Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1884-12-15
TALMAGE TALKSINTEXAS
" REACTIONS OF GOOD AND
EVIL" THE HIS TEXT,

EVIL THE HIS TENT.
galveston Turns Out En- Masse to Hear
Him-The History of the World Going
IN Circle-Bad Deeds which are Re-
turned with Interest.
GALVESTON, TEXAS, Dec. 14.-Dr. T.
Dewitt Talmage, the celebrated Brooklyn
divine, preached his first sermon in the
State of Texas this season to-day, his
subject being "Reactions of Good and
Evil Thousands f1Ocked to hear him.
and such an enormous audience has
rarely been seen in Texas. After an in
troductOry religious hymn DR.. Talmage
announced his text from Isaiah xl., -:
SIT is He that sitteth upon the circle of
the EARTH" The reverend gentleman
said:
While yet people thought that the world
| was Hat and thousands of wears before thpv
found ont thatit was round. Isaiah, in nv
| text, intlmated the shape of it-GOd sitting
| upon the circle of the earth. The most beau
@ @tlfui figure in all geometry is the circle. God
| made the universe on the plan of a circle.
| There are IN the natural world straight lines
angles, parallelOgrams, diagonals, quad
RANGES; but these evidently are not Gods IA
| VOrltes. Almost everywhere where you find
MN geometrlzng you find the circle dOml-
| nant, and If not the circle then the curve
,; which is circle that died young! If it had
| hyed long enough it would have been a full
orb, periphery. An elipse is a circle
! pressed only little too hard at the sides
| GIANTS CauseWay IN Ireland shows what God
| thinks of mathematics. There are over So, 900
| columns of rocks-Octagonal, heXagonal, pen
| tagonal. These rocks seem to have been
made by rule and by compass. Every artist
| has his moulding room where he NAV make
| so shapes; but he chooses one shape as prpfer
| able to all the others. / will not saw that the
slant Causeway was the worlds moulding
room' but do say out of great many figures
| COD seems to have selected the circle as the
| best. ut is lie that sitteth the circle of
| the earth" D" The stars in a circle, the moon
| IN circle, the sun in circle the universe in
| circle, and the throne of God the centre of
| that circle.
When men build churches they ought to
| initiate the idea of the Great Architect and
| put the audience in circle, knowing that the
| tides OF emotion roll more easily that Way
! than IN straight lines. Six Thousand years
| ago God flung this world out of His right
| nand; but He did not throw it out in a straight
| line, but curylllnear with a leash of love
holding 1t so as to bring it back again. The
| world started from His hand, pure and
Edenlc; 1t has been rolling on through re-
| VIII roll God only knows; but it will in due
| time make a complete circuit and come back
| to the place where it started-the hand of God
pure and Edence.
The history of the world goes in a circle,
| why is 1t that the shipping in our day is i'm
proving SO rapidly? 1t is because men are
/ h
| ship carpenter gives that as his opinion. AL
| though SO much derided by small wits, that
| snip OF Noah's time beat the Gallia and the
| Arizona, of which we boast so much Where
| is the ship on the sea to-day that could out
| ride deluge in which the heaven and the
earth were wrecked, landing all the passen-
| gers in safety-two of each kind of living
| creatures, thousands of species? PomOlOgy
| Will go on with its achievements until after
| many centuries the werld will have plums
and pears equal to the paradsaical. The art
n VyglI for.
after the DOwnings and MitchelIs of the world
have done their best in the far future the art
OF gardening will come up tic, the arbores-
| cence of the year l. If the makers of coIOred
glass go on improving, they may in
| some centuries be able to make
something equal to the east window of York
Minister, which was built in 1890. We are
| six centuries behind those artists. but the
| world must keep on toiling until it shall make
the complete circuit, and come up to the skill
| OF those very men. If the world continues to
improve in masonry we shall have after
awhile, perhaps after the advance of cen
| turles, mortar equal to that which | once saw
IN the wall of an eXhumed English city built
In the time of the Romans, l,GOO years ago
that mortar to-day as good as the day in
Whlch IL was made, having Outlasted the
brick and the stone. say, after hundreds of
years masonry may advance to that
point. If the world stands long enough we
may have city as large as they had IN old
times. Babylon five times the size of London.
Ou go into the p0tterles of England and you
lind them making cups and vases after the
style of the cups and vases exhumed from
Pompeii. The world Is not going back. Oh,
no; but 1T Is swinging in a circle and will
come back to the styles of pottery known so
long ago as the days of POmpeii The world
must keep on progressing until it makes the
complete circuit. The curve is in the right
direction; the curve will keen on until If he
comes the circle.
Well now, my friends, what is true in the
material universe is true in Gods moral gov
ernment and spiritual arrangement. That is
the meaning of EZekiels wheel. All com
mentators agree in saying that the wheel
means Gods providence. But a wheel is of
no use unless 1t turn, and if 1t turn, it turns
around, and if it turn around, it moves in a
circle. What then? Are we parts of a great
iron machine whirled around whether we
Will or not, the victims of ineXOrable fate?
No! So far from that, / will show Won that
we ourselves start the circle of good or bad
actions, and that 1t will surely come around
again to us unless by divine intervention it be
hlndered. Those bad or good actions NAV
make the circuit of many years. but come
back to us they will as certainly as that God
sits on the circle of the earth JezebeI the
worst woman of the Bible, slew Naboth be-
cause she wanted his vineyard. While the
dogs were eating the body of NabOth. Elisha
the prophet put down his compass, and
marked circle from those dogs clear around
to the dogs that should eat the body of
JeZebel, the murderess. 'Impossiblep' the
people said; THAT will never happen" Who
IS that being flung out of the palace window?
JeZebel. A few hours after they came around
hoping to bury her. They find only the palms
OF her hands and the skull? The dogs that
devOured Jezebel and the dogs that deVoured
Naboth. Oh, what a swift, what an awful
circuit!
But it is sometimes the case that this circle
sweeps through century or through many
centuries. The world started with a theocra-
cy for government; that is, God was the
President and Emperor of the world. People
got tired of a theOcracy. They said: ssWe
don't want God directly interfering with the
affairs of the world; give us a monarchv.,
One world had a monarchy. From a mon
archy 1t IS gong to have a limited monarchy.
After awhile the limited monarchy will be
given up and the republican form of govern
ment Will be everywhere dominant and rec
ognized. Then the world will get tired of a
republican form of government and 1t will
have an anarchy, which is no government at
all. And then, all nations finding out that
man is not capable of righteOusly governing
man, Will cry out again for theocracy and
say: Let God come back and conduct the
affairs of the world" Every step-monarchv
limited monarchy, republicanism, anarchy
only dlnerent steps between the first theOcra-
cy and the last theocracy, or segments of the
great circle of the earth on which God sits
But do not become impatient because you
cannot see the curve of events, and there
fore conclude that Gods government
is going to break down. History tells us that
in the making of the pyramids it took 9 OCO
men two years to drag one great stone from
the quarry and put it into the pyramids.
Well, now, If men shOrt-liYed can afford to
work as slowly as that, cannot God in the
building of the eternities afford to wait?
draw circle? Shall we take our little watch
which we have to wind up every night LEST
it run down, and hold it up beside the clock
of eternal ages2 If, according to the Bible. a
/ thousand years are in Gods sight as one day,
then according to that calculation the 5000
years of the worlds existence has been only
to God as from Monday to SATURDAY. Rut il
IS often the case that the rebound is quicker
and the circle sooner completed.
You resolve that you will do what
put word Of counsel in the heart cart
of a Sabbath school child. During that
same week you give letter of introduction
to young man struggling in business. Dur
in prayer meeting. 1t is all gone. You will
never hear of it, perhaps, you think a few
years after man comes up to you and saws:
You don't know me, do you?" You
say; mo mo; don't t.,s remember ever to
was in the Sabbath school class over
which you were the teacher; one Sunday
you invited me to Christ; accepted the offer
You see that church with two towers yonder?"
YES" you say. He says, that is where
house9 that is where l live" One day a man
comes to you and says: GOOD morning."
You look at him and say: '.Why, you have the
advantage of me. cannot place
member 80 years ago giving a letter of
introduction to young mana letter Of in
PRODUCTION to Moses III. Grinnell?" "Yes, yes,
| do" He says: 81 am the man; that was my
first step toward a fortune; but have retired
from business now and am giving my time to
philanthrOpies and public interests Come
up to my country seat and see me-" Or a man
comes to you and says: Il want to introduce
myself to yOu l went into prayer meeting
some years ago; sat back by the door; you
arose to make an eXhortatlon; that talk
changed the course of my life, and if 1 ever
get to heaven under God will oUa NV salvo