The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1891-04-30
RELIGIONS WORTH.
'"The Crystal Cannot Equal It, Is
the Text Taken by Dr.. Tai
mage.
He Goes on to Prove That Christianity
Is a Transparent Re-
LEGION.

took for his text: 1.-THE crystal can
mot equal it," Job xviii, 7.
Many OF the precious stones Of the
Bible have come to prompt recogni-
ton. But for the present take up
the less valuable crystal. Job, in my
text, compares saving wisdom with a
specimen OF topaz. An infidel chemist
Or mineralogist would pronounce
the latter worth more than the for
mer, but Job makes an intelligent
comparison, looks at religion and then
looks at the crystal and pronounces
the former as OF far superior value to
the latter, eXclaiming in the words
OF my text, 'the crystal cannot equal
It,
Now, it is not a part ofmy sermonic
design to depreciate the crystal,
whether it be found in Cornish mine
or Hartz mountain or Mammoth
Cave or tinkling among the pendants
OF the chandeliers OF palace. The
crystal is the star OF the mountain; it
is the queen OF the cave; it is the ear
drop OF the hills; it finds it's heaven in
the diamond. Among all the pages
of natural history there is no page
more interesting to me than the page
crystallographic. But | want to
show you that Job was right when
talking religion in one hand and the
crys tai in the other, he declared that
the former is of far more value and
beauty than the latter, recommending
1T to all the people and to all the ages,
declaring: The crystal cannot equal
it, In the first place I re-
mark that religion is superior
to the crystal in exactness. That
shapeless mass OF crystal against
which you accidentally dashed your
foot is laid out with more exact
ness than any earthly city. There
are six styles ofcry stallization and all
OF them divinely ordained. Every
crystal has mathematical precision.
Gods geometry reaches through it,
and it is a rectangle or it is rhom-
bold Or in some way it hath a mathe-
matical figure. Now religion beats
that in the simple fact that
spiritual accuracy is more beautiful
than ornamental accuracy.
GODS ATTRIBUTES ARE EXACT.
Gods law exact. Gods DEGREES
exact. Gods management OF the
world exact. Never counting wrong,
though he counts the grass- blades and
the stars and the sands and the
cycles. His providences never deal
with tho 4 ;o,,1o NV, ~
those providences ought to be obi
que, nor lateral when they ought to
be vertical. Everything in our lif ear
ranged without any possibility Of
mistake.
Again | remark that
RELIGION is SUPERIOR TO THE CRYSTAL
IN transparency.
1t is a transparent Bible All the
mountains Of the Bible comes out;
Sinai, themountain Of the law; Pisgah
the mountain Of prospect; OEvet, the
mountain Of instruction; Calvary,
the mountain of sacrifice. All the
rivers of the Bible come out; Hi dekel.
or the river Of paradisaical beauty;
JOrdOn, or the river of holy chrism;
Cherth, or the river of prophetic sup
ply; Nile, or the river OF palaces; and
the pure river of life from under the
throne, clear as crystal. While read
ing this Bible after our eyes have been
touched by grace, we find it all trans
parent, and the earth rocks, now with
'crucltixlon agony and now with judg-
ment terror, and Christ appears in
some OF his two hundred and fifty X
titles, as far as [ can count them-the
bread, the rock, the star, and on and
beyond any capacity OF mine to re-
hearse them. Transparent religion!
The providence that seemed dark
before becomes pellucid. Now you
find God is not trying to put you
down. Now you understand why you
lost your property; it was to prepare
you
FOR ETERNAL TREASURES.
And why sickness came; it being the
precursor of immortal juvenescence
And now you understand why they
lied about you and tried to drive YOU
hither and thither 1t was to put
you in the glorious company of such
men as Ignatius, who, when he went
out to be destroyed by the lions, said:
81 am the wheat, and the teeth of the
wild beasts must first grind me be-
AOie Gull OeCOlno pure DfeaQ IOr
Jesus Christ" or the company ofsuch
men as Polycarp, who when standing
in the midst OF the ampitheater wait
ing for the lions to come out OF their
cave and destroy him, and the people
in the galleries ieering and shouting,
1.-THE lions for Polycarp," replied:
"fLet them come on" and then stoop-
ing down toward the cave where the
wild bsasts were roaring to get out,
-|IIet them come on" All, yes, it is
persecution to put you in glorious
company; and where there are many
things that you will have to postpone
ITO the future world for explanation
I tell you that is the whole tendency
OF your religion to unravel and explain
and interpret and illumine and irradi
ate. Job was right. It is glorious
transparency. "The crystal cannot
equal it,"
L remark again that religion sur.
passes the crystal in beauty. That
lump of crystal is put under the mag
fnifying glass OF the crystallographe1
and he sees it indiscribable beauty