The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1891-04-30
BETTER THAN CRYSTAL
DR.. TALMAeE's SERMON ABOUT RE.
LlGlouS ExCELLENCES.

The Natural Crystal Is the Star OF the
Mountain and the Queen of the Cave,
but tho Crystal Of Religion Exceis
Everything.
NEW YORK, April 19.-The eagerness
to hear DR.. Talmage's sermons at The
Christian Herald services on Sunday
evenings, in this city, continues I'M
abated. As usual there was this even
ing dense mass of people waiting out
side the Academy of Music long before
the hour for commencement, and every
seat in the huge building was occupied
in few minutes after the doors were
opened. DR.. Talmage had preached to
an immense audience in the morning
In the Brooklyn Academy of Music.
His text was 1.-THE crystal cannot equal
It" Job xviii, y.
Many of the precious stones of the
Bible have come to prompt recog-
milton. 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 former, 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, ex-
claiming in the words of my text,
1.-THE crystal cannot equal it."
THR EXACTNESs OF RELIGION.
Now, it is not a part of my sermonic
design to depreciate the crystal whether
it be found in Cornish mine or Hartz
mountain or Mammoth cave or tink-
ling among the pendants of the chan
deliers of palace. The crystal is the
star of the mountain; it is the queen
Of the cave; it is the eardrop of the
hills; it finds its heaven in the dia-
mond. Among all the pages of nat
ural history there is no page more in
teresting to me than the page crystallo-
graphic. But want to show you that
Job was right when, taking religion in
one hand and the crystal in the other,
he declared that the former is of far
more value and beauty than the latter,
recommending it to all the people and
to all the ages, declaring, ''The crystal
cannot equal it."
In the first place, l remark that re-
ligion is superior to the crystal in exact
ness 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 of disqualification, and all of
them divinely ordained. Every crystal
has mathematical precision. Gods ge-
ometry reaches through it, and it is a
square, or it is rectangle or it is a
rhomboid, or in some way it hath a
mathematical figure. Now, religion
beats that in the simple fact that spirit
ual accuracy is more beautiful than
material 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 dealing with us perpendicularly
when those providences ought to be
oblique, nor lateral when they ought
to be vertical. Everything in our life
arranged without any possibility Of
mistake. Each life six sided prism.
Born at the right time, dying at the
right time. There are no ''happen sos
in our theology If thought this was
a slipshod universe I would go crazy.
God is not an anarchist. Law, order,
symmetry, precision, a perfect square,
a perfect rectangle, perfect rhomboid,
a perfect circle. Tho edge of Gods
robe of government never trays out.
There are no loose screws in the worlds
machinery.
1t did not just happen that Napoleon
was attacked with indigestion at Boro-
dino so that he became incompetent fol-
the day. 1t did not just happen that
John Thomas, the missionary, on a
heather island, waiting for an outfit
and orders for another missionary tour,
received that outfit and those orders in
a box that foated ashore, while the
ship and the crew that carried the boz
were never heard Of The barking Of
F. w. Robertson's dog, he tells us, led
to line of events which brought him
from the army into the Christian min
istry. where he served God with world
renowned usefulness. 1t did not mere
ly happen so. believe in particular
providence / believe Gods geometry
may be seen in all our life more beauti
fully than in crystallography. Job was
right. '"The crystal cannot equal it,"
THE TRANSPARENCY OF RELIGION.
Again remark that religion is supe
rior to the crystal in transparency. We
know not when or by whom glass wa.
first discovered. Beads of it have beer
found in the tomb of Alexander Sc
verus. Vases Of it are brought up from
the ruins of Herculaneum. There wert
female adornments made out of it three
thousand years ago-those adornment!
found now attached to the mummie
Of Egypt. A great many commenta
tors believe that my text means glass
What would we do without the crystal
The crystal in the window to keep GU
the storm and let in the day; the crys
tai over the watch defending its deli
cate machinery, yet allowing us to SCI
the hour; the crystal of the telescop'
by which the astronomer brings dis
tant worlds SO near he can inspec
them. Oh, the triumphs of the crys
tails in the celebrated windows of Rouel
and Salisbury
But there is nothing SO Transparent
in crystal as in our holy religion. l
is transparent religion. You put
to your eye and you see man-his sin
his soul, his destiny. You look at Goo