Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1886-09-08
RURAL SERMONS.
"GOod and Evil Come Back"

THE HAMPToNs, Aug ust 29.-The Rev.
DR.. T. Dewitt Talmage's text to-day was:
Isaiah, xl, %: at is He that sitteth upon
the circle of the earth" Following is the
sermon:
While yet people thought that the world
was fiat, and thousands of years before
they found out that it was round, Isaiah in
my text intjmated the shape of it, God sit
ting 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 wor Id
straight lines, angles, parallelograms, di-
agonals, quadrangles; but these evidently
are not Gods favorites. Almost every
where where you find Him geometrising
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 full orb, periphery.
An ellipse is circle pressed only little too
hard at the sides. Giants Causeway in
Ireland shows what God thinks of mathe-
matics. There are over thirty five thousand
columns of rocks-octagonal, hexagonal,
pentagonal. These rocks seem to have
| been made by rule and compass. Every
|
make fifty shapes, but he chooses one shape
as preferable to all the others. I will not
say that the Giants Causeway was the
worlds moulding room, but I do say out of
good many figures God seems to have Sc
| lected the circle as the best: SIT is he that
sitteth on the circle of the earth" The
stars in circle, the moon in circle, the
sun in circle, the universe in 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 not throw it out in
| straight line but curvilinear, with a leash
of love bolding it so as to bring it back
again. The world started from His hand
pure and Edenic. 1t has been rolling On
| through regions of moral ice and distemper.
| How long it will roll God only knows; but
it will in due time make complete circuit,
and come back to the place where it started
the hand of God, pure and Edenic.
The history of the world goes in circle.
Why is it that the shipping in our day is
improving so rapidly? 1t is because men
are initiating the old model of Noah's ark.
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 deluge in which the
heaven and the earth were wrecked, landing
all the passengers in safety, two of each
kind of living creatures, thousands of spe-
cies. Pomology will go on with its achive-
ments until after many centuries the world
will have plums and pears equal to the Par
adisaical. The art of gardening will grow
for centuries, and after the Downings and
Mitchels of the world have done their best,
in the far future the art of gardening will
come up TO the arborescence of the year
one. If the makers of colored 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 centuries, mortar equal to
that which saw in the wall of an exhum-
ed English city, built in the time of the
Romans, sixteen hundred years ago-that
it was made, having outlasted the brick and
the stone. I 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. Bah
ylon, five times the size of London. 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
Pompeii, The world is not going back. o,
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 progressing until it
makes the complete circuit, The curve is
in the right direction. The curve will keep
on until it becomes circle.
Well, now, my friends, what is true in
the material universe is true in Gods NOR
al government and spiritual arrangement.
That is the meaning of EzekiePs wheel.
All commentators agree in saying that the
wheel means Gods providence. But a
wheel is of no use unless it turn, and if it
turn it turns around, 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 inexorabe fate? No! So far from 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 Intervention it be hindered.
Those bad or good actions may 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. Jezebel, the worst
woman of the Bible, slew Naboth because
she wanted his vineyard. While the dogs
we're 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. "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. NThe dogs that devoured Jezebel and
the dogs that devoured Naboth? On, what
a swift, what an awful circuit!
But it is sometimes the case that this Cir
Gle sweeps shrough century, or through
many centuries. The world started with
theocracy for government; that is, God was
the President and Emperor of the world.
Peoplegot tired of tbeocracy. They said:
eve don't want God directly interfering
with the affairs of the world; give us
monarchy The world had a. monarchy.
FROM monarchy IL is going TO nave a IitnlIou
monarchy. After awhile the limited mon
archy will be given up, and the republican
form of Government will be everywhere do,
minant and recognised. Then the world will
get tired of the republican foim of govern
ment, and it will have all anarchy, which
is no government at all. Aud then all na-
tions 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-monarchy, limited
monarchy, republicanism, anarchy, c y
different steps between the first theocracy
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 60
Ing to break down. History tells us that in
the making of the Pyramids it took two
thousand men two years to drag one great
stone from the quarry and put it into the
Pyramid. Well, now, if men, short-lived,
can afford to work SO slowly as that, cannot
God in the building of the eternities afford
to wait? What though God should take ten