Fisherman & farmer. [volume] (Edenton, N.C.) 1887-19??, 1893-02-10
REV. DIR. TALMAGE.
THE BROOKLYN DIVINES SUN
DAY SERMON
Subject: The Wall of Heaven"

LEAF ne IOuNDutIOnS ~ L1c TELtt OF
the ctty tcere Gdrnislted NTH all manner Of
precious stones. "-Revelation XXI. l9.
Shall | be frank and tell you what are my
designs on you TO-DAY? They are TO make
you homesick for heaven: to console you con
corning your departed Christian friends by
giving you some idea Of the brilliancy OF the
scenes in which they now commincle: to
give all who love the Lord d more elevated
idea as to where they are going TO pass the
most Of the years of their existence and to
set all the indifferent aud neglected TO quick
and immediate preparation, 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 acqua ntance
With which it is impossible to understand
the Bible mean the precious stones, their
capitalization, their powers Of refractiou,
their cleavage, their fracture, their luster,
their phosphoresence, their transparency,
their infinity of color and shape and what
they had to do with the welfare and doom
of families and thu destiny of natiors-aye
the positive reve alton they make OF God
Himself.
NV text stands us in the presence of the
most stupendous splendor OF the universe,
and that is the wall OF heaven, and says OF
its foundations that they are garnlshed with
all manner Of precious stones. All the
ancient cities had walls for safety, and
heaven has wall for everlasting safety.
Yea may say that wall made up of ali
manner of precious stones is hgurative, but
you cannot understand the force and signif-
canoe of the figure unless you know some
thing about the real structure and color 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 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.
The first layer of the foundation, reaching
ali around the city and for 1900 miles, Is a
layer of jasper. Indeet there is more Of
jasper in the wall of heaven than IF any
other brilliant, because it not only composes
a part of the foundation, but makes 10 the
chief part Of the superstructures The jasper
is congregation of many colors. 1t Is
brown, it is yellow, it is green, it is vermil-
ion, it is red, it is purple, it is black, and IS
so striped with coiOrs that much Of it is
sailed ribbon jasper
It is found in Siberia and Egypt, but it is
rare IN most lands and Of great value. for it
lie 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 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 intaglio 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 if you like purple it is purple. and
il you like brown it is brown, and if you like
green 1t is green, and il you like ocher yell
low it is ocher yellow. and if you like ver-
million it Is vermillion, and if you like
black it is black. It suggests to ma that
heaven is place of all colors-colors of
opinion colors 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-
diaries agree in saying that the sapphire Of
the Bible is what we now call lapis Iazuli.
Job speaks with emotion of The place of
sapphires" and God thought so much of this
precious stone that He put it in the breast
plate of the high priest commanding, 1.-THE
second row shall be an emerald, sapphire
and diamond"
he sapphire is a blue, but varies from
faintest hue to deepest ultrcmarine. It is
found pebble in the rivers OF Ceylon. 1t
is elsewhere in compact masses. Persia and
Thibet and Burmah and New South Wales
and North Carolina yield exquisite speci-
mems. It's 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 AMI CoI-
stantlnope L have seen great masses Of this
commonly called lapis lazuIi. The
closer you study its veins the more enchant-
ing. and | do not wonder that the sapphire
rs called into the fOuniation Of the wall of
heaven. 1t makes a strong stone for the
foundation, for it is the hardest of all min.
erals except tbs diamond.
Sapphire based on jasper, a blue sky over
q fiery sunset. st. John points to it in Rev
Station 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 | want to
recall how the earthly skies looked in a sum-
mer noon or the midocean in a calm, we
viii 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 1t! The second, sapphirew While
we are living In si~ht of That wall spirits
VINO 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 adoat and aswing. and we shall want to
tell them about how it looked at csrtain