Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1893-01-23

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foundation Of tie vail Of heaven. 1t
makes strong stone for the foundation,
for it is the hardest II IL minerals ex-
cept the diamond.
Sapphire based on jasper, blue sky
over a fiery sunset. ST. John points to
it in Revelation and says. The second,
sapphire" and this suggests to ne that
though our earth and all its furniture OF
mountains and seas and atmocphcres are
to collapse and vanish we will through
out all eternity have in some way kept
the most beautiful of earthly appear
ances, whether you take this sapphire of
the second layer as literal or fgurative.
The deep blue of our skies and the deep
blue of our seas must not, will not, be
forgotten If thousand years after the
world has gone to ashes you or I want
to recall how the earthly skies looked II
o summer noon or the midOcean in
calm, we will have only to look at the
second row of the foundation of the wall
of heaven.
Oh am so glad that st. John told US
about it! 1.-The second, sapphirer' While
we are living in sight of that wall spirits
who have come from other worlds and
who never saw our earth viii visit us,
and we will visit them, and some time we
will be in converse about this earth when
it was yet afoat and aswing, and VIC
shall want to tell them about how it
looked at certain times, and then 1T will
be great object lesson for all eternity,
and we will say to our visitor fromssome
other world, as We point toward the wall
of heaven, 1T looked like that stratum
of foundation next to the lowest.
John, twenty first chapter and nine
teenth verse, THE second, sapphire
CHALCEDoNY AND EMERALD.
A step higher and you come to chal-
| cedony, another layer in the foundation
of the wall and running 1900 miles
around the heavenly city. Chalcedony!
| Translucent A divine mixture of agates
and opals and comedians. Striped with
white and gray. Dashed of pallor blush
ing into red and darkening into purple.
Iceland and the Hebrides hold forth
beautiful specimens of chalcedony.
But now we must make a swift ascent
to the top of the foundation wall, for we
cannot infinitely examine all the layers,
and so, putting one foot on the chalce-
dony of which we have been speaking,
we spring to the emerald, and we are
third of the way to the top OF the
| foundation, for the fourth row is e1ner-
aid. That, would judge, is Gods favor
tie among gems, because it holds what
seems evident is his favorite color on
earth, the green, since that is the color
most widely diffused across all the earth's
continents-the grass, the foliage, the
EVERYDAY dress of nature. The emerald.
Kings used it as a seal to stamp pronun-
ciamentos The rainbow around the
throne of God is by st. John compared
to it.
Conouerors have considered it the
greatest prize to capture. What ruth
lessness when the soldiers Of Plzarro
pounded it with their hammers! Emer-
aids have had much to do with the des-
tiny of Mexico. Five of them were pre-
sented by Cortez to his bride, one OF
them cut into the shape of a rose, anoth-
er into the shape Of a trumpet, another
into the shape of bell, with tongue OF
pearl, and this presentation aroused the
jealousy of the throne and caused the
consequent downfall of Cortez. But the
depths of the sea were decorated with
those emeralds, for in a sEipwreck they
went down off the coast of Barbary.
Napoleon wore an emerald at Austerlltz
In the Kremlin museum at Moscow
there are crowns and scepters and out
spread miracles of emerald. Ireland IS
called the Emerald Isle not because OF
its verdure, but because 1t was presented
to Henry II OF England with an emerald
ring Nero had a magn1fylng glass OF
emerald through which he looked at the
gladiatorial contests at Rome. But here
are 1900 miles of emerald sweeping
around the heavenly city in one layer.
SARDONYX AND SARDIUS.
But upward still and you put your
foot on u stratum of sardonyx, white and
red, a seeming commingling of snow and
fire. the snow cooling the fire, the fire
melting the snow.
Another climb and you reach the sar-
dius, named after the city of Sardius.
Another climb and you reach the chryso-
lite. A specimen of this, belonging to
Epiphanus, in the Fourth century, was
said to be so brilliant that whatever was
put over to conceal it was shone through,
and the emperor Of China has specimen
that is described as having such pene-
trating radiance that it makes the night
as bright as the day.
A higher climb and you reach the
bery1 Two thousand years ago the
Greeks used this precious stone for en-
craving purposes. 1t was accounted
among the royal treasures of Tyre. The
hilt of Murats sword was adorned with
it. It CLOVIS in the imperial crown of
Great Britain Luther thought the beryl
of the heavenly wall was turquoise.
Kalisch thought it was chrysolite. jose
plus thought it golden colored jewel.
The wheels Of Ezekie1's vision famed
with beryl and were a revolving fire.
The beryl appears in six sided prisms,
and is set in seals and intagEos, in neck.
laces and coronets It was the joy OF
cd tho Of.