The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1891-04-20
CRYSTAL AND RELIGION,
JOBS COMPARISON THs BASIS OF
TALMAGES sERMON.

Transformstlo Beauties of the
World to Come
NEW YoRK, April 19.-The eagerness to
hear DR.. Talmage's sermons at the Christian
Herald services on Sunday evenings in this
city continues unabated. AS usual, there
was this evening dense mass of people
waiting outside the Academy of Music long
before the hour for commencement, and
every seat in the huge building was occu-
pied in few minutes after the doors we're
opened. Or. Talmage had preached to an
immense audience in the morning in the
Brooklyn Academy of Music His text
was: "The Crystal Cannot Equal IT, job
xviii, z.
Many of the precious stones OF the Bible
have come to prompt recognition. But for
the present | take up the less valuable
crystal. Job, in my text, compares saving
wisdom with a specimen of topaz. An in
tidel chemist or mlneralogist would pro-
nounce the latter worth more than the
former, but Job makes an intelligent COM
parison, looks at religion and then looks at
the crystal and pronounces the former as
far superior to the latter, exclaiming in the
words OF my text, The crystal cannot equal
it."
Now, it is not part of my sermonic
be found in Cornish mine or Hartz noun
tain or Mammoth Cave or tinkling among
the pendants Of the chandeliers OF palace.
The crystal is the star of the mountain; it
is the queen Of the cave; it is the ear-drop
Of the hills; it finds 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
l want to snow you that Job was right
when, taking religion in one hand aud
crystal In the other, no declared that the
former Is Of far more value and beauty
than the latter, recommending 1t to all tue
people and to all the ages, declaring:
The crystal cannot equal it.p In
the first place ! remark that religion Is su-
perior to the crystal in exactness. That
shapeless mass of crystal against which
you accidentally dashed your foot is laid
out with more exactness than any earthly
city. There are six styles of crystalliZas
ton and all OF them diYinely ordained.
Every crystal has mathematical precision.
Gods geometry reaches through 1t, and it
is square or it is a roctangle or it is q
rhomboid, or In some way it hath math-
ematioal figure. Now religion beats that
In the simple fact that spiritual accuracy lie
more beautiful than material accuracy.
Gods attributes are exact. Gods law OK
act. Gods deCrees exact Gods manage
ment Of the world exact Nsger counting
wrong, though he counts tho grass-blades
and the stars and the sands and the cycles.
His proyidences 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 a six-slded 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 /
would 90 fQ al
Law. order, symmetry. precision, a perfect
square, perfect rectangle, perfect rhom-
bold, perfect circle. The edge of Gods
robe Of government never trays out. There
are no loose screws in the worlds machinery.
1t did not just happen that Napoleon
was attacked with indigestion at
Borodino so that he became
incompetent for tho day. 1t
did not just happen that John Thomas, the
missionary, on IA heathen island, waiting for
an outfit and orders Tor another missionary
tour, received that outfit and those orders
in box that hoated ashore, while the ship
and the crew that carried tho box were
never heard of. The barking of +. w.
Robertson's dog, he tells u.s. led TO a line Of
events which broughg him from the army
into the Christian ministry, where heserved
God with world-renowned usefulness. 1t
did not merely happen so. / believe In a
particular providence. j believe Gods
geometry may be seen in oil our life more
beautifully than in crystallography. Job
was right, "The crystal cannot equal it."
Again remark that religion is superior
to the crystal in transparency We know
not when or by whom glass was first dis
covered Beads of it have been found In
the tomb Of Alexander Severus. Vases of
1T are brought up from tho ruins of Hers
culaneum. There were female adornments
made out Of it 5000 years ago-those adorn-
,to ., kb.
OF Egypt. great many commentators
believe that my text means glass. What
would we do without the crystali The
crystal in the window to keep out the storm
and let In the day-the crystal over the
watch defending its delicate machinery, yet
allowing us to see the nour-the crystal OF
the telescope by which the astronomer
brings distant worlds so near he can inspect
them. o, the triumphs Of the crystals In
the celebrated windows of Rouen
aud Salisbury But there is nothing SO
transparent in a crystal as our holy religion.
1t is q Transparent religion. You put 1t 10
your eye and you see man-hls 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 tell US
it is opaque Do you know why they tell
as tits opaquel 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 it. 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.
It Is transparent Bible. All the noun
tains Of the Bible come out: Sinai, the
mountain Of the law; Pisgah, the mountain
Of prospect; Oivet, the mountain OF in
struction Calvary, the mountain Of sacri-
fee. All the rivers OF the Bible come out:
Hidekel. or the river of paradisaical beauty;
Jordan, or the river Of holy chrism; Cher
ith, or the river of prophetic supply; Nile,
or the river Of palaces; and the pure river
OF life from under the throne, clear as crys~
tai While reading this Bible after our eyes
have been touched by grace, we fad it all
transparent and the earth rocks, now with
crucihxion agony and now with judgment
terror, and Christ appears in some of his
two hundred and ffty-six titles, as far as
can count them-the bread, the rock, the
captain, the commander, the conqueror, the
star and on and beyond any capacity Of
mine to rehearse them. Transparent reli-
gion!
The providence that seemed dark before
becomes pellucid. Now you fnd God is
not trying to put you down. Now you
understand why you lost that child and
why you lost your property; 1t was to pre-
pare you for eternal treas 1ssvaAHal, vihs-
sickness came; 1t being hessss--@----.---..-----