The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1893-02-08
REV. DIR. TALMAGE
THE BROOKLYN DIVINES SUN
DAY SERMON.
Subject: "The Wall Of Heaven"


b Shall be frank and tell. you what are my
you homesick for heaven: to console you con
cerniug your departed Christian friends BY
giving you some idea Of the brilliancy OF the
scenes in which they now commingle; to
give all who love the Lord more elevated
idea as to where they are going to pass the
most of the wears of their existence. and to
set all the Indifferent and neglected to quick
and immediate preparation. that they may
have it likewise.
Yea, it is to induce many Of our young
people to study a volume Of God that few
ever open, but without some acquaintance
with which it is impossible to understand
the Bible-I mean the precious stones, their
crystalization, their powers OF refraction,
their cleavage, their fracture. their Iuster,
their phosphoresence, their transparency,
their infnity of color and shape, and what
they had to do with the welfare aud doom
of families and the destiny Of nations-aye,
+ha positive revelation they make OF God
Himself.
NV text stands US in the presence OF the
most stupendous splendor o. the universe,
and that is the wall OF heaven, and says or
its foundations that they are garnished 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 or all
manner Of precious stones is fguratlve, but
YOU cannot understand the force and signih-
ance of the figure unless you know some
thing about the real structure and color and
value Of the precious stones mentioned.
Now. proposs this morning, so Tar 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 better
that than to stay down on the stupid level
where the most Of US have all our lives been
standing. We begin clear down at the bot
tom and where the wall begins. ,s,
The first layer Of the foundation, reaching
ali around the city and for 1500 miles, is q
iayer of Jasper. Indeed there Is more OF
Jasper in the wall of heaven than Of any
other brilliant, because it not only composes
a part Of the, foundation, but makes up the
chief part Of the superstructure. The jasper
is q congregation of many colors. 1t Is
brown, it is yellow, it is green. it is vermll-
ion, it is red, it is purple, it Is black, and IS
so striped with colors that much OF 1t IS
called ribbon jasper.
It 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
kreakit of from the places where it has
been deposited. The workmen bore holes
into the rock of jasper, then drive loto these
holes sticks Of dry birch wood, 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 intagIio ever seen Is
in the Vatican museum, the head OF Minerva
In Jasper. BY divine arrangement jasper
adorned the breastplate 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 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. and
green it is green, and IL you like ocher yell
low it is ocher yellow, and il you like YER
million it is vermillion, and il you like
black it is black. 1t suggests to me that
heaven Is 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.
daries agree in saying that the sapphire OF
the Bible is what we now call lapis lazuli.
Job speaks with emotion of "The place OF
sapphires," and God thought 50 much Of this
precious stone that He put it in the breast
plate Of the high priest commanding. 'the
second row shall be an emerald, sapphire
and diamond"
The sapphire is q blue, but varies from
faintesS hue to deepest ultramarine. It is
found pebble in the rivers OF Ceyion. 1t
Is elsewhere in compact masses. Persia and
!Thibet and Burmab and New South Wales
and North Carolina yield exquisite speci-
mems. Its blue eye is seen In the valley OF
the Rhine. After burial OF thousands of
years it has been brought to sight in Egyp.
tian monuments and Assyrian cylinders.
At. Moscow aud st. Petersburg and Con-
stantinope 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 foundation ot"the wall OF
heaven. 1t makes a strong stone for the
foundation, for it is the hardest Of all min.
erals except the diamond.
Sapphire based on jasper. blue sky over
a fiery sunset. st. John points to it ip Rev
elation 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 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
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 l want to
recall how the earthly skies looked in sum-
nner noon or the midocean in a 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! "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 We
will visit them, and some time we will be in
conversation about this earth when it was
yet aHoat 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 to ward the wall of heaven, "It looked
like that stratum OF foundation next to the
lowest" John, twenty-arst chapter and
nineteenth verse. "The second sapphire"
A step higher and you come to chal-
cedopy. another layer in the foundation OF
the wall and the runu uing 1900 miles around
the heavenly city. Chalcedony! Trans.
lucent. A divine mixture Of agates and
opa!s and comedians. Striped with white
and gray. Dashed Of pallor blushing into
red and darkenlug into purple. Iceland and
the Hebrides hold forth beautiful specimens
Of chalcedony.
But now we must make swift ascent to
the top Of the foundation wall, for we can
not minutely examine all the layers, and so,
putting one foot on the chalcsdony Of which
we have been speaking, Wa spring to the
emerald, and we are one-third Of the way
to the top OF the foundation, for the fourth
row is emerald. That, I would judge, i:
Gods favorite among gems, because it holds