o be to the Lord who blessed this Queen of Sheba.
Certainly you are not ashamed to be found in this queen's company. I
am glad that Christ has had His imperial friends in all
ages--Elizabeth Christina, Queen of Prussia; Maria Feodorovna, Queen
of Russia; Marie, Empress of France; Helena, the imperial mother of
Constantine; Arcadia, from her great fortunes building public baths in
Constantinople and toiling for the alleviation of the masses; Queen
Clotilda, leading her husband and three thousand of his armed warriors
to Christian baptism; Elizabeth of Burgundy, giving her jeweled glove
to a beggar, and scattering great fortunes among the distressed;
Prince Albert, singing "Rock of Ages" in Windsor Castle, and Queen
Victoria, incognita, reading the Scriptures to a dying pauper.

I bless God that the day is coming when royalty will bring all its
thrones, and music all its harmonies, and painting all its pictures,
and sculpture all its statuary, and architecture all its pillars, and
conquest all its scepters; and the queens of the earth, in long line
of advance, frankincense filling the air and the camels laden with
gold, shall approach Jerusalem, and the gates shall be hoisted, and
the great burden of splendor shall be lifted into the palace of this
greater than Solomon.

Again, my subject teaches me what is earnestness in the search of
truth. Do you know where Sheba was? It was in Abyssinia, or some say
in the southern part of Arabia Felix. In either case it was a great
way off from Jerusalem. To get from there to Jerusalem she had to
cross a country infested with bandits, and go across blistering
deserts. Why did not the Queen of Sheba stay at home and send a
committee to inquire about this new religion, and have the delegates
report in regard to that religion and wealth of King Solomon? She
wanted to see for herself, and hear for herself. She could not do this
by work of committee. She felt she had a soul worth ten thousand
kingdoms like Sheba, and she wanted a robe richer than any woven by
Oriental shuttles, and she wanted a crown set with the jewels of
eternity. Bring out the camels. Put on the spices. Gather up the
jewels of the throne and put them on the caravan. Start now; no time
to be lost. Goad on the camels. When I see that caravan,
dust-covered, weary, and exhausted, trudging on across the desert and
among the bandits until it reaches Jerusalem, I say: "There is an
earnest seeker after the truth."

But the