The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1893-01-25
AT THE TABERNACLE.
Or. TALMAGE RESUMES HIS SERIES
ON GOD EVERYWHERE.

BROOKLYN, Jan. 22.-Dr. Talmage re-
turned from his southern tour of preaching
and lecturing for ten days in kentucky,
Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia and South
Carolina, and resumed his course of ser
mons on God everywhere. Having preached
on THE Astronomy of the Bible; or, God
among the Stars" 1.-THE Chronology of the
Bible; or, God among the Centuries THE
Ornithology of the Bible; or, God Among
the Birds" he today speaks of 1.-THE Prec-
ious Stones of the Bible; or, God Among
the Amethysts." Subject, 1.-THE Wall OF
Heaven" Text, Revelation xxi, 10, The
foundations of the wall of the city were gar
nished with all manner OF precious stones.
Shall be frank and tell you what are
my designs on you todayi They are to
make you homesick for heaven; TO console
you concerning your departed Christian
friends by giving you some idea of the bril-
hancy of the scenes in which they now COM
ningle; to give all who love the LORD
more elevated idea as TO where they are go
ing to pass the most Of the years OF their
existence, and to set all the indifferent and
neglectful TO quick and immediate prepare
ton, that they may have 1t likewise.
Yea, it is to induce many of or young
people to study volume of God that few
ever ODtQ, OUI NlAuOuN SDllC IAfitAAtth
with which It is impossible to understand
the Bible-I mean the precious stones,
their crystallization, their powers Of re-
fraction. their cleavage, their fracture, their
luster, their phosphoresence, their trans
rarencv. their infnity OF color and shape
and what they had to do with the welfare
and doom of families and the destiny of
nations-aye the positive revelation they
make of God himself.
MARvELs OF THE UNIVERSE.
! Ny text stands US in the presence or the
most stupendous splendOr of the universe,
and that is the wall Of heaven. and says of
its foundations that they are garnished
with all manner of precious stones. Alt
ancient cities had walls for safety, and
heaven has a wall for everlasting safety.
You may say that a wall made up of all
manner of precious stones is tigurative, but
you cannot understand the force and sig
nificance of the figure unless you know
something about the real structure and
color and value of the precious stones men
toned.
Now / propose this morning, so far as the
Lord may help me, to attempt to climb not
the wall of heaven, but the foundations Of
the wall, and ask you TO join me in the
attempt TO scale some of the heights We
shall only get part Of the way up, but bet
ter that than TO stay down on the stupid
level where most of US have all our lives
been standing. We begin clear down at the
bottom and where the wall begins.
The first LAYER of the foundation, reach
ing all around the city and for 1900 miles,
Is d LAYER Of Jasper Indeed there is more
of jasper in the wall of heaven than of any
other brilliant. because it not only composes
part Of the foundation, but makes up the
chief part of the superstructure. The jas
Der Is a congregation of many colors. 1t is
brown; it is yellow; 1t is green; it Is YER
million. it is red; it is purple; it is black,
and is so striped with colOrs that much of
it is called ribbon jasper.
1t is found in Siberia and Egypt, but it is
rare in most lands and of great value, for
it IS so hard the ordinary processes cannot
break it off from the places where it has
been deposited. The workmen bore holes
into the rock Of jasper, then drive into
these holes sticks OF dry brentwood, and
then saturate the sticks and keep them
saturated until they swell enough TO split
the rock. and the fragments are brought
out and polished and transported and cut
into canoes and put behind the glass doors
of museums.
The portraits of Roman emperors were
cut into It, The finest intaglio ever seen is
in the Vatican museum, the head of Miner
va in jasper. BE- divine arrangement Jas
per adorned the bTeastplate of the high
priest in the ancient temple. But its most
significant position is where it glOws and
burns and darkens and brightens and
breaches from the lowest stratum of the wall
of heaven. Glad am l that the very first
row of stones in the wall of heaven is
jasper in many cOlors, and if you like pur
pie it is purple, and if you like brown it is
brown, and if you like green 1t is green,
and if you like Ocher yellow it is ocher yell
low, and if you like vermilion it is vermil-
ion, and if you like black it is black. 1t
suggests to me that heaven is place of all
colOrs-colOrs of opinion, cOlors of creed,
colors of skin, colors of taste.
PRECIOUS STONES INDEED.
But we must pass up in this inspection of
the foundations Of the great wall of heaven,
and after leaving the jasper the next pre-
cious stone reached is sapphire, audit sweeps
around the city 1900 miles. All lapidaries
agree in saying that the sapphire of the
Bible is what we now call lapis lazuli. Job
speaks with emotion of ''the place of sap
phires, +" and God thought so much of this
precious stone that he put il in the breast
plate Of the high priest commanding, The
IL
and u diamond
The sapphire is a blue, but varies from
faintest hue 10 deepest ultramarine Ii is
found pebble in the rivers Of Ceylon. IL
Is elsewhere in compact masses Persia
and Thibet and Burmah and New South
Wales and North Carolina yield exquisite
specimens. Its blue is seen in the valley of
the Rhine. After burial of thousands of
years II has been brought to sight in Ecvp-
tian monuments and Assyrian cylinders
At Moscow and St Petersburg and Con
stantinOple have seen great masses of this
sapphire, commonly called lapis lazuli.
The closer you study its veins the more en-
chanting, and I do not wonder that the
sapphire is called into the foundation of
the wall Of heaven. u makes a strong
stone for the founCssion, for it is the hard
est Of ali minerals except the diamond
Sapphire based on jasper, blue sky over
fiery sunsT. St. John points to it in Rev
citation and says, The second sapphire
and this suggests TO me that though our
earth and all its furniture Of mountains
and seas and atulospheres are tocOllapse and
vanish we viii throughout all eternity
have In some way kept the most beautiful
of earthly appearances, whether you take
this sapphire of the second layer as literal
or figurative. The deep blue of our skies
and the deep blue of orr seas must not, will
not be forgotten If thousand years after
the world has gone to ashes you or / want
to recall how the earthly skies looked in a
summer noon or in the midocean in
calm, we VIII have only 70 look at the sec
pnd row Of the foundation of the wall Of
heaven.