The Middleburgh post. [volume] (Middleburgh, Snyder Co., Pa.) 1883-1916, 1893-01-26
CITY or THE REDEEMED.
rev. DIR. TALMAaE's SERMON
rfthe wall of Heaven is so Dazzlingiy
Perfect How Much More so
What Is Behindp


Texr: "The Foundations Of the ,oaa of
hs citu cere gornished Nth all manner Of
precious stones. ."-Revelation xxi, 10.
Shall 7 be frank and tell you what are my
designs on you to-davi They are to make
YOU hornesick for heaven: to console you con-
cerning your departed Christian friends by
giving you some idea OF the briiancy OF the
scenes in which thev now commipgle; TO
give all who love the Lord more elevated
idea as IN where they are going TO pass the
.nost Of the years of their existence, and TO
set all the indifferent aud neglected TO quick
and immediate preparation, that they may
have IL likewise.
Yea, IL is 10 induce many OF our young
people TO study n volume OF God that few
ever open. but without some acquaintance
with which IL is impossible to understand
the Bibl' u mean the precious stones their
capitalization. their powers OF refraction,
their cleavage, their fracture, their luster
their phosphoresence, their transparency,
their inhnity of color and shape, and what
they had to do with the welfare aud doom
of families and the destiny OF nations aye
the positive revocation they make of God
Himself.
Nv text stands us in the presence Of tho
most stupen ious sp,en Tor OF the universe
and that Is the wall Of heaven, and says OF
Its foundations that they are garnished with
ali manner OF precious stones. All the
ancient cities had walls for safety. and
heaven has n wall for everlasting safety
You may say that wall made up Of all
manner OF precious stones Is figurative, but
you cannot understand the force and signifi-
cance OF the figure unless ycu know some-
thing about the real structure aud 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
g. A. xxfAl 4. l.
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
all around the city aud for 1900 miles, Is a
layer OF jasper. Indeed there is more OF
Jasper in the wall of heaven than of any
other brilliant, because 10 not only composes
u part of the foundation, but makes uD the
chief part Of the superstructure. The jasper
is a congregation OF many colors IL Is
brown, IL is yellow, 1t is green. II is vermil-
ion, IL Is red, IL Is purple, IL Is black, and Is
40 striped with coors 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 IL
is so hard the ordinary processes cannot
break IL Off from the places where IL has
been deposited. The workmen bore holes
into the rock of jasper, then drive into these
holes sticks OF dry birch wood, aud 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 ana cut into canoes and
put behind the glass doors OF museums
The portraits OF Roman emperors were
cut into 10. The finest inta Clio 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 l 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
II you like brown it is brown aud il you like
green it Is green, ana IL you like ocher yell
low It Is ocher yellow, and II you like ver-
million it is ver:nillion, aud il YOU like
black IL Is black. IL suggests to me that
halven is a place OF all colors-colors OF
opinion, coors OF creo1, colors OF skin, col
Drs OF taste.
But we must pass up in this inspection ol
the foundations OF the great wall of heaven,
and after leaving the jasper the next pre-.
cious stone reached is sapphire, and II
sweeps around the city 1900 miles. All lapi
daries agree in saving 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 so much of tn Il
precious stone that He put it in the breast
plate OF the high priest commanding, "The
second row shall be an emerald, u sapphire
and diamond"
The sapphire is a blue, but varies from
faintest hue 10 deepest ultramarine. 1t II
found pebble in the rivers OF Ceylon. II
is elsewhere in compact masses. Persia and
Thibet and Burmab and New South Wales
and North Carolina yield exquisite spec
A. ls N
the Rhine. Alter n burial of thousands OF
years IL has been brought to sight in Egyp
tian monuments and Assyrian cylinders.
At Moscow aud ST. Petersburg an Con.
stantinopo have seen great masses of this
sapphire, commonly called lapis lazuli. The
closer you study its veins tne more enchant-
ing. and / do not wonder that the sapphire
is called into the foun iation of the wall oi
heaven. 1t makes II strong stone for tn,
foundation, for il is tho hardest of all min
erals except the diamond.
Sapphire based on jasper, blue sky ov
a fiery sunset. st. Joan points TO IL in Rev
rlatlon and says, "rho second, sapphire, u
and this suggests TO me that though oui
earth and all its furniture of mountains AM
seas and atmospheres are TO collapse anC
vanish we will throughout all eternity hav,
in some way kept the most beautiful o
earthly appearances, whether you take thi,
sapphire of the second layer as literal oi
isurative. The deep blue OF our skies and
the deep blue of our seas must not, will not
be forgotten. III u thousand years after the
world has gone TO as"es you or 1 want &c
recall how the earthly skies looked in u sum
mer noon or the midocean in calm, W,
will have only to look at the second row o.
the foundation of the wall OF heaven.
Oh, am so glad that st. John told III
about It'll "rhe seconi, sapphirep Whil
we are living IN sight OF tnat wall spirit
who have come from other worlds and wh,
never saw our earth viii visit US, and w
will visit them, AM sonlc time We will be IL
conversation about this earth when IL wa
yet aioat and aswi1g, aud ws shall want q
tell them about now it looked at certain
times, and then it wlll be Il great oojec
lesson for all eternity, ani we will say Z
our visitor from some other world, as W
point toward the wall OF heaven, at looke
like that stratum OF foundation next to tn
lowest" John, twsnty-flrsJ chapter an
nineteenth verse; zine second sap Jhire."
A step higher aud you come TO chal
cedony, another layer in tue foundation o
the wall and the runuin; 1900 miles aroun
the heavenly city. Chaicedonyi Trans