The Penn's Grove record., 1893-01-27
DR.. TALMAGR,
The Brooklyn Givine's
Sunday Sermon.
subject:-"rhe Wall Of Heaven. "

TEXT. "Ths foundations Of tts tcnu OF
the city ioere gornished Nth all manner o.
precious stones. n-Rsvelstion Xxi, 10.
Shall l be frank aud tell you what are nv
designs IN you to-day, They are to make
YOU homesicz for heaven: to console you con-
corning o u departed Christian friends BY
giving you some idea OF the briiliaucy OF this
scenes in which they now ~commingle; to
give all who love the Lord a more elevated
idea as IN where they are going to pass the
most of the years of their existence, and to
set all the Indifferent and neglected to quick
and immediate preparation, that they may
have 1t likewise.
Yea, 1t is to induce many Of our young
people to stuiy a volume OF God that few
aver open. but without some acqua intancs
with which it is impossible to understand
the Bible mean the precious stones, their
capitalization, their powers Of refractiob,
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 aud doom
of families and the DESTINY of nations-sye,
the positive revocation they make Of God
Himself.
Nv text stands US in the presence of this
most stupeniou s splen Tor OF the universe,
and that Is the wall OF heaven, au1 says OF
its foundations that they are garnished with
all manner Of precious stones. All the
ancient cities had walls for safety, and
heaven has a wall for everlasting safety.
You may say that a wall made up of all
manner of precious stones Is figurative, 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 tile 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 b 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
all around the city and for 1900 miles, is a
layer of jasper. Indee1 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 no the
chief part OF the superstructure. The jasper
is a congregation of many colors. 1t is
trown, it is yellow, it is green. it is vermil-
lon, it is red, it is purple, it is black, and is
SO striped with co.ers that much Of it IL
called ribbon jasper.
1t is found in Siberia and Egypt, but it Is
rare in most lands and of great value. for 1t
is so hard the ordinary processes canno
break it off from tire places where it has
been deposited. The workmen bore holes
into the rock of jasper, then drive into these
holes sticks of dry birch wool, and then
s~aturate the sticks n 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 emDerors were
cut into it. The finest inta yiio ever seen is
in the Vatican museum, the head of Minerva
10 jasper. By divine arrangement jasper
adorned the breastplate Of the high priest in
the ancient temple. But its most significant
position is where it giows and burns and
darkens and brig ans and breaches from
the lowest stratun OF this 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, aud
If you like brown it is brown, and il you like
green it is green, and if you like ocher yell
low it is ocher yellow, and il you like ver-
black it is black. 1t suggests to ms that
heaven is a place Of all colors-colors of
opinion, co'ors of creed, colors OF skin, col
ers 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 1t
sweeps around the city 1900 miles. All lapi-
DIARIES agree in saying that the sapphire Of
the Bible is what we now call lapis lazuli.
Job speaks with emotion of 1.-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 comman ling. THE
second row shall be an emerald, a sapphire
and a diamond
The sapphire is a blue, but varies from
faintest hue to deepest u~ltramarine. 1t is
found a pebble in the rivers OF Ceylon. It
Is elsewhere in compact masses. Persia and
Tibet 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 a burial of thousands OF
years it has been brought to sight in Ezyp-
tiau monuments and Assyrian cylinders.
At Moscow aud st. Petersburg and Con-
stantinope l have seen great masses of this
sapphire, commonly called lapis lazuli. The
closer you study its veins the more snchant-
ing, AM / do not wonder that the sapphire
Is called into the foun iation Of 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, q blue sky over
4 fiery sunset. st. John points to it In Rev.
slation and says, ''rhe second, sapphire"
and this suggests to me that though our
earth and all its furniture OF mountains aud
std5 anu dtulOsPhSiS % aAo v SCi6p4o alQ
vanish WI 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
6eurative. The deep blue of our skies and
the deep blue OF our seas must not. will not
be forgotten. II a thousand years after the
world has gone to ashes you or 1 want to
recall how the earthly skies looked in q sum
mer 1901 or the midocean in q calm, we
mill ~ ua anlU 70 Ionk of tina aapanI rnw Of
the foundation Of the wall OF heaven.
Oh, / am SO glad that st. John told as
about lit .'rhe second, sapphirew While
we are living in sight OF That wall spirits
who have come from other worlds and VINO
never saw our earth will visit US, and we
will visit them, and some time We will be in
conversation about this earsh when it was
vet afioat and aswing. and W. 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 Of heaven, "io looked
like that stratum OF foundation next to the
lowest" John, twenty-irsE chapter and
nineteenth verse, ''rhe second sapphire"
A step higher and you come to chal-
cedony, another layer in the foundation Of
the wall and the running 1890 miles around
the heavenly city Chalcedonyl Trans
lucent. A divine mixture of agates and
opaIs and comedians. Striped with white
and gray. Dashed of pallor biushing into
red and darkeniug into purple. Ice and and
the Hebrides hold forth beautiful spscinlens
Of chalcedony. !
But now we must make a swift ascent to
the top of the foundation wall, for we can-
not infinitely examine all the layers, and so.
putting one foot on the chalcedony OF which
we have been speaking, We spring to the
emerald. and we are one-thiri OF the way
to the top OF the foundation, for the fourth
row is emerald. That, ! would judge, is
GODS favorite among gems. because it holds
wha seems evident Is His fayorite color on
earth, the green. since hat Is the color most
wisely diffused across all the earth's conti-
nents-the grass, the foliage, the everyday
dress of nature. The emerald Kings use
it as a seal to stamp pronunciamentos- The
rainbow around the throne OF God Is by
st John compared to il.
conquerors have considered 1t the great.
est priis to capture. What rutblessness
when tho soldiers oil Pizarfo poun led iswitb
their hammersi Eneraids havs had much
to do with the destiny of Mexico. Five oil
them were presentsi by Cortez to his bride,
one Of them cut into the shane of a rose, an.
other into the shape OF a trumpet another
into the shape OF q bell, with tongue oil
pee RI. and this presentation aroused the zeal.
ously OF the throne and CAUSED the conss.
qusnt fall Of Cortex. But the depths OF thu
- wsre decorated with thoss smsrAldA for