The Forrest City times., 1891-04-24
THETABERNACLEPULPIT
BRILLIANT SUBJECT RxPoUNp-
 ED BY DR. TALMAOE.
Tho Eminent Divine Holds Forth In His Usual Bright vein-Comparing Re- ligion to a Highly Transpar.
 sne Crystal.

l "auy OA tue pTcClOuS btOueS ot JIG Dlolo nave come to prompt recognition. But for the present l take up the less valuable l crystal. Job, in my text, compares saving | wisdom With specimen of topaz. An in. ndel chemist or mlneralogist would pro nouuce the latter worth moro than the former, but Job makes an intelligent conn parison, looks at religion and then looks at the crystal and pronounccs the former as of far superior value to the latter, exclaim. ing in the words of my text ''the crystal cannot equal it,"
 Now, 1t is not a part of my sermonlc de ] sign to depreciate the crystal, whether it Dc found in Cornish mine or Hxrtz mountain, or Mammoth Cave, or tinkling among the pendants of the chandeliers of palace. The crystal Is tho star of the mountain; 1t | IS the queen of the cave; tt 10 the enr-drop of the hills; 1t finds its heaven in the da- mond. Among all the pages of natural his. tory there is no page more interesting to | want to show you that Job was right when | taking religion in one hand and the crystal 1 in the other. he declared that the former Is 1 of far more value and beauty than the lat people and to ap the ages, de. 1 clarng: "rhe crystal cannot equal it." In the first place 1 remark that religion is s',- | perior to the crystal in exactness. That shapeless mass of crystal agalnst which you | accidentally dashed your foot is laid out 1 WlLn more eXactneSS than any eartnly Cltys There six sty les of cry stallization and all of them divinely ordained. Every crystal has mathematical precision. Gods geome- try reaches through it. and It is square or It IS rectangle or 1t is rhombod or Tn some way it hath mathematical figure. Now religion beats that in the simple fact that spiritual accuracy is more beauli- ful than material accuracy. Gods attrib- utes are exact. Gods law exact Gods decrees exact Gods management or 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 perpen- diculariy when those providences ought 10 be oblique, nor lateral when they ought to be vertical. Everything in our life ar ranged without any possibility of mistake. Each life a sX-sided prism. Born nt the right time; dying Ut the right time. There are no "happen-sos" in our theology. IT thought this was a slipshod universe would go crazy. God is not an anarchist. Law, order. symmetry, precision, perfect square. a perfect rectangle, a perfect rhomboid, a perfect circle. The edge of God's robe of government never frays out. There are no loose screws in the worlds machinery. It did not just happen that Napoleon was attacked with indiges- ton at Borodino so that he became incom- petent for the day. It did not just happen that John Thomas. the missionary, on
 
 ders for another missionary tour, received that outfit and those orders in box that hoated ashore. while the ship and the crew that carried the box 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 tue Christian min- istry, where he served God with world-re- nowned usefulness It did not merely hap pen SO. believe in particular providence. l believe Gods geometry may be seen Tn all our life more beautifully than in crystal. lography. Job was right The crystal 1 cannot equal It."
 Again 1 remark that religion Is superior I to the crystal in transparency. We know | not when or by whom glass was first dis 1 covered. Beads of 1t have been found in l the tcmb Of Alexander Scverus. Vases of 1 II are brought up from tho ruins of Hercu- 1 lancum. There were female adornments | made out of it 5000 years ago-thosc adorn- 1 ments found now attached to the mummies l of Egypt A great many commentators be- 1 lieye that my text means glass. What | would we do without tue crystal! The | crystal in the W inuow to keep out the storm 1 and let in the day-the crystal in the watch,
 defending its delicate machinery yet allow. 1 ing us to sec the hour - the crystal Of tue
 telescope by which the astronomer brings | distant worlds so near he can inspect them. | Oh, the triumphs Of the crystals i'll the ceic. brated windows of Roucn and Salisbury! 1 But there is nothing so transparent in
 crystal as in our holy religion. When the 1 eye-salve cures our blindness then we find
 that religion is transparent
 People talk too much about their cross and not cn ough about their crown. Do you l know tho Bible mentions Q cross but l twenty-seven times while it mentions | 1 crown eighty times? Ask that old man
 what he thinks of religion. He has been . close observer. He has been culturIng an
 aesthetic taste. He has seen the sunrses of |. Ia h,p hAs nor fs. rts He has been an sdmirer of cameos md i corals and all kinds of beautiful things.
 Ask him what hc thinks of religion and he
 will tell you, Ut is the most beautiful thing
 ever saw" "The crystal cannot equal 1 1t"
 Beautiful in its symmetry. When 1t
 presents Gods character 1t does not pre-
 sent Him us having love like . great pro- i tuberance on one side of bis nature,
 but makes that love in harmony
 with his justicc-a love that will accept all
 those who come to him. and justice that
 will by no means clear the guilty. Beauti- l ful religion In the sentiment 1t implants!
 Beautiful religion in the hope it kindlcs :!
 Beautiful religion In the fact that It pro-
 poses to garland and enthrone and empara-
 disc an immortal spirit. Soloman says it Is
 lily. Paul says 1t Is a crown. The Apoca.
 lypse says 1t is n fountain kissed of the sun
 Ezekiel says it is a foliaged cedar. Christ
 says it is . bridegroom come 10 fetch home
 bride. While Job in the text takes up .
 whole vase Of precious stones--the topaz
 and the sapphire and the chry rysoprasus-a and
 he takes out of this beautiful vase just one
 crystal and holds it up until It gleams in
 the warm light of the eastern sky, and he
 exclaims: ''The crystal cannot equal it"
 Again religion Is superior 10 the cryatal
 fin its transformations. The diamond is
 only capitalization Of coal. Carbonate
 of lime rises till 1t becomes calctc or ara-
 gonite Red oxide of copper crystaiiizes
 into cubes and octachedrons. Those crys-
 tals which adorn our persons and our
 homes and our museums have only been
 resurrccted from forms that were far from
 lustrous. Scientists for ages have been ex-
 amlning these wonderful transformations
 But tell you in tho Gospel of the Son of
 God there 10 . more wonderful trausformn.
 tion Over souls by reason of sin black as
 coal and hard as iron. God, by his comfort
 ing grace stoops and says: They shall bc
 mine in the day when l make up my
 jewels."
 What" say you. twill God wear jew.
 elrvY' If hc wanted tt, he could mako the
 stars of heaven his belt and have the even-
 ing cloud for the sandals of hs feet; but
 hc does not want that adornment. He will , not have that jewelry. When God wants
 jewelry he comes down and digs 1t out of
 the depths and darkness of sin. These
 souls are all crystallixations of mercy. He
 puts them on and wears them in tho pres
 cree of the whole universe. He wears
 them on tho hand that was nailed, over the heart that was pierced. on
 tho temples that were stung. They shall
 be mine" saith the Lord, ''in the day when
 make up my jcwels" Wonderful tran..
 formstionl "The crystal cannot equal it. ''
 shall be sister of charity. There he is, a I sot in the ditch: but he shall preach the