Audubon County Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Audubon Co., Iowa) 1885-1894, 1893-01-26
THE WALL OF HEAVEN
TALMAQE ON PRECIOUS STONES
OF THE GOOD BOOK.
The Foundations OF the Wall of tho
city Were Garnisard with All Man
nor OF Precious stoues--A glimpse of
Eternity.

| leNNurluE lur lcn DAYS III kentucky, lcnNcSSec,
| Alabama, Georgia and South Carol ma, nnd re-
/ sumcd his course OF sermons ON "God Every
| where" Having preached on The Astronomy
4 Of tho Bible, or God Among the stars The
| Chronology OF the Biblo, or God Among the
/ Centuries The Ornilhuogy OF the bible, or
God Among tho Birds, he to-day speaks OF
l Tho Precious stones OF the Bible, or God
/ Among the Amethysts. Subject. "'rhc
| Wall OF Heaven" Text: Revelation IL ~;
| Tho foundations OF tho wall OF the city were
| garnished with all manner OF precious stones i"
| Shall be frank and tell you what
are my designs ON you to-day? They
are to make YOU homesicll for heaven;
to console You concerning your de-
| parted Christian Il lends by giving you
some idea of the briliancy OF the
scenes in which they now comminglc;
To give all who love the Lord more
elevated idea AS to where they are
| going to pass the most of the years of
their existence; and to set all the in
different and neglected. TO quick
and Immediate preparation that
they may have il likewise,
| Yea, 1t is to induce many of
| our young people to study volume of
| God that few ever open, but, without
i some acquaintance with which it is inn
| possible TO understand the Bible--l
| moan the precious stones; their crys.
|
| their cleavage, their fracture, their
lustrc, their phosphorcscencc, their
| transparency, 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
| My text stands Us in the presence of
! the most stupendous splcndor of the
universe, aud that is the wall of
| heaven, and says of its foundations
| that they are garnishcd with all man
ner of precious stones, All tho an,
cieut 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
| hgurativc, but you cannot under
| stand the force and significance OF the
figure unless you know something
| about the real structure and color and
| value of the precious stones mentioned.
| Now, propose this morning, so far ms
| the Lord may hcl p me, to attempt TO
, climb, MT 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
| down on the stupid level where the
| most Of us have all our lives been
standing. We begin clear down a { the
bottom and where the wall begins
The FIRST layer of the foundation,
| reaching all around the city and for
1880 miles, Is a layer Of jasper, In
deed there is more of iasperin the wall
of heaven than of any other brilliant,
because il not only composes a part Of
| the foundation but makes up the chief
| part of the superstructurc. The jasper
is n congregation of many colors. II
is brown; it is yellow; it is green; it is
vermillion; it is red it is purple; il is
black; and so is striped with colors
that much of il 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 worlSmcu bore holes
into the rock of jasper; then drive into
these holes sticks of dry birch wood,
and then saturatc the sticks and keep
them saturated until they swell
enough to split the rock and the frag-
nents arc 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 mus
cum, the head of Minerva in Jasper.
by divine arrangement, jasper adorned
the breastpatc of the high priest in
the ancient temple. Bnt its most sig
nilicant position is where it glows and
burns and darkens and brightcns and
breaches from the lowest strata of the
wall of heaven. Glad am | that the
very first row of stones in the wall OF
heaven is jasper of many colorS and if
you like purple it Is purple, ana If you
like brown ii is brown, and IL you like
green IL is green. and II you like ochrc-
yellow ii is ochrc-yellow, and If YOU
like vermillion is vcrmillion, and II
you like black il is black 1t suggests
To me that heaven Is Il place OF all
colors-colors of opinion, colnrs of
creed, colors of skin, colors of taste.
But we must pass mp in this inspection
of the foundations of the great wall Of
heaven, and after leaving the jasper,
the next precious stone reached is sap
phire, and 1T sweeps around the city
|, 800 mics. All lapidaries agree in say
ing that the sapphire Of the Bible is
what we may call lapis lazuli. Job
speaks with emotion of "Thc Place of
Sapphires, and God thought so much
of this precious stone that he put
il in the breast-platc of the
high priest, commanding, The
second row shall bc an emerald,
sapphire, and Il diamond" The sap
phirc is hue, but varies from faintest
hue to deepest ultramarinc 1t is
found a pr5ble in the rivers OF Ceylon
1t is elsewhere in compact masses.
Persia an,, Thibct and Burmah and
New South Wales and North Carolina
yield exquisite specimens. Its blue
eye is seen in the valley of the Rhine
After burial o! thousands of years il
has been brought TO sight in Egyptian
monuments ard Assyrian cylinders
At Moscow and st Petersburg and
Constantinop!c, | have seen great
masses of this sapphire commonly
called lapis lazuli. The closer you
study its veins, the more enchanting,
and not wonder that the sapphire is
called into the foundation of the wall
of heaven. IL makes strong stone for
the foundation, for ii is the hardest of
all minerals except the diamond Sap
phire based on jasper; blue sky over
a fiery sunset. St John points 10 il
in Revelation and says: THE second,
sapphire;" and this suggests 10 me
that though our earth and all its
furniture of mountains and seas and
atmospheres is TO collapse and vanish.
we will throughout all cter-
nifty have in some way kept the most
beautiful of earthly appearances,
whether you take this sapphire of the
second layer as literal or 6gurativc.
The deep blue of oar skies and the
deep blue of our seas must not. will
not, Sc forgotten. II a thousand years
after the world has gone TO ashes, you
,or want to recall how the earthly
skies looked in a summer noon, or the
mid ocean in a calm, we will have only |
10 look at the second row Of the founda. |
;tiou of the wall of Heaven. Oh, | am
so glad that St John told MS about IT, |
'rhe second. sapphire," While we are
living in sight of that wall, spirit |
who have come from other worlds and |
who never saw our earth, will visit US. |
and we will visit them, and some time |
we will be In converse about this earth |
when IL was vet -ioat an1 a-Swing