Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1893-01-26
AT THE TABERNACLE.
Or. TALM&GE ,..UMES HIS SERIES
ON GOD EVERYWHERE.
Ills Idea of the Twelve stones Mentioned
by ST. John as in tho Foundation of the
Wall of the New Jerusalem.

Wall of the New Jerusalem.
BROOKLYN. Jan. Cdr. Talmage re-
burned 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" The Chronology of the
Bible; or God among the Centuries;" Tho
Ornithology of the Bible: or, God Among
The Birds" he today speaks of 1.-THE Prec-
lous Stones of the Bible; or, God Among
the Amethysts." Subject 1.-THE Wall of
Heaven" Text, Revelation xxi, 49, 1.-The
foundations Of the wall of the city were gar
nished with all manner OF precious stones"
Shall l be frank and tell you what are
my designs on you today? They are to
make you homesicl, for heaven; to console
you concerning your departed Christian
friends by giving you some idea of the bril-
liancy of the scenes in which they now com
mingle; to give all who love the Lord n
more elevated idea Us to where they are 60
ing to pass tho 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 it likewise.
Yea, it is to induce many of our young
people to study volume of God that few
ever open. but without some acquaintance
with which it is impossible TO understand
the Biblc-I mean the precious stones,
their crystalliZation, their powers of re-
fraction, their cleavage, their fracture, their
luster, their phosphoresence, their trans
parency, their infinity 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 of the
most stupendous spendor of the universe,
and that is the wall of heaven, and says Of
it's foundations that they are garnished
with all manner of precious stones. All the
ancient cities had walls for safety, and
heaven has Il wall for everlasting safety.
You may say that wall made up of all
manner of precious stones is fgurative, but
you cannot understand the force and sig
nifcance 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 800 miles,
Is a layer of jasper. Indeed there is more
of jasper in the wall of heaven than of any
other brilliant, because it not only composes
n mart of the foundation. but makes IN tho
chief mart of the superstructure The las
ner is n conprerotion of many colors. 1t is
brown. Il is vrllow. If il green. it is yer-
million. it is red. it is purple; it is black.
md is so striped with colors that much Of
# is called ribbon iaspcr
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. BY divine arrangement Jas
per adorned the breastpate of the high
priest in the ancient temple. But its most
significant position is where it CLOVIS 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 in many colors, and if you like pur-
pie it is purple, and if you like brown it is
brown. and if Won like green it is green,
and if YOU like ocher yellow it is ocher vel
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 a place of all
colors-colors of opinion. colors of creed.
colors of skin. colors of taste.
pnrc1o1-s sToNrs INDEED
Rut we must mass mn in tbis insnoction of
the foundations of the rreat wall If heaven
and after leaving the iasner the newt nre.
cious stone reached is sannhire and If sweens
aronnd the citv 800 miles All lanidarie.
agree in saving that tho sonnhira of tho