The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1893-01-16
CIRCLE OF THE EARTH.
REV. TALMAGE DELIVERS A
SERMON AT ATLANTA.

the Earth Made Thousands of Years
Before the People Learned What II
was-The History OF the World
Goes in a Circle.
ATLANTA, GA, Jan. I5.-Rev. DIR. Tai
mage, who is now making a ten days tour
of the southern cities, preached here to-day.
The throngs in and around the audience hal
were beyond estimate. The subject chosen
was 1.-THE Circle Of the Earth" the text
being Isaiah xl., p: 1T is he that stitch
upon the circle Of the earth.
While yet people thought that the world
was fat, and thousands of years before they
found out that it was round, Isaiah. in my
text, intimatei the shape of it, God sitting
upon the circle Of the earth. The most
beautiful figure in all geometry is the
circle. God made the universe on the plan
of a circle. There are in the natural world
straight lines. angles. parallelograms, dag
onals, quadrangles, but these evidently are
not Gods favorites Almost every where
where you will find him geometrizing you
find the circle dominant, and If not the
circle, then the curve. which is a circle that
died young II it had lived long enough
IL would have been a full orb. a
periphery. An ellipse is a circle pressed
Giants causeway in Ireland shows what
God thinks of mathematics. There are over
thirty-five thousand columns of rocks-octag-
oual. hexagonal, pextagonal. These rocks
seem to have been made by rule and COM
pass. Every artist has his molding room,
where he may make fifty shapes; but he
chooses one shape as preferable to all others.
/ will not say that the Giants cAuseway
was the worlds molding room, but l do
say, out Of a great many figures. God seems
60 have selected the circle as the best. at
is he that stitch on the circle of the earth
The stars in a circle, the moon in a circle
the sun in a circle, the universe in a circle
the throne OF God the center Of that circle.
When men build churches, they ought TO
initiate the idea of the Great Arcnite,t,
and put the audience in a circle, knowing
that the tides Of emotion roll more easily
that way than in straight lines. Six thou
sand years ago God flung this world out of
his right hand; but he did not throw it out
in straight line, but curvilinear, with a
leash of love holding it so as to bring it
back again. The world started from his
hand pure and Edenic. Ii has been rolling
on through regions of moral ice ard dis
temper. How long it will roll God only
knows; but il will in due time make com
plete circuit and come back to the place
whence 1t stArted-the hand Of God-pure
and Edenic.
The history Of the world goes In circle.
Why is It that the shipping in our day is
improving so rapidlyl It is because men
are initiating the old model OF Noah's ark.
A ship carpenter gives that as his opinion.
Although so much derided by small wits,
that ship of Noah's time beat the Majestic
and the Etrurla ana the City Of Paris of
which we boast so much. Where is the
ship on the sea to-day that could outride a
deluge in which the heaven and the earth
" ere wrecked, landing all the passengers in
Eafetyl-two of each kind of living Great
ures, thousands of species. Pomology will
go on with it's achievements, until after
many centuries the world will have plums
and pears equal to the paradisaical
The art OF gardening will grow for
centuries, a nd after the Downings and
hitohels OF the world have done their best,
IN the far future the art of gardening will
come up to the aborescence Of the year one.
II the makers Of colored glass go on i'm
proving, they may in some centuries be
able to make something equal TO the east
window OF York minister, which was built
In 1890. We are six centuries behind those
artists, but the world must keep on toiling
until 1t shall make the complete circuit and
come up to the skill of those very men. Ii
the world continues TO improve in masonry,
We shall after while, perhaps after the
advance of centuries, morter equal
to that which saw last sum-
mer in the wall of an exhumed
English city, built in the time of the Ro-
mans, sixteen hundred years ago-that
mortar today is as good as the
day in which 10 was made, having
outlasted the brick and the stone. say.
after hundreds Of years. masonry may ad-
vance to that point. If the world stands
long enough, we may have a city as large
as they had in old times. Babylon, five
times the size Of London. You 60 into the
rotteries in England. and you find them
making cups and vases after the sty lie of the
cups and vases exhumed from Pompeii
The world is not going back. o no! but it
Is swinging in circle, and will come back
TO the styles Of pottery known so long ago
as the days Of Pompeii. The world must
keep on progressing until 1t makes the COM
plete circuit. The curve is in the right
direction; the curve will keep on until it
becomes the circle.
Well now, my friends, what is true in the
material universe is true in Gods moral
government and spiritual arrangement.
That is the meaning Of Ezekiel's wheel.
All commentators agree In saying that the
wheel means Gods providence. But a
wheel is OF no use unless it turn, and if it
turn. 1t turns around, and il it turn around
IL moves in circle. What then!
are we parts or great iron ma
chine whirled around whether we will
or not, the victims of inexorable fate9
MOL SO far from that, / shall show YOU
that we ourselves start the circle of good
or bad actions, and that it will surely come
around again to us unless by divine inter
vention is be hindered. Those bad or good
actions may make the circuit OF many
years; but come back to us they will as
certainly as that God sits on the circle
OF the earth. Jezebel, the worst woman
OF the Bible, slew Naboth. because she
wanted his vineyard. While the do2s
were eating the body of Navoth, Elisha the
prophet put down his compass, and marked
q circle from those dogs clear around 10 the
dogs that should eat the body Of Jezehel the
murderess. impossible" the people said:
that will never happen" Who is that be-
ing hung out OF the palace Window Jeze-
bel. A few hours after they came around.
hoping to bury her. They find only the
palms of her hands and the skull. The dogs
that devoured Jezebel and the dogs that de-
voured Naboth. o. what a swift, what an
awful circuitl
But it is sometimes the case that this cir.
Gle sweeps through a century, or through
many centuries. The world started with a
theocracy for government, that is, God was
the president and emperor Of the world.
People got tired of a theocracy. Thew said.
I'VE don't want God directly interfering
with the affairs Of the world; give us a
monarchy" The world had monarchy.
From monarchy il is going to have a linn
tied monarchy. After a while, the limited
monarchy will be given up, and the re.
publican form of government will be every
where dominant and recognized. Then the
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