The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1893-01-28

for it is the hardest of all minerals ex-
cept the diamond.
Sapphire based on jasper, blue sky
over q fiery sunset ST. John points to
it in Revelation and says, THE second,
sapphire" and this suggests to me that
though our earth and all its furniture of
mountains and seas and atmospheres 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 figurative.
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 | want
to recall how the earthly skies looked in
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
aboutit! '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 will visit us,
and wewill visit them, and some time we
will be in converse about this earth when
it was yet afoat and aswing, and we
shall want to tell them about how it
looked at certain times, and then it will
be a great object lesson for all eternity,
and we will say to our visitor from some
other world, as we point toward the wall
&c I~a1,oI lilo hot cf,- ofy1,,
of foundation next to the lowest"
John, twenty-frst chapter and nine
tenth 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 ana the Hebrides hold forth
beautiful specimens Of chalcedony.
But now we must make 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
one-third of the way to the top of the
foundatiOl for the fourth row is emer
aid. That, would judge, is Gods favor
lite 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 seal to stamp pronun-
ciamentos. The rainbow around the
throne Of God is by St. John compared
to it.
Conquerors have considered it the
greatest prize to capture. What ruth
lessness when the soldiers of Pizarro
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 rose, anoth-
er into the shape of 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 shipwreck they
went down off the coast of Barbary.
Napoleon wore an emerald at Austerlitz.
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
it's verdure, but because it was presented
to Henry II of England with an emerald
ring. Nero had a magnifying 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 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
beryl. 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 Murat's sword was adorned with
it. 1t CLOVIS in the imperial crown Of
Great Britain. Luther thought the beryl
of the heavenly wall was turquoise.
Kalisch thought it was chrysolite. jose
phus thought it golden colored jewel.
The wheels of Ezekiel's vision famed
with beryl and were revolving fire.
The beryl appears in six sided prisms,
and is set in seals and intaglios, in neck
laces and coronets. 1t was the joy of
ancient jewelry. 1t ornamented the af-
fluent with eardrops. Charlemagne pre-
E.