The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1886-09-29
DR. TALMAGE'S SERMON.
~GOOD AND EVIL COME BACK" "

While yet people thought that the world
was fat and thousands of years before they
found out that it was round, Isaiah, in my
text intimated the shape Of it. God sitting
tiful 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, parallelogrames, diagonalS, quad.
rangles; but those evidently are not Gods
favorites. Almost everywhere where you
find him geometrizing, you find the circle
dominant, and if not the circle, then the
curve, which is a circle that died young. II
it had lived long enough it would have been
full orb, periphery. An ellipse is circle
pres ed only little too hard at the sides
Giants Causeway in Ireland shows what God
thinks of mathematics. There are over IS, ,OW
columns of rocks-octagonal, he1asonal,
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 pre-
ferable to all the others. will not say that
the Giants Causeway was the worlds mold
ing room, but l do say, out of great many
figures God seems to have selected the circle
rs the best 1T is He that sitteth On the cir
Gle of the earth" The stars in a circle, the
moon in circle, the sun in circle, the uni
verse 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 rCll more easily that way
than in straight lines. Six thousand years
ago God flung this world out of his right
hand; he did not throw it out in straight
line, but curvilinear, with leash of love
holding it so as to bring it back again. The
world started from his hand pure and edenic.
1t has teen 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, aud come back to the
pure and edenic.
The history of the world goes in circle.
Why is it that the shipping in our day IS i'm
proving so rapidlyl 1t is because men are
3mita. ing the old model of Noahs Ark. A
ship carpenter gives that as his opinion. Al
ship Of Noah's time beat the Etruria and the
Germanic, of which we beast SO much.
Where is the ship on the sea to-day that
could outride deluge IN which the heavens
and the earth were wrecked. landing all the
passengers in safety, two of each kind of
living creatures, thousands OF species. Po-
mology will go on with its achievements
until after many centuries the & TorIa ia
will have plums aud pears equal to
the paradisaical. 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 gardening
will come up to the arboreScence OF the year
one. If the makers of colored glass &c. on I'M
proving, they may in some centuries be able
to make something equal to the east window
of York Minister, which was built In lSo.
We are six centuries behind those art SITS,
but the world must keep on toiling until it
shall make the complete circuit and come up
to tile skill OF those very men. II the world
continues to improve in masonry we shall
have after awhile, perhaps after the advance
of centuries, mortar equal to that which l
saw in tho wall of an exhumed English
city, built in the time of the Romans, 1000
years ago-that mortar to-day, Is as
coed as the day in which it was made, having
outlaSted the brick and the stone. l say,
after hundreds of years masonry may al
van; Q 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
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 Oh, no! but it is swinging
in circle, and will come back to the styles
Of pottery known so long ago as the days OF
Pompeii. The worll must keep on progress
ing 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 frierds, what is true in tbs
material universe is true in Gods moral gov
ernment and spiritual arrangement. That Is
the meaning. of Ezekiel's wheel All COM
mentators agree in saying that the wheel
means Gods Providence. But wheel is OF
20 use unleS; it turns, and II 1t turns 1t turns
around, and if it turns around it moves in
circle. What then2 Are we parts of great
iron machine whirled around whether we
will or not, the victims of ine1orable fate!
No! So far from that, shall show you that
we ourselves start the circle Of good or bad
actions, and that it will surely come around
tion, 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 cir
cle of the earth. Jezebel, the worst woman
of the Bible, slew Naboth because 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.
Impossible |" tho people said, that will
never happen" Who is that flung out OF
the palace window? Jezebel. A few hours
after they come 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 swift what an awful circuit |!
But it is sometimes the Gaze that this circle
sweeps through century, or through many
centuries The world started with the
ocracy for government; that is. God was tne
President and Emperor of the world. People
got tired of a theocracy. They said: we
don't want God directly interfering with the
affairs Of the world; give US monarchy.
The world had monarchy. From mon
archy it is going to have a limited mon
archy. After while the limited monarchy
will be given up, and the Republican form
of government will he everywhere dominant
and recogpl ed. Then the world will get
tired Of the republican form of government,
and it will have an anarchy, whichls no gov
ernment at all. And then, all nations, md
ing out that man is not capable of riShteously
GOVERNING man, will cry out again for the
ocracy, and say: Let God come back and
conduct the affairs of the world" Every
step-monarchy, limited monarchy, Repub-
licanism, anarchy, only differeE. steps be-
tween the first theocracy and the last the
ocracy, or segments of the great circle OF tne
earth on which God sits.
But d. not become impatient because you
cannot see the curve of events and therefore
conclude that Gods Government is going to
break down. History tells us that in the
making of the pyramids it took 2,OoO men
two years to drag one great stone from the
quarry and put it into the pyramids. Well,
now, if men, short lived, can afford to work
80 slowly as that, cannot God, In the building
of the eternities afford to wait: What though
God should take 10000 years TO ara" CIR
cle2 Shall we take our little watch, Whicn
we have to winl up every night lest 1t run
down, and hold it up beside the clock OF
eternal agess If, according to the Bible, a
thousand years are in Gods sight as one day,
then, according to that calculation, the 6,OO0
wears of the worlds existence has been only
to God as from Monday to Saturday.