The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1886-09-10
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
A Discourse on the Inevitable Sc
quences ofGood and Evil Deeds.
Circles as the Type of Perfection-An
Things Moving in Orbits, Departure
from Which Means Ruin-The
Nemesis of Sin.

Rev. r. Dewitt Talmage, in a recent
sermon et "The Hamptons' chose for his
suh5ecu "The Sequences of Good and Evil
Deeds" taking for his text:
eis he that sftteth upon the circle of the
earth.-ISaish XII, %.
While yet people thought that the world
was fat, and thousands of years before
they found out that it was round, Isaiah
in my tsxt intimated the shape of it, God
si151ng upon the circle of the earth. The
most beautiful figure in all geometry is the
circle. God made the universe on the
plan of circle. There are in the natural
world straight lines, angles, parallelo-
grams, diagonals, quadrangles; but these
evidently are not Gods favorites. Almost
everywhere where you fnd him geometriz-
ing you find the circle dominant, and if
not the circle then the curve, which is a
circle that died young. If it had lived
long enough it would have been a fun orb,
a periphery. An ellipse is a circle pressed
only a little too hard at the sices.
Giants Causeway in Ireland shows
what God thinks of mathematics.
There are over thirty-tive thousand
columns Of rocks-octagonal, hexagons,l,
pentagonal. These rocks seem to have
been made by ruleand by compass. Every
artist has his moldng groom where he may
make fifty shapes, but he chooses one shape
as preferable to all others. I viii not say
that the Giants Causeway was the
worlds moldine-room, but do say out OF
great many figures God seems to have
selected the circle as the best.
It is He that sitteth on the circle of the
earth.
The ~+a~- - - o;rcIa 4bo ,,oov, IN n c;r
Gle, the sun in circle, the universe in a
circle, and the throne of God the center 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 hand; but He did no throw it out in
a straight line but curvilinear, with lease
of love holding it so as to bring it back
again. The world started from His hand
pure and Edenic. It has been rolling on
through regions of moral ice and distem-
per. How long it viii roll God only
knows; but it will in due time make COM
plete circuit and come back to the place
where it started-the hand of God, pure
and Edenic.
The history of the world goes on in a
circle. Why is it the shipping in our day
is improving so rapidly? It is because
men are initiating the old model of Noah's
art. A ship carpenter gives that as his
opinion. Although so much derided by
small wits, that ship of Noah's time beat
the Etruria and the Germanic, of which
we boast so much. Where is the ship on
the sea to-day that could outride a deluge
in which the heaven and the earth were
wrecked, landing all the passengers in
safety, two of each kind of living crea-
lures, thousands OF species? Pomology
will go on with its achievements until
after many centuries the world will have
plums and pears equal to the Paradisai-
cal. The art of gardening will grow for
centuries, and after the Downings and
Mitchells of the world have done their
best, in the far future the art Of garden
ing will come up to the arborescene of the
year 1. If the makers of colored glass go
on improving they may in some centuries
be able to make some hing equal to the
east window of Yorkminster, 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 i'm
prove in masonry we shall have after
awhile, perhaps after the advance Of cen
turies, mortar equal to that which /
saw in the wall Of an ex-
humed English city, built in
the time of the Romans, /, 900 years ago
that mortar to-day as good as the day in
which it was made, having outIasted the
brick and the st ne I say, after hun
areds Of years, masonry may advance to
that point. If the world stands long
enough we may have a city as large as
they had in old times. Babylon, five
times the size of Lonlon. You go into the
potteries of England and you find them
making cups and vases after the style of
the cups and vases exhumed from Pom
peii. The world is not going back. oh,
no but it 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 progressiny until it
makes the complete circuit. The curve is
in the right direction. The curve will
keep on until it becomes a circle.
Well, now, my friends, what is true in
the material universe is true in Gods
moral government and spiritual arrange
ment. That is the meaning of Ezekiel's
wheel. All commentators agree in saying
that the wheel means Gods providence
But wheel is of no use unless it tn n, and
if it turn around it moves in a circle. What
then Are we parts of great iron machine
whirled around whether we will or not,
the victims of in sxorable fatei So far
f. ON that 1 shall show you that
we ourselves start the circle of good or
bad actions, and that it will surely come
around again to us, unless by divine in
tervention it be hindered. Those bad or
good actions may make the circuit of
many years; but come back to US th ey
will a certainly as that God sits on the cir
ele of the earth. Jezebel, the worst woman
Of the Bible, slew Eaboth because she
wanted his vineyards. While the dogs
were eating the body of Naboth, Elisha,
the prophet, put down his compass and
marked a circle from those dogs clear
around to the dogs that should eat the
body Of Jezebel. the murderess.
"Impossiblel" 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 ghe dogs that devoured Jez e.
bel, and the dogs that devoured Naboth
Oh, what a swift, what an awful circuiti
But it is sometimes the case that this |
circle sweeps through many centuries. !
The world started with theooracy sor |
governments that is, @ ID was President |
and Emperog OF the world People got |
tired of a thSocracy. They said:
''We DONE went God directly interfer- |
ing with the affairs OF the world; give us /
} monarchy"
The world had a monarchy. From a 4
IL ID going to have limited 1
monarchy. After awhile the limited mon
arcby wiz be given up, and the republican |
form Of government win be everywhere /
dominant and recognized. Then ths world /
viii get tired Of the republican form of /
governments, and it win have au saarebv.
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