Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1893-01-26
SERMON AT ATLANTA.
DR.. TALMAGE ON A PREACHING CIR
CUT OF SOUTHERN CITIES.

CUT OF SOUTHERN CITES.
The Great Circle of Good and Evil. of S.l
and its Punishmcnt-De Not Deceived;
the Evil Designed Against Another win
Return TO Plague the Inventor.
ATLANTA, Jan. l5.-Rev. Dr. Talmage,
who is now making II ten days tour Of the
southern cities, preached here today. The
throngs in and around the audience hall
were beyond estimate. The subject chosen
wils, ''Thc Circle of the Earth, )" the text be-
ing Isaiah xl, - 1T is he that sitteth upon
the circle OF the earth"
While yet people thought that the world
was fiat, and thousands of years before
they found out that it was round, Isaiah,
in my text, intimated the shape of it-God
sitting upon the circle of the earth. The
most beautiful figure in all geometry is the
circle. God made the universe OH the plan
of circle. There are in the natural world
straight lines, angles, parallelogrlms, di-
agonals, quadrangles, but these evidently
are not Gods favorites. Almost every
where where you will find him geometriz-
ing you will find the circle dominant, and
If not the circle, then the curve, which is Il
circle that died young. If it had lived long
enough it would have been full orb-a
periphery. An ellipSe is Il circle pressed
only little too hard ut the Sides
Giants Causeway in Ireland shows what
God thinks of mathematics. There are
over 5000 columns of rocks-octagonal
heXagonal, pentagonal. These rocks seem
to have been made by rule and by compass
Every artist has his molding room, where
he may make fifty shapes; but he chooses
one shape rs preferable to all Others Twill
not say that the Giants Causeway was the
worlds molding room, but do say out of
great many figures God seems to have
selected the circle as the best. ut is he
that sitteth on the circle of the earth"
The stars in u circle, the moon in circle,
the sun in Il circle, the universe in circle,
the throne of God the center of that circle.
SUGGESTION FOR CHURCH ARCHITECTURE.
When men build churches they ought to
initiate the idea of the Great Architect and
put the audience in circle, knowing that the
tides Of emotion roll more easily that way
than in straight lines. Six thousand years
ago God flung this world out Of his right
hand, but he did not throw it out III a
straight line, but curvingly, with leash
of love holding it so as to bring it back
again The world started from his hand
pure and Edenic. 1t has been rolling on
through regions of moral ice and distem
per- How long it will roll God only knows
but it will in due time make complete cir
cult and come back to the place whence it
started-the hand of God-pure and Edenic
The history of the world goes in n circle
Why is it that the shipping in our day is
improving so rapidly? 1t is because men
are initiating the old model of Noahs ark
A ship carpenter gives that as his opinion
Although so much derided by small wits,
that ship of Noah's time beat the Majestic
and the Etruria and the City of Paris, Of
which we boast so much. Where is the
ship on the sen today that could outride a
deluge in which the heaven and the earth
were wrecked, landing all the passengers
in safety-two of each kind of living crea-
lures, thousands of species?
Pomology will go on with its achieve
ments until after many centuries the world
will have plums and pears equal to the par
adisaical. The art of gardening will grow
for centuries, and after the Downings and
Mitchells of the world have done their best
in the far future the art of gardening will
come up to the arborescence of the year l.
II the makers of colored glass go on i'm
proving, they may in some centuries be
able to make something equal to the east
window of York minister, which was built
in 1880. We are six centuries behind those
artists, but the world must keep toiling on
until it shall make the complete circuit and
come up to the skill of those very men.
II the world continues to improve in ma
sonry, we shall have after awhile, per-
haps after the advance of centuries, mortar
equal to that which / saw last summer in
the wall of an exhumed English city, built
that mortar today as good as the day in
which it was made, having outlasted the
brick and the stone. say, after hundreds
of years, masonry may advance to that
point. If the world stands long enough,
we may have city as large as they had in
old times. Babylon five times the size Of
London.
You go into the potteries in England and
you find them making cups and vases after
the style of the cups and vases exhumed
from Pompeii. The world is not going
back. Oh, no, but it is swinging in cir.
Gle and will come back to the styles of pot
terry known so long ago as the days of Pom
peii. The world must keep on progressing
until it makes the complete circuit. The
curve is in the right direction; the curve
will keep on until it becomes the circle.
THE GREAT MORAL CIRCLE
Well, now, my friends, what is true in
the material universe is true in God S moral
government and spiritual arrangement.
That is the meaning Of Ezekiel's wheel.
All commentators agree in saying that the
wheel means Gods providence. But a wheel
is Of no use unless it turn, and if it turn ii
turns around, and if it turn around il
moves in u circle. What then? Are we
parts of u great iron machine whirled
around whether we will or not, the victims
of inexorable fate? MOI So far from that
shall show you that we ourselves start the
circle of good or bad actions, and that il
will surely come around again to us unless
BIZ divine intervention it be hindered
Those bad or good actions may make the
circuit of many years, but come back to us
they will us certainly as that God sits OF
the circle of the earth.
Jezebel, the worst woman of the Bible
slew Naboth because she wanted his vine
yard. While the dogs were eating the body
of Naboth, Elisha the prophet put down his
compass and marked Il circle from those
dogs clear around to the dogs that should
eat the body of Jezebel the murderess
impossible" the people said; that will
never happen" Who is that being flung
out of the palace window? Jezebel. A few
hours after they came around, hoping tt
bury her. They find only the palms of hel
hands and the skull. The dogs that de
voured Jezebel and the dogs that devoure6
| Nabothl Oh, what swift, what an awful
circuitl
| THE POLITICAL CIRCLE.
But it is sometimes the case that this cir