Milford chronicle., 1891-04-24
A BRILLIANT RELIGION.
SERMON DELIVERED BY DR.. TAI
MAGE ON SUNDAY, APRIL 10.


xviii, :, the Eminent Divine's Tex
Religion Is Far Superior to the Cryr
tai in All Desirable Qualities.
NEW YORK, April 19-The eagerness
hear DR.. Talmage's sermons at The Chri,
tian Herald services on Sunday evening
in this city continues unabated. As usual
there was this evening a dense mass o
people waiting outside the Academy o
Music long before the hour for commence
ment, and every seat in the huge buildin,
was occupied in few minutes after tn
doors were opened. DIR. Talmage ha,
preached to an immense audience in tn
morning in the Brooklyn Academy o
Music. His text was. THE crystal car
not equal it" Dob xviii, q.
Many of the precious stones of the Bib,
have come to prompt recognition. But
for the present / take up the less valuabl,
crystal. Job, in my text, compares saving
wisdom with specimen of topaz. An in
| fidel chemist or mineralogist would pro
nounce the latter worth more than the for
mer, but Job makes an intelligent com
4 parisOn, looks at religion and then looks
at the crystal and pronounees the former
as of superior value to the latter, exclaim.
ing, in the words of my text, ''The crystal
cannot equal il"
THE STAR OF THE MOUNTAIN.
Now, it is not part of my sermOnic de-
sign to depreciate the crystal, whether it
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 eardrop
of the hills; it finds its heaven in the dia-
mond. Among all the pages Of natural
history there is no page more interesting
to me than the page crystallographic. 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, recommending it to all the
people and to all the ages, declaring, "The
crystal cannot equal it."
In the first place, remark that religion
is superior to the crystal in exactness.
That shapeless mass of crystal against
which you accidentally dashed your foot is
laid out with more exaetness than any
earthly city. There are six styles Of crys-
utilization, and all of them divinely or
dained. Every crystal has mathematical
precision. Gods geometry reaches through
it, and it is a square, or it is a rectangle, or
it is a rhomboid, or in some way it hath a
mathematical figure. Now, religion beats
that in the simple fact that spiritual accu-
racy is more beautiful than material aeeu-
racy. 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 providences 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 sided prism Born at the right time;
dying at the right time. There are no chap
pen SOS" in our theology. If thought this
was a slipshod universe would go crazy.
God is not an anarchist Law, order, SYM
metry, precision, a perfect square, perfect
perfect rhomboid, perfect cir
Gle. 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
at Borodino so that he became
Incompetent for the day. 1t did not just
.
On a heather island, waiting for an outfit
and orders for another missionary tour,
received that outfit and those orders in a
box that floated ashore, while the ship and
5he crew that carried the box were never
heard Of The barking of F. W. Robert I
sons dog, he tells us, led to line of events /
which brought him from the army into
he Christian ministry, where he served /
n 3 affr1V
lid not merely happen so. / believe in
particular providence I believe Gods
geometry may be seen in all our life more 1
beautifully than in crystallography. Job .
vas right. ''The crystal cannot equal it"
THE TRANSPARENCY OF RELIGION.
Again I remark that religion is superior
o the crystal in transparency. We know
lot when or by whom glass was first dis
overed. Beads of it have been found in
he tomb of Alexander Severus. Vases of
t are brought up from the ruins of Her
ulaneum. There were female adornments
made out of it three thousand years ago
hose adornments found now attached to
he mummies of Egypt. "A great many
believes that my text means
lass. What would we do without the
rystal9 The crystal in the window to
eep out the storm and let in the day; the
rystal over the watch defending its deli
ate machinery, yet allowing us to see the
our; the crystal of the telescope, by which
be astronomer brings distant worlds so
ear he can inspect them. Oh, the tri-
mphs of the crystals in the celebrated
'indOWs of ROuen and Salisbury
But there is nothing so transparent in
rystal as in our holy religion. 1t is a
religion. You put it to your
re and you see man-his sin, his soul, his
sstiny You look at God and you see
lmething of the grandeur Of his character.
Is a transparent religion. Infidels tell
5 It is opaque. Do you know why they
IL us it is Opaque? 1t is because they are
lind The natural man receiyeth not the ]
lings of God because they are spiritually
scemed. There is no trouble with the
,ystal; the trouble is with the eyes which (
y to look through it. We pray for wis
pm, Lord, that our eyes might be opened.
hen the eye salve cures our blindness
zen we find that religion is transparent. ]
It is a transparent Bible. All the mount /
MS of the Bible come Out-Sinai,- the
ountain Of the law; Pisgah, the mount
n Of prospect; Oliyet, the mountain Of
struction; Calvary, the mountain of sac
fce, All the rivers Of the Bible come out
idekel, or the river Of paradisaical beauty;
,rdan, or the riyersof holy ehrism; I
herith, or the river Of prophetic supply; :
lie, or the river of palaces, and the pure
yer of life from under the throne, clear I
crystal While reading this Bible after '
IT eyes have been touched by grace we t
I'd it all TRANSPARENT, and the earth rocks, 8
w with crucifxion agony and now with v
dgment terrorl and Christ appears 10 0
me of his t8o hundred and fifty-six :
les, as far as / can count them-the a
cad, the rock, the captain, the comman- j
r, the conqueror, the star, and on and b
You'd any capacity Of mine to rehearse Il
en-. Transparent religionl b
PROVIDENCE IS PELLUCID. C
The providence that seemed dark before "
comes pellucid Now you find God is /
It trying to put you down. Now you un- r
rstend why you lost that child. and why &
u lost your property; K was to prepare
u for eternal treasures And why sick t
So came, it being the precursor OF i'm c
1rtal juvenescence. And now you IN L
Fstand why they lied about you and o
ed todriv5 you hither and thither Il "
Is to put you 10 the glorious company OF G
lto Z