The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1893-01-27
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
How the Influences OF Good and
Evil Acts Move in Circles.
Years, or Even Centuries. May be Needed
to Complete the Circle, But the
Ends VIII Eventually Come
Together.

Rev. T. Dewitt Talmage delivered
the following discourse at Atlanta, Ca,
while on a recent tour of southern cities,
on the topic: 1.-THE Circle of the Earth. I"
His text was:
II Is He that sitteth upon the circle OF the
sarth.-Isaiah Il. %.
When yet people thought that the
world was fat, and thousands of years
before they found out that it was
round. Isaiah, in my text, intimat-
ed the shape of il, 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 circle. There are in the
natural world straight lines, angles,
parallelograms, diagonals, quadrant
giles; but these evidently are not Gods
favorites. Almost everywhere where
You will find Him geometrizing, you
will find the circle dominant, and if not
the circle, then the curve, which is a
circle that died youngl If it had lived
long enough, it would have been a full
orb, periphery. An ellipse is a circle
pressed only little too hard at the
sides Giants Causeway in Ireland
shows what God thinks of mathemat-
les. There are over thirty-five thousand
columns of rocks-octagonal, hexag-
onal. pentagonal. These rocks seem
to have been made by rule and
by compass. Every artist has his
molding room, where he may make
fifty shapes; but he chooses one shape
as preferable to all others I will not
say that the Giants Causeway was the
worlds molding room, but do say, out
of a great many figures God seems TO
have selected the circle as the best. at
is He that sitteth on the circle of the
earth" The stars in circle. the moon
in a circle, the sun in circle, the uni
verse 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 Archi-
tect and put the audience in a circle,
knowing that the tides OF emotion roll
more easily that way than in straight
lines. Six thousand years ago God
flung this world out of His right hand;
but He did not throw it out in a straight
line, but curvilinear, with leash of
love holding it so as to bring it back
again. The world started from His
hand pure and Edenic. 1t has been
rolling on through regions of moral ice
and distemper. How long it will roll
God only knows; but it will in due
time make a complete circuit and come
back to the place whence it started
the hand of God-pure and Edenic.
The history of the world goes in
circle. Why is it that the ship
ping in our day is improving so rapidlyP
1t is because men are initiating the
old model of Noah's ark. A ship cor
penter gives that as his opinion. AL
though SO much derided by small wits,
that ship of Noah's beat the Majectic
and the Etruria and 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 were wrecked, landing
all the passengers in safety?-two of
each of living creatures, thousands of
species Pomology will go on with it's
achievements, until after many GEN.
turtles the world will have plums and
pears equal to the ParadisaicaL The
art of gardening viii grow for centu-
ries, and after the Downings and Mitch
ellis 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. If the makers of colored
glass go on improving, they 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 art
lists, but the world must keep on toll
ing until it shall make the complete
circuit and come up to the skill of those
very men. If the world continues to
improve in masonry, we shall have
after awhile, perhaps after the advance
of centuries, morter equal to that
which / saw last summer lin the wall
of an exhumed English city, built in
the time of the Romans, one thousand
six hundred years ago-that mortar to-
day as good as the day in which it was
made, having outlasted the brick and
the stone. / say, after hundreds of
years, masonry may advance to that
point. If the world stands long
enough, we may have a city as they
had in old times. Babylon, five times
the size of London. You go into the
potterries in England, and you find
them making cups and vases after the
style of the cups and vases exhumed
from Pompeii. The world is not going
back. Oh no. but it is swinging in a
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 it makes the
complete circuit. The curve is in the
right direction, the curve will keep on
until il becomes the circle.
Well now, my friends, what is true in
the material universe is true in Gods
moral government and spiritual ar
rangement. That is the meaning of
Ezelxiers wheel. All commentators
agree in saying that the wheel means
Gods providence. But wheel is of no
use unless it turns, and if it turns it
turns around, and if it turns around it
moves in circle. What then? Are we
parts of great iron machine whirled
around whether we will or not, the vic
Tins of memorable fate? 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 in
PREVENTION it 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 dogs were eating the body of Ma
both, Elisha, the prophet, put down his
compass and marked a circle from those
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