opened to you." Take the Kingdom of Heaven by violence. Urge on the
camels!

Again, my subject impresses me with the fact that religion is a
surprise to any one that gets it. This story of the new religion in
Jerusalem, and of the glory of King Solomon, who was a type of
Christ--that story rolls on and on, and is told by every traveler
coming back from Jerusalem. The news goes on the wing of every ship
and with every caravan, and you know a story enlarges as it is retold,
and by the time that story gets down into the southern part of Arabia
Felix, and the Queen of Sheba hears it, it must be a tremendous story.
And yet this queen declares in regard to it, although she had heard so
much and had her anticipations raised so high, the half--the half was
not told her.

So religion is always a surprise to any one that gets it. The story of
grace--an old story. Apostles preached it with rattle of chain;
martyrs declared it with arm of fire; death-beds have affirmed it with
visions of glory, and ministers of religion have sounded it through
the lanes, and the highways, and the chapels, and the cathedrals. It
has been cut into stone with chisel, and spread on the canvas with
pencil; and it has been recited in the doxology of great
congregations. And yet when a man first comes to look on the palace of
God's mercy, and to see the royalty of Christ, and the wealth of this
banquet, and the luxuriance of His attendants, and the loveliness of
His face, and the joy of His service, he exclaims with prayers, with
tears, with sighs, with triumphs: "The half--the half was not told
me!"

I appeal to those in this house who are Christians. Compare the idea