Connecticut western news., 1891-04-22
BETTER THAN CRYSTAL.
pR. TALMAGE's SERMON ABOUT RE-
 LlGiOUS ExCELLENCEs.

tO uCtT UT. 1oslu<&SCS SCIAAOAS es0 AA0 Christian Herald services on Sunday evenings, in this city, continues un- abated. As usual there was this even ing dense mass of people waiting out side the Academy of Nusic 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, ?. |
 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 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, '"The crystal cannot equal it."
 THE ExAcrNEss OF RELIGION.
 Now, it is not part of my sermonic design to depreciate the crystal, whether 1t 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 it's heaven in the diar mond. Among all the pages of nat ural history there is no page more in teresting to me than the page crystallo- graphic. But l 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, 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 specialization, 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 a rectangle, or it is 8 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 decrees 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 so's" in our theology. If thought this was slipshod universe I would go crazy God is not an anarchist. Law, order, symmetry, precision, perfect square, perfect rectangle, perfect rhomboid, a perfect circle. The edge of Gods robe of government never trays out. There are no loose screws in the worlds machinery.
 Itdid not just happen that Napoleon was attacked with indigestion at Boro- dino so that he became incompetent for the day. It 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 box that floated ashore, while the ship and the crew that carried the box were never heard of. The barking of E. 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. It did not mere ly happen so. believe in particular providence. l 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 l remark that religion is supe- rior to the crystal in transparency. We know not when or by whom glass was first discovered Beads of it have been found in the tomb of Alexander Se- verus. Vases of it are brought up from the ruins of Herculaneuln. There were female adornments made out of it three thousand years ago-those adornments found now attached to the mummies of Egypt. A great many commentar tors believe that my text means glass. What would we do without the crystal2 ? The crystal in the window to keep out the storm and let in the day; the crys tai over the watch defending it's deli cate machinery, yet allowing us to see the hour; the crystal of the telescope by which the astronomer brings dis tant worlds so near he can inspect them. Oh, the triumphs of the crys- tals in the celebrated windows of Rouen and Salisbury
 But there is nothing so transparent in crystal as in our holy religion. It is a transparent religion. You put it to your eye and you see an-his sin, his soul, f,is destiny. You look at God and you s"e something of the grandeur of his character It is transparent religion InfideIs tell us it is opaque l! Do you know why they tell us it is opaquel It is because they are blind The natural man receiveth not the