Claudius, had a robe made en-
tirely Of gold. No wonder, then, Dari-
us. king of the Persians, had golden
mantle with jeweled clasps and with
two great golden war hawks woven in
to the texture. No wonder that among
the royal wardrObes of HerOd the
Great was found a garment made en-
tirely of silver threads and that Pliny
the younger wrote of a Roman lady
who had dress made up entirely Of
precious pearls. If the adornments of
the apparel of the ancients were so ex-
pensive we can understand why SOlOn
and Pythagoras and Cato and Fan
MUS and Didius by "sumptuary laws"
tried to restrict extravaganza in dress.
An Oriental Description.
Now, what gold and silver and pre-
cious stones in dress mean to the west
ern mind myrrh and alOes and cassia
in a sense mean to the oriental mind. |
As l would say to you. Her dress was /
sparkling with jewels" the oriental, to |
depict sumptuOusness and expensive |
ness of apparel, would say, His gar |
ments were aromatic with myrrh and |
aloes and cassia." Myrrh was one of
the treasures of the east. When the !
wise men came to bow at the manger,
what expensive presents did they
bring? Gold and frankincense and
myrrh. These oriental sages would not
have offered to a king a present Of
myrrh unless it had been Of great
value. DR.. Kitto tells us this: "Myrrh
80, in, renf !
products were in those days, because
such as were procured from distant
countries were very rare. In the same
way we often hear of a rare animal
Or bird being presented to royalty in
the present day" "The alOes of
Cochin China" wrote DR.. Faussett,
are worth their weight in gold" The
value of cassia also was enormous. 1t
was used, as DIR. McClintOck in
forms us. as an ingredient in the cost
lest unguents. When the psalmist
ellis us that Christs wedding garments
smell Of myrrh and aloes and cassia we
know that he means US to understand
low precious they will be.
Let us consider what makes them
DIttlOuS. 4lty dlC INT SloAg VI Jul
Lord. He will wear them in joy and
gratitude for the sacrifices his people
have made in his cause They are go
ng to cost all the moneys we give to
our churches and to our refOrmatOry
We must give this money
Tor Christs robes. He bids us give.
They are gOiNg to cost all the moneys !
we send to foreign missions. go
each all men" is the Bible command.
Not only have they cost money, but
blood. They are going to cost all the
blood of the martyrs which has been
she'd in the past. All, now the ex-
)ense of those wedding robes is rolling
lp. If the dead body of a common la
JOrer slain by an express train in New
York state is worth $1,000. how much
must have been worth the martyred
Hood of a Paul. a Peter. a Stephen,
oolycarp, a Justin Martyr a Savona-
ola, a Ridley, an Elphege, a Gileyn de
fuller, John Rogers, Lawrence San
ers, a John Harper, a Breboeuf, a Lal- !
ermand and of the thousands and the
ems of thousands of men and women I
lain by sword and spear and battle
x or burned at the stake and tortured
With untold agOnies in many "cham-
,ers Of hOrrOrsp God alone can know
low the value of Christ's wedding gar {
nents is increasing.