Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1891-04-20
CAN SEE 1T PLAINLY
THg RELIGION OF CRRIST, AND HOW EASILY
DISCsRNRD.
Tbs Crystal IS Not RQual to li-Thsrs are Other
Brilianis but Mons 50 Bright as 6Od's
Love and ForgivsDnsss-Rsv. Dr.. Tai
mags's Discourse on the Subject.
sp,eia. r.,sgram 10 N. Register.

q
there was this evening dense mass OF
people waiting outside OF the Academy
OF Music long before the hour for com
mencement and every seat in the huge
building was occupied in few minutes
after the doors were opened. DR.. Tai
maze had preached TO an immense au-
dience in the morning in the Brooklyn
/ Academy of Music His text was: The
IcryStal cannot equal it job 2s: :.
Many of the precious stones of the
! Bible have come 10 prompt recognition
/ But for the present | take up the less
valuable crystal. job, in my text, COM
pareS saving wisdom with specimen IF
topaz An intidel chemist or mineral
ogiSt would pronounce the latter worth
more than the former but job makes
an intelligent comparison, looks at re-
I ligiOn and then looks at the crystal and
pronOunces the former as Of far super
ior value TO the latter, eXclaiming in
the words of my text, the crystal can
not equal it,"
Now, il is not part OF my sermonic
design todepreciate the crystal, whether
il be found in Cornish mine or Hartz
mountain or Mammoth Cave or tinkling
among the pendants of the chandeliers
OF a palace. The crystal is the star of
the mountain; it is the queen of the
cave; il is the ear-drop OF the hills; it
indS its 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 10 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, rec
ommending IL TO all the people
and 70 an the ages, declaring
The crystal cannot equal it," In
the first place l remark that religion is
superior to the crystal in exactneSs.
That ShapeeSS mass mass of crystal
against which you accidentally dashed
your foot is laid out with more exact
ness than any earthly city. They are
six styles of capitalization and all OF
them divinely ordained. Every crystal
has mathematical precision. Gods
geometry reecheS through IL, and IL is
square or il is rectangle or it is
rhomboid or in some ways it hath
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 provdenceS
never dealing with Us perpendicularly
when those prOvidenceS ought to be
obllque. nor lateral when they ought 10
be vertical. Everything in our life ar
ranged without any possibility of mis-
take Each life a SiN-Sided prism. Born
at the right time; dying at the right
time. There are no "happen-SO'S' in
| our theology. II | thought this was a
slipShod universe | would 90 crazy. God
| is not an anarchist. Law. order. sym
Imetry. precision, ] perfect square, a
| perfect rectangle. perfect rhOmboid, 4
perfect circle. The edge OF Gods robe
Of government never trays out. There
are no loose screws in the worlds ma
chinery. II did not just happen that
| Napoleon was attacked with indigestion
AT BOrOdinO. so that he became
incompetent for the day 1t
did not just happen that John Thomas,
the missionary, on a heather island,
waiting for an outfit and orders for an
other missionary tour, received that
outfit aud those orders in box that
noated ashore, while the ship and the
crew that carried the box were never
heard Of. The barking of f. w. Bob
ertSon'S dog. he tells us led TO line of
events which brought him from the
army into the Christian ministry, where
he served God with world-renOwned use
fulness. 1t did not merely happen so.
| believe in a particular providence.
believe Gods yeometery may be seen in
an our life mote beautifully than in
crystallography. Job was right. The
crystal cannot equal IT,.
THE CRYSTAL CANNOT EQUAL IT.
Again remark that religion is super
ior 10 the crystal i'm transparency. We
know not when or by whom glass was
first discovered Beads of 10 have been
I found in the tomb Of Alexander SeveruS.
| Vases OF IL are brought up from the
ruins Of Herculaneum. There We're fe-
male adornmentS made out OF it 5000
years ago-thOSe adOrnmentS found now
attached to the mummieS of Egypt. a
great many commentators believe that
my tsxt means glass. What would we
DO without the crystal? The crystal in
the window to keep out the storm and
let i'm the day-the crystal over the
watch defending its delicate machinery,
vet allowing us 20 see the hour-the
crystal of the telescope by which the
astronomer brings distant worlds so
near he can inspect them. Oh, the
triumphs OF the crystals in
the celebrated windows OF ROuen
and Salisbury, But there is nothing 50
transparent in a crystal as in our holy
religion. Ii is transparent religion.
/ You put il TO your eye and you see man
his sin. his soul. his destiny. You
| look at God and you see something Of
the grandeur OF his character. 1t Is a
transparent religion. InfdelS tells us
il is opaque9 Do you know why they
tell us it is opaque? 1t is because they
are blind. The natural man receiveth
not the things of God because they are
spiritually discerned. There is no
trouble with the crystal; the trouble is
with the eyes which try to look through
/ TO-. We pray for vision, Lord, that our
eyes might be opened. When the eye
salve cures our blindness then we find
/ that religion is transparent.
The providence that seemed dark be-
fore becomes pellucid. Now you find
/ God is not trying TO put yon down.
/ Now YOU understand why you lost that
child and why you lOSi your property:
| IL was 20 prepare YOU for eternal treas
ures. And why sickness came: II be-
I ing the persecuSor OF immoral juven-
escence. 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 IgnatinS, who, when he went
ont to be destroyed by the lions, said;
I Il am the wheat and the teeth Of the
/ wild beasts must first grind me before
can become pure bread for Jesus
| Christi" or the company OF such
men as Polycarp, who, when
standing in the midst OF the
lamphitheatre waiting for the lions 70
come out of their cave and destroy him,
and the people in the galleries ieerins
and shouting; The lions for Poly
carp" replied: Let them come on,
Iand then STOPPING down toward the
cave whore the wild beasts were roar
ing TO get ont, LET them come on.
An. YES, il is persecution 10 put you In
glorious company; and while there are
many things that You will have tc
Dostpone 10 the futEre world for eN-