The Caucasian. (Shreveport, La.) 1900-192?, 1905-01-31

Prussia. lift before your eyes til.
beautiful diamonds and pearls which
the Hohenzollern queens have worn To-
F.: generations. Then say to you, "WheI
the eldest daughter Of Queen Victoris
married the Crown Prince Frederick
she wore these gems" What woul6
you answer? "Ah,' you would reply
'her wedding dress must have beer
made of very expensive material t.
have been appropriate for such adorn
ments as those" Suppose should tel
| 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 garment made en-
tirely Of silver threads and that Pliny
the younger wrote Of Roman lady
who had a dress made up entirely Of
the apparel Of the ancients were so ex-
pensive, we can understand why Scion
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 sense mean to the oriental mind.
As 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 eassia." Myrrh was one Of
the treasures Of the east. When the
wise men came to bow at the manager.
what expensive presents did they
bring?' Gold and frankincense and
myrrh. These oriental sages would not
have offered to king a present OF
myrrh unless it had been of great
value. DR.. Kitto tells us this: "Myrrh
was offered In presents, as natural
products were in those days, because
such as were procured from distant
countries were very rare In the same
way we often hear Of rare animal
or bird being presented to royalty in
thee present day." sThe aloes of
Cochin China" wrote DIR. Faussatt,
'.are worth their weight In gold" The
value Of cassia also was enormous. It
was used. as DR.. McClintock In
forms us, as an ingredient in the cost
lest ungIents. When the psalmist
tells us that Christ's wedding garments
smell of myrrh and aloes and cassia we
know that he means us to understand
how precious they will be.
Let us consider what makes them
precious They are the glory of our
Lord. He will wear them in JOY and
gratitude for the sacrifices his people
have made in his cause. They are GO
ing to cost all the moneys we give to
our churches and to our reformatory
institutions. We must give this money
for Christ's robes. He bids us give.
They are going to cost all the moneys
we send to foreign missions. Go
teach 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
shed In the past All. now the es-
pense of those wedding robes Is rolling
up. II the dead body of a common Ia
borer slain by an express traia IN NeH
York state is worth 5000, how mach
must have been worth the n1artyre,
blood OF Paul, q Peter. a Stephen.
Polycarp, Justin Martyr, i aay9I;t
rola, Ridley. an Eiphege, a Giieyl i,
Muller. John Rogers, Lawrence Saz
ders, John Harper, Breboeuf, a Fl,
lermand and of the thousands and Ii
tens Of thousands Of men and wo.ns
slain by sword and spear uni b;;tssit
az or burned at the stake and tortuis
with untold agonies In many chr
bers Of horrors!" God alone can ....ast
how the value of Christ's Wedding g.
ments Is increasing.
The Supreme Cost.
But the supreme element in the coz
Of those wedding garments is the hIoa
Of Christ himself. It was b. his or.
suffering and death that he won It.
right te wear them. Do YOU Wonsie
that Isaiah when in prophetic visio..
be sees these wedding robes describe;
them by their color-the color of the
bloody sacrif1cei who Is this Grief
be, chat cometh from Edom with dyed
garments from Bozrah-this that IS
glorious In his apparel? Wherefore
art thou red In thine apparel and thy
like him that treadeth in the
wine yats' All. my friends. am glad
.oday we can talk about the royal Grim
non and not the royal purple Of Christ's
wedding garments. am glad that