Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1893-01-28
REV. DR.. 7ALMAGH.
1As Eminent Brooklyn Divines Sun.
Day Sermon.
saM~et. 9Th. wan of Heaven.

uIsct0bS STONES. D--heveiataon XXX, H.
Shall be frank and tell you what are my
designs on you to-day! They are to make
/ you hornesick for heaven: to console you con-
| corning your departed Christian friends by
| giving you some idea of the briliiancy of the
scenes in which they now conmingle: to
| give all who love the Lord a more elevate |
idea as to where they are going to pass the
most OF the years Of their existence, and to
| sct all the Indifferent and neglected to QUICK
and immediate preparation, that they may
have it likewise.
Yea, 1t Ia to induce many of our young
people to study volume Of God that few
ever open, but without some acqua 'ntance
with which it Is impossible to understand
the Biblf-i mean the precious stones, their
crystalizati their powers of refractioD
their cleavage, their fracture. their luster,
their phosphoresencs, their Transparency.
their intinty of color and shane, and what
they had to do with the welfare and doom
OF families and the DESTINY of nations AYE,
-" positive revelation they make of Col
Himself.
NV text stands us in the presence of thu
most stupen ious splen Tor OF the universe,
and that is the wall OF heaven, AMI says OF
its foundations that they are garnshad with
all manner Of precious stones. All the
ancient cities had walls for safety, and
heaven has wall for everlasting safety:
You may say that wall made up of all
manner Of precious stones is figurative, but
| you cannot understand the force and signif-
cahce OF the figure unless you know some
thing about the real structure and c DIOR and
value OF the precious stones mentioned.
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 sons OF the heights. We
shall only get part of the way up. but better
that than to stay down on the stupid level
where the most of US have all our lives been
standing. We begin Gear down at the bot.
tom and where the wall bsgins.
| The first layer of the foundation reaching
ali around this city and for 1902 miles, Is
layer Of jasper. In ieet 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 no the
| chief part of the superstructure. The jasper
Is congregation of many colors. 1t is
brown, it Is yellow, it is green it is vermi..
ion, it is red, it is purple, it is blscf, 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 10
| il so hard the ordinary processes cannot
break it of from the places where it has
been deposited. The workmen bore holes
| into the rock of jasper, then drive into thes,
| holes sticks of dry birch wool, 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 wers
cut into it. The finest inta Clio ever seen is
| in the Vatican museum, the head of Minerva
In jasper. By divine arrangement jasper
! adorned the breastplate OF ths high priest in
the ancient temple. But its most significant
| position is where it glows and burns and
fipv xa,te md tyht nd
the lowest stratu n OF ths wall Of heaven.
| Glad am that the very first row of stones
| in the wall OF heaven is jasper OF many col
| ors and il you like purple it is purple aud
| if you like brown it is brown, aud it you like
green it is green, and IL you like ocher vel.
million it is vermiliion, and il you like
black it is black. 1t su ygests to ms that
heaven is a place of all colors-colors OF
opinion, co'ors Of creed, colors of skin, col
ors Of taste.
! 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, and it
! sweeps around the city 1900 miles. All lapi.
dares agree in saying that the sapphire of
the Bible is what we now call lapis lazuli.
| Job speaks with emotion of "The place OF
sapphiree." and Goi thought so much of this
| precious stone that He put it in the breast
| plate of the high priest commanding, THE
/ second row shall lie an emerald, sapphire
and diamond"
! The sapphire is a blue, but varies from
faintest hue to deepest ultramarine. 1t is
| found a pebble in the rivers OF Ceylor. 1t
! is elsewhere in compact masses. Persia and
! Tibet and Burmab and New South Wales
| aud North Carolina yield exquisite speci
! mems. Its blue eye is seen In the valley OF
/ ths Rhine. After burial Of thousands of
years it has been brought to sight In Egyp-
, .ian monuments aud Assyrian cylinders.
At Moscow aud st. Petersburg and Con-
! stantinope L have seen great masses of this
sapphire, commonly called lapis lazuli The
| closer you study its veins the more enchant-
! ing, and | do not wonder that the sapphire
, is called into the foun iation OF the wall OF
heaven. 1t makes strong stone for the
foundation, for it is the hardest OF all min
erals except the diamond.
/ Sapphire based on jasper. blue sky over
/ fiery sunset. ST. John points to it in Rev.
elation and says, 1.-The second, sapphire"
and this uggests to me that though our
earth and all Its furniture of mountains and
! seas AMI atnospleres are to collapse and
vanish We will throughout all etern ty have
! in some way kept the most beautiful of
earthly appearances, whether you take this
sapphire OF the second layer as literal or
! h2urative. The deep blue of our skies and
/ the deep blue OF our seas must not, will not;
y
world has gone to asnes you or | want to
recall how the earthly skies lookel in sum-
! mer noon or the midocean in a calm, we
will have only to look at the secont row OF
the foundation of the wall of heaven.
Oh, AM glad that ST. john told US
about it. 1.-The secon', sapphirep While
we are living in sight OF that wall spirits
who have come from other worlds and VINO
never saw our earth will visit US and We
will visit them, and some time we will be in
conversation about this earth when 1t was
vet enoat and aswing, and va shall want 10
| tell them about how it looked at certain
times ami then it will be a great object
lesson for all eternity, AMI we will say to
our visitor from some other world, as We
point toward the wall of heaven, ut looked
I like that stratum of foundation next to the
lowest john, twenty first chapter and
nineteenth verse, The second sapphire"
A step higher and you come to chal.
cedony, another layer in the fou 1datiou OF
the wall aud the running 1900 miles around
the heavenly city Chsicedonyi Trans
lucent. divine mixture OF agates and
opas aud comedians Striped with white
aud gray. Dashed of paIlor b.ushing int,
red and dar1enlug into purple. Ice AID All
the Hehrides hoi forth beautiful specimens
of chalcedony
But now We must maze swift ascent ID
the top of the foundation wall, for We can
not infinitely examine all the layers. and so,
putting one foot on the ca1lcedony OF which
we have been speaking, We spring to tue
emerald and we are one-third of tbs way
! to the top of the foundation, for the fourth
row Is emerald. That | would ju ige, is
Gods favorite among ga ms, becAuse it holds
what seems evident Is His ia vorits color on
earth, the green. since that is the color most
widely diffused across all the earth's cont.
Eents-:he grass, the foliage. the everyday
dress of nature. The emerald Kings use
it as a seal to stamp prouunciamentos. The
rainbow around the throne of God is by
1 st, John compared to it,
ConQuerors have considered it the great.
est prize to capture. What ruthlessness
! when the soldiers OF Pizarro pounded it with
| their hammersi Emera!ds hav. had muct,
to do with the destiny of Mexico. Five of
them were presented by Cortez TO his bride
one Of them cut into the shape of a rose, an.
! other into the shape of a trumpet, another
into the shape of bell, with tongue OF
pearl and this presentation aroused the jaai.
ously OF the throne and caus,l the conss-
I qusnt fall of Cortez. But the depths of the
sea were decorated with those emeralds. for
in ship~recs they went down of the coast
OF Barbary. Napoleon wore an emerald at
! Austerlitz.
In the Kremin museum at Moscow there
( are crowns AMI scepters aud outspread mira
( cies OF emerald. Ireland is called the
| Emerald Isle not because OF its verdure. but
because it was presented to Henry III of
! England with an emerald ring. Nero hal q
masnuying glass OF emerald through wnicy
he looked at the gla1iatorial contests at
/ sweeping around the heavenly city in one