W—— REV. DR. TALMACE. The Eminent Brooklyn Divine's Sun. day Sermon. Subject: * The Glories of the Christian Religion.” Text: "“Beliold, the half was not told me.” Kings x., 7. Solomon bad resolved tlmat should be the centre of all sacred, regal and commercial magnificence, He set himself to work and monopolized the surrounding desert as a highway for his caravans. He built the city of Palmyra around one of the |[rineipal wells of the east, so that all tho ong trains of merchandise from the east were obliged to stop there, pay toll and leave part of their wealth in the hands of Bolomon's merchants, He manned tas fortress Thapsacus at the chief ford of the Euphrates, and put under guard everything that passed there, The thres great products of Palestine wine pressed from the richest clusters, and delebrated ail the world over: oii, which in that country is the eatire substitute for bat ‘ter and lard, and was pressed from the olive branches until every tree in the country be- came an oil well, and honey which was the entire substitute for sugar--these three great products of the country Solomon ex- por and received in return fruits and precious woods and the animals of every clime. He went down to Ezion-gebar and ordered a fleet of ships to be constructed, oversaw the workmen, and watched the launching of the flotilla which was to go out on more than a year's voyage to bring home the weaith of the then known world. He heard that the Egyptian horses were large and swift, and ng maned and round Jimbed, and he re. solved to purcaass them, giving eighty-five dollars apiecs tor them, putting the best of these horses in his own stall and selling the warping to foreign potentatas at great profit, He neard that there was the best ol tim. ber on Mount Lebanon, and he sent one hundred and eighty thousand men to hew down the forest and drag the timber through the mountain gorges, to construct it into rafts to be floated to Joppa, and from thenze to be drawn by ox teams twenty-five miles across the land to Jerusalem. He heard that there were beautiful flowers in other lands, He sent for them, planted them in his own rdens, and to this very day there are owers found in the ruins of that city such as are to be found in no other part of Pales-. tine, the lineal descendents of the very flowers that Solomon planted. He heard that in foreign groves there were birds of richest voice and most luxuriant wing. He sent out people to catch them and bring them there, and he put them into his cages. Stand back now and see this long train of camels coming pup king's gate, and the ox trains from Egypt, gold and silver and precious stones, and beasts of every hoof, and birds of every wing, and fish cf every scale! Ses the peacocks strut under the cedars, and the horsemen run and the char iots wheel! Hear the orchestra! Gaze upon the dance! Not stopping to look into the wonders of the temple, step right on the causeway and pass up to Solomon's palace, Here we find ourselves amid a collection of buildings on which the king had lavished the wealth of many empires. The genius of Hiram, the architect, and the other artists is here seen in the long line of corri- dors, and the suspended gallery, and the ap- proach to the throne. Traceried window opposite traceried window. Bronzsd oroa- ments busting into lotus and lily and pome. granate., Chapiters surrounded by network of leaves in which imitation fruit seemed nded as in hanging baskets, hree branches—so Josephus tells us— three branches sculptured on the marble, so thin and subtle that even the leaves seemed toquiver. A laver capable of holding five hundred barrels of water on six hundred brazen ox heads, which gushed with water and filled the whole place with coolness and crystalline brightness and musical plash, Ten tables chased with chariot wheel and lion and cherubim. Solomon sat on a throne of ivory. Atthe seating place of the throne, on each end of the steps, a brazen Jion, Why, my friends, in thas place they trimmed their candles with snuffers of gold, and they cut their fruits with knives of gol i, and they washed their faces in basins Of gold, and they scooned out the ashes with shovels of gold, and they stirred the altar fires with tongs of gold. Gold reflected in the water! Gold flashing {from the apparsi! Gold blaz. ing in the crown! Gold! gold! gold! + Of course the news of the affluence of that place went out everywhere by every cara- van and by wing of every ship, until soon the streets of Jerusalem are erowlded wit curiosity seekers What is that long pro cession approaching Jerusalem? [I think from the pomp of it thers must be royaity in the train. [smell the breath of the spices which are brought as presents, and 1 hear the shout of the drivers aud I ses the dust covered caravan showing that they come from far away. Cry the news up to the palace, The Queen of Sheba advances, Let all the people come out to see. Lot the wighty men of the land come out on the palace corridors. Let Solomon come down the stairs of the palace before the Queen has nlighted, Shake out the cinnamon and ths ir and the caiamuw and the frankin. cence and pass it into the treasure house, Take up the diamoads until toey glitter ia the sun. ! The Queen of Sheba alighta, She enters the palace. Nbe washes at the bath, Bhe sits down at the banquet. The cupbearers bow. The mmeatsmokes, You hear the dash of waters from moitensen, Then she rises from the banquet, and walks through the conservatories, ant gazss ox the archi tecture, and sh» asks Solomon many strange questions, and she learns about the religion of the Hebrews, aac d she then and there be comas a servant of the Lord Gof, She is overwhelmed, Nhe begins to think that ail the spices sha brought, ani all the precious words which are intended to ba turned into harps ani psaiteries and into railings for the causeway between the tempie and ths paiscs, and tae ons hundred and eighty thousand dollars in money—-shs beging to think that all amount to nothing in such a place and she is almost ashamad that she has brouzht them, and she says within hersel: { heard a great deal about this wonderful religion of the Hebrews but I flad it far bayond my highest anticipations. | must add more that fifty per cat. to what has been re lated, have expected, told me." Learn from this subject what a baaatiful | thing It is woen social position and wealth | surrender themselves to God. When religion comes to a neighborhood, the first to recsive | it are the women. Some men say it is be. cause they are weakminded. [ say it is be cause they have quicker perception of what | is right, mors ardent aff action and capacity | for sablimer enotion. Aftar tos women have yetetyad ths Gospel then all the dis | tressad and the poor of bath sexes, those who have no friends, Jesus, Last of ail come the people of affluence and high social Alas, that it is wo! If there are thoss here to-day why have been favored of fortune, or, as | might bet ter put it, favored of God, surrender ali you have and all expact to be to the Lord who blessed Queen of Bhebs, Certainly Jou arg not ashamed to be fouul in this ueen's company. I am glad that Chriss has had His im arial friends in all a J Elizabath Christina, quem of Prussia; Peodorovna, queen 0. Russia; Marie, aria Preset France; Relena, the imp arial moth. er of Constantine, Arca ia, trom her great in Coaints BE of the IE Her itaatusisd warriors my a eg Bar gun, gloveto a r an She dis- ing” log ot es lng em Vieto Ee vndl0r atin Beniptures to a % pauper, Jerusalem of The balf—the half was not | I bless God that the day is coming when royalty will bring all its throns, anl music all its harmonies, anl painting all its pic. tars, and sculpture all its st Ataary, an l architecture all its pitlars, and ¢rugquast all its scepters; and the quésns of the earth, in long line of advance, irankincense filling the ani tha Kaba snall by | oistod, and the great burda: a ol splen lor stall be lifted into tae palacs of tals graawer than Solomon. Again, my subject teachar ma w. ant 1s know where Shaba was? It was in Abys Arabia Felix. In either way off from Jerusalem, to Sven by sha hat to cross fested with bandits and go azross deserts. Why did not the Queen of To go from thers a country in- blistering and religion aal She wanted to ges for herself ani hear for herself, Sas could not do this by work She felt she had a soul worth Shaba, and she any woven by wantel a crown Bring out ton thousand kingdoms like wantel a robs richer than oriental shutties, and she set with ths jewels of eternity. tho camels. [Put on the spices the jewels of the throne and put them on the Start now, No tims to be lost, When 1 see that cara- van, dust covered, weary an'l exhausted, trudging on across the desert and amoag the ban its until it reaches J srasalom, say, “hero is an earnest seeker after the truth,’ But there ars a great many of you, my friends, who do not act in tha way. You all want to get the truth, but yoa want the truth to come to you; you do nor want to go to it, There are people who fold their arms *[ am ready to become a Christian at any time, Ahl Jerusalem will never coms to you; you must go to Jerusalem, Tha roaligion of the Lord Jesus Christ will not come to you; you must go and gat religion. e= gels, Pat on all ths sweet spices, all the treasures of the heart's affection, the throne, Go inani haar the waters of salvation dashing in fouatains all around about the throne, Sitdown at ths banquet —the wine pressad from the grapes of the heavenly Eschol, the angels ol bearers, Goad on thas camels; come to you; you must go to Jerusalem. The Bible declares it: “The queen of ths gsouth”—that is, this very woman [ am speak- ing of—*'the quasen ot the soutss shall rise up in judg rment against this generation and condemn it; for sha came from th» uttermost parts of the earth to hear the wisdom o Solomon: and, behold! a greater than Bolo mon is here.” God bh sip me to break up the intatuation of thos people who are sitting in idiensss expecting to be saved, in at the straight gate, Jerusalem will nevar “Strive to enter ws hicaven opened to you." Take the kingdom ol by vio Again, fact that religion is a surprise that gots it. This story of the new religion in Jerusalem, and of the ry of King 8 mon, Woo was u type of Christ-——-ihat story rolls on and on and is told by coming back from Jerusalem The news goss on the wing of every shin and with my sus et impresses me with the tO any one NOLO. every caravan, andl yoa know a story en larzes as it is retold, and by time that story gets down into the soutsera part of Arabia Felix, and ths Queena of Sheba hears it, it must be a tremen ious story, And yet this queon declares in regard to it, althouga she had heard so much and had her antici pations raised so bizh, the ha!f-——the half was not told ber So religon is always a surprise to any one that gets it. The story of grace un old story. Apostles preached it with rattie of caaln; martyrs declare : it with arm of fire; deathbeds have affirmed it with visions of glory and ministers of religion have sonaded it through the lanes and tas highways and the chapeis and toe cat edrais. It has been ito stone with caisel and spread on toe canvas with pencil, and it has been recited in ths d- RY of great congregats And yet waen a man first comiss and to the the palace of God's royalty of Christ, and the wealth of this banquet, an i the luxuriancs of His attend. ants, and the Joviiomss of His face, and the Joy of Hs service, he e ns with pravers, with tears, with signs with tris an pas, “Toe batl-~ine hall was not told ms 1 appeal to those in this houses who are Christians, Compare the iden had the joy of the U tt 3 ile belore you be crmes Christian with the appreciation of that joy you have now since you hava be come a Christian, and you are willing to at. test belore an vis and men that you neve the days of your spiritusl boadage had any appreciation of waat was to come. Youare ready to