The Caucasian. (Clinton, N.C.) 188?-1913, 1891-04-23
BETTER THAN CRYSTAL.
DR. TALMA6ES SERMON
ABOUT RELIGIOUS EN-
CELLENCIES.
The Natural Crystal is the Star OF
the Mountain and the Queen
of the Cave.
BUT THE CRYSTAL OF RELIGION EX-
GELS 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, s'Fhe crystal cannot equal
it" Job xviii, ..
Many of the precious stones of the
Bible have come to prompt recog-
| milton. But for the present l 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,
'gThe crystal cannot equal it,
TIE 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 char
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,
recommendngi to all the people and
t. ali the ages. declaring. ''The crystal
CaIIlot ecUal it.
III the first place, 1 remark that re-
ls!aa il superior tothe crystal'in exact
ness. H"lat GcspelesS 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 crystallization, and all of
them divnlely ordained. Every crystal
has mathematical precision. Gods ge-
| ometry reaches through it, and it is a
&c 10 -,
rhomboid, or in some way it hath q
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. Godh
management of the world exact. Never
counting wrong, though he counts the
grass blades. and the stars and the
sands and the cycles. His providence:
never dealing with us perpendicularly
chen those providences ought to be
koblique, nor lateral when they ough1
to be vertical. Everything III our Life
arranged without any possibility O
mistake. Each life ask sided prism
Born at the right time, dying at ths
right time. There are no 'shappen SOS
in our theology. If I thought this wa.
slipshod universe I would go crazy
God is not an anarchist. Law, order
symmetry, precision, perfect square
a perfect rectangle, a perfect rhomboid
perfect circle. The edge of God
robe of government never trays out
There are 10 loose screws in; the world
machinery.
It.did notsjust happen that Napoleon
| was attacked with indigestion at Boro
dino so that lhe became incompetent fo
the day. It did not just happen tina
john Thomas, the missionary, on /;
heather island. waiting for an outfi
and ordersfor another missionary tour
received that outfit and those orders il
. box that fioated ashore, while tn
ship and thescrew that carried the bo
were never heard Of The barking @
F. w. RobGtson's.dog, he tells US, le
to line of events'which brought hiI
from the army into the Christian mir
is,ry, where he. served God with worl
re Gowned usefulness. 1t did not;mert
ly happen so. 1 believe in a a,particula
DIT evidence. [ believe God ,geoTnetr
N: ~ be seen mall our Efe more +beaut
fully than in crystallography- Job wa
rig ut ''The crystal cannotaeqnal it. y
IHE TRANSPARENCY OF RELIGIoN
Again I remark that religion is sup,
ricr to the cryssaLin Transparency w
kIow not when or by whom glass wa
, first discovered Beads. of it have bee
, found in the tomb of Alexander S.
h verus. Vases of it are brought upfrol
the ruins of HercuEmeuln- There Wei
: female. adornments, made out of 1T .thre
+ thousand years ago-those adornmen
found now attached to the nnlnni.
{ of Egypt A great many comment.
i tors believe that my text means glas
f What would we d6Wnhorn the crysta
The crystal in the window to keep OF
the storm and let in the day; the cry
I tai over the watch defending its del
cate machinery, yet.allowing US to s.
: the hour; the crystal of the telescoI
by which the astronomer brings di
Z tant worlds so near he can inspe
e. them Oh, the triamphs of the cry
:. tails in the celebrated windows.of Roue
! and Salisbury
y But there Is nothing.so transparel
. T. crystal as incur holy religion.
q is . transparent religion You put
d TO your eye and you see manhs 81
e his soul, his destiny. You look as &c
$ and you see sonnet hing of the grande'
of his character II. iis trznsz,s1sl