The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1886-09-16
mr.. TALMAGE'S SERMON.
.GOOD AND EVIL COME BACK"

PFoaencu ~ iho Hauptohr, Lohs isiahul
Text; ut is He that sitteth upon the circle
OF the earth. Isaiah XII, ~
While yet people thought that the world
was rat, and thousands OF years before they
found out that it was round, Isaiah, in my
text, intimated the shape Of it, God sitting
upon the circle of the earth. The most beau,
tirul figure in all geometry is the circle, God
made the universe on tho plan OF a circle
There are in tho natural world straight lines,
angles, parallelogrames, diagonals, quad
RANGES; but those evidently are not Gods
favorites. Almost everywhere where you
find him geometrizing, you find tho circle
dominant aud If not the circle, then the
curve, which is q circle that died young. TX
it had lived long enough it would have been
full orb, a 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 81, 0N
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 pre-
terable to all the others. / will not say that
the Giants Causeway was theworld's mold
ing room, but do say, out OF a great many
figures God seems to have selected the circle
as the best. 1T is He that sitteth On the cir
Gle of the earth" The stars in circle, the
moon in a circle the sun in circle, the uni
verse in circle and the throne Of God the
centre Of that circle.
initiate the idea of the great Architect and
put the audience in circle, knowing that the
tides of emotion roll moro 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 a straight
line, but curviliGear, with leash Of love
holding it SO as to bring it back again. The
WORLD cto ta1 Dc no 1aIa
1t has boen 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 Cod
pure and edenic.
The history Of the world goes in a circle,
Why is it that the shipping in our day is i'm.
proving so rapidlyi 1t is because men are
imta ing the old model of Noahs Ark. A
ship carpenter gives that as his opinion. Al
though so much deiided 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 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 90 on with its achievements
until after many centuries the world
will have plums and pears equal to
the paradisaical. The art of gardening will
grow for centuries. and, after the Downlngs
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. II the makers of colored glass go 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 1870.
We are six centuries behind those art SITS,
but the world must keep ON toiling until it
shall lat aud
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 exhumed English
city, built in the time of the Romans, l,6O0
years ago-that mortar to-day is as
| good as the day in which it was made, having
outlasted the brick and the stone l say,
after hundreds of years masonry may al
vance 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. 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 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 progress
ing 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 gov
eminent and spiritual arrangement That Is
the meaning of E2ekels wheel All COM
mentators agree in saying that the wheel
means Gods Providence. But wheel is Of
| no use unless it turns, and il it turns it turns
around, and if it turns around it moves in a
circle. What thens Are we parts of great
iron machine whirled around whether we
| will or not, the victims of memorable fate.
| No So fan from that, 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 interyen-
ton, 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
Gle 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 +" the people said, that will
never happen" Who is that flung out OF
| the palace window Jezehel. 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 au awful circuit
But it is sometimes the case that this circle
sweeps through century, or through many
centuries. The world started with the
ocracy for government; that is. God was the
President and Emperor of the world. People
got tired of theocracy. They said: w
don't want God directly interfering with ths
affairs of the world give us monarchy.
The world had q monarchy. From mon
archy it is going to have limited mon
archy. After a while the limited monarchy
will be given up, and the Republican form
| of government will be everywhere domlnan
and recognized. Then the world will ge
tired of the republican form of government
| and it will have an anarchy, which is no gov
eminent at all And then, all nations, find
ing out that man is not capable of righteous.
governing man, will cry out again for the
ocracy, and say: "Let God come back am
conduct the affairs Of the world" Ever,
step-monarchy, limited monarchy, RepuD
licanisln, anarchy, only different steps be
tween the first theocracy and the last the
ocracy, or segments of the great circle OF tn'
earth on which God sits.
But do not become impatient because yot
cannot see the curve of events, and Therefore
conclude that Gods Government is going tx
break down. History tells us that in the
making of the pyramids it took 1000 mel
two years to drag one great stone from To.
quarry and put it into the pyramids. Well
now, if men, short lived can afford to worl
so slowly as that, cannot God in the building
of the eternities afford to waits What though
God should take l0, 900 years to draw CIR
Gle! Shall we take our little watch, which
we have to wind up every night lest it rur
down, and hold it up beside the clock
eternal ages' If, according to the Bible.
thousand years are in Gods sight as one day
then, according to that calculation, the u, wv
years of the worlds existence has been onl,
to God as from Monday to Saturday.
But it is often the case that the rebound !.
quicker and the circle is sooner completed
You resolve that you will do what COOL yor
can. In one week you put word of counse
in the heart of Sabbath school child. Durin:
that same week you give letter of introluc
ton to a young man struggling in business
During the same week you make an exhorta
ton in prayer meeting. Itisall gone; 20,
will never hear of it, perhaps, you think. 4
few years after man comes up to you ant
saws: "You don't know me, do your Yo,
say: mo, don't remember ever to hav'
seen YOU" "Why," he says 81 was in tn
Sabbath-school elias, over which you wer'
the teacher. One Sunday you invited me t.
Christ accepted the offer. You see tina
church with the two towers yonderlh Eyes,
you say. He says: THAT is where
preach" Or: "Do you see that Gov
u Il