The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1886-09-30
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
A Discourse on the Inevitable Sc
quences ofGood and EvilDeeds.
Circles as the Type of Perfection-An
Things Moving in Orbits, a Departure
from Which Means Ruin-The
Nemesis of Sin.

Rev. T. Dewitt Talmage, in recent |
sermon at .sThe Hamptons" chose for. his |
subject s'The Sequences OF Good and EVIL
Deeds" taking for his text:
1t is he that stteth upon the circle of the
earth.-Isaiah XII, %.
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 animated the shape of it, God
sitting 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, paralieio-
grams, diagonals, quadrangles; but these
evidently are not Gods favorites. Almost
everywhere where you find him geometrlz-
ing you find the circle dominant, and II
not the circle then the curve, which is a
circle that died young. If it had lived
long enough it would have been a full orb,
a periphery. An ellipse is circle pressed
only a little too hard at the sides.
Giants Causeway in Ireland shows
what God thinks of mathematics.
There are over thirty-fve thousand
columns Of rocks-octagonal, hexagonal,
pentagonal. These rocks seem to have
been made by rule and by compass. Every
artist has his molding- room where he may
make fifty shapes, but he chooses one shape
as preferable to all others. | will not say
that the Giants Causeway was the
worlds molding room, but do say out of
a great many figures God seems to have
selected the circle as the best.
It is He that stitch on the circle of the
earth
The stars in circle, the moon in cir
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 a 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
a straight line but curvilinear, with a lease
of love holding it so as to bring it back
again. The world started from His hand
through regions of moral ice and distem.
per. How long it will 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, pur,
and Edenic.
The history of the world goes on in
circle. Why is it the shipping in our day
is improving so rapidly? 1t is becaus'
men are initiating the old model of Noah
art. A ship carpenter gives that as hi
opinion. Although SO much derided by
small wits, that ship of Noah's time bea
the Etruria and the Germanic, of which
we boast SO much. Where is the ship OF
the sea to-day that could outride delug,
in which the heaven and the earth wer
wrecked, landing all the passengers Il
safety, two of each kind of living crea
lures, thousands of species: Pomolog,
will go on with its achievements unit
after many centuries the world will hav
plums and pears equal to the Paradisai
cal. The art of gardening will grow TO
centuries, and after the Downings an
Mitchells of the world have done thei
best, in the far future the art Of garden
ing will come up to the arborescene of tn
year !. If the makers of colored glass e
on improving they may in some centurie
be able to make something equal to th
east window of Yorkminster, which wa
built in 1890. We are six centuries benin
those artists, but the world must keep O
toiling until it shall make the complet
circuit and come up to the skill of thos
very men. II the world continues to i'm
prove in masonry we shall have afte
awhile, perhaps after the advance Of Ger
turtles, mortar equal to that which
saw in the wall of an ez
the time of the Romans, 1000 years ago
that mortar to-day as good as the day
which it was made, having outlasted IL
brick and the stone. I say, after hun
dreds of years, masonry may advance
that point. If the world stands lor
enough we may have a city as large
they had in old times. Babylon, fl
times the size of London. You go into IL
potteries of England and you find the
making cups and vases after the style
the cups and vases exhumed from Pom
peii. The world is not going back. q
no! but it is swinging in a circle and W
come back to the styles of pottery know
so long ago as the days of Pompeii. II
world must keep on progressing until
makes the complete circuit. The curve
in the right direction. The curve WI
keep on until it becomes circle 4
Well, now, my friends, what is true
the material universe is true in God
moral government and spiritual arrang
mept. That is the meaning of Ezekie
wheel. All commentators agree in sayil
that the wheel means Gods providenc
But wheel is of no use unless it turn, Al
if it turn around it moves in circle. VIII
then! Are weparts of a great iron machi
whirled around whether we will or nc
the victims of inexorable fate! So +
from that l shall show you th
we ourselves start the circle of good
bad actions, and that it will surely cor
Ground again to US, unless by divine /
PREVENTION 1t be hindered. Those bad
good actions may make the circuit
many years; but come back to us tn
will as certainly as that God sits on the G
Gle of the earth. Jezebel, the worst W ON
of the Bible, slew Naboth because
wanted his vineyards. While the do