Peninsula enterprise. [volume] (Accomac, Va.) 1881-1965, 1891-04-25
BETTER THAN CRYSTAL.
DIR. TALMAeE's SERMON ABOUT RE-
lIGloUS ExceLLENcEs.

llGloUs ExceuLENcES.
] Tho Natural Crystal Is the Star of the
Mountain and tho Queen of the Cave,
but the Crystal of Religion E1cels
Evorything.
NEW YORK, April 19.-The eagerness
to hear DR. Talnagc's sermons ut Tho
christian Herald services on Sunday
Evenings in this city, continues UNI
] ahated. As usual there was this even
ling Il dense mass of people waiting out
5sile the Acslielny Of Music long before
Il the hour for commencement, and every
seatsin the huge building was occupied
lima few minutes nfter the doors were
]gopened Dr. Tllnage had prcachcdto
san Immense audience in the morning
Sin tile Brooklyn Academy OF Music.
His text was The crystal cannot equal
it, Job xviii, y.
Many of the precious stones Of the
/ Bible have come to prompt recog-
.II:nition But for the present | take up
/ the less valuable crystal. Job. in my
text. compares saving wisdom with
specimen Of topaz. An intidcl chemist
For nlinerlogst would pronounce the
slatter worth more than the former, but
Mob makes an intelligent comparison,
\ looks at religion and then looks at the
a:crystal, and pronounccs the former rs
iHof far superior value to the latter, ex-
.claimins in the words of my text,
The crystal cannot equal it.
THE KxACrNEss OF RELIGION.
+ Now, 1t is not part of my sermonic
design to depreciate the crystal, whether
lit be found in Cornish mine or Hartz
Elnountin or Mammoth cave or tink-
Fling among the pendants of the chan
tdelers of n palace The crystal is the
star of the mountain; it is the queen
of the cave; it is the eardrop of the
Illils; 1t finds its heaven in the div
lnond. Among all the pages of nat
ural history there is no page more in
;ferestiny to. me than the page cryst:lllo-
graphic But want to show you that
Job was right when, taking religion in
zone hand aud rho crystal in the other,
I'be declared that the former is of far
more valuc and beauty than the latter,
recommending it to all tho people and
to all tue ages. declaring Tie crystal
cannot equal it,"
In the first place, remark ;!lat re-
ligion is superior to the crystal in exact
ness. That sliapelcss mass of crystal
against Which you accidentally dashed
your foo. is laid out with more exact
ness than any earthly city. There are
six styles OF crystallization, and all OF
them diviney ordained. Every crystal
has mathematical precision. Gods ge-
ometry reaches through it, and it is u
square, or it is rcctanglc, or it is
rlioinboid. or in sono way it hath Il
mathematical figure >Now, religion
beats that in the simple fact that spirit
ual accuracy is more beautiful than
ts.nateriul accuracy
~ Gods attributes are exact. Gods
Jaw exact Gods DEGREES exact. God's
management of the world exact. Never
counting wrong. though lie counts the
grass blades, and tho stars, and the
sands and the cycles His providenccs
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 q 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
slipshod universe would go crazy.
God is not an anarchist. Law, order,
symmetry, precision, q perfect square,
perfect rectangle, perfect rhoInboid,
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. 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
box that foatcd ashore, while the
ship and the crew that carried the box
,xere never heard Of The barking Of
f. w. Robcrtson's dog, lie tells US, led
to a 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 q particular
providence. believe Gods geometry
may be seen in all our life more beauti
fully than in crystalography. Job was
right The crystal cannot equal it."
THE TRANSPARENCY or RELIGION.
Again remark that religion is supe-
rior to tile crystal in transparency. We
know not when or by whom glass was
first discovered. Beads of it lave been
found in the tomb of Alexander Sc
vcrus. Vases of it arc brought up from
the ruins Of IIerculanclun. There were
female adorllInents made out of it thrc"
thousand years ago-thosc adonlnents
found now attached to the munmies
of Egypt A great many comnenta-
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 |