The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1893-02-03
GOD AMONG THE STONES.
DR. Talmage Continues His Ser
mons on God Everywhere"
The Precious stones in the Foundation OF
the Walls of Heaven-st. JOha's De-
scription and What IL SiGnifies-
Inside the Walls.

ReV. i. Dewitt lalmage IaJely us
coursed on THE Wall of Heaven" TAX
ing his text from Revelation, xxi. 10:
THE foundations of the wall of the
city were garnished with all manner of
precious stones" DR.. Talmage said:
Shall be frank and tell you what
are my designs on you to-day? They
are to make you homesiclz for Heaven;
to console you concerning your depart
ed Christian friends by giving you some
idea of the brilliancy of the scenes in
which they now commingle; to give all
who love the Lord a 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 and neglectful
to quick and immediate preparation
that they may have it likewise.
My 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 carnished 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 shat a wall made up of all manner
VI tlNAlOuS SlOutS - IL uEdNlNG. bul 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
mentioned. Now. l propose this morn
ing, 50 far as the Lord may help me, to
attempt to climb, not the wall of Heav-
en- but the foundations of the wall, and
| ask you to join me in the attempt to
scale some of the heights
The first layer Of the foundation,
reaching all around the city Cor fifteen
hundred miles, Is layer of jasper In
deed there Is more of jasper in the wall
OF Heaven than of any other brilliant.
because it not only compo~es a part of
the foundation, but makes MP the chief
part Of the superstructure The jasper
is a congregation of many colors 1t Is
brown, ii Is yellow, it is green, it is
verInillon, it is red. it is purple, it is
black, and Is SO striped with colorS
that much OF it Is called ri5bon-jasper.
Il Is found in Siberia and Egypt, bat IS
rare in most lands and of great value.
for it Is 50 hard the ordinary processes
can not break il off from the places
where it has been deposited. The
worilmen bore holes into the rock of
Jasper, then drive into these holes
sticks of dry birch wood, and then sat
uraJe the sticks and keep them satur-
rated until they swell enough to split
the rock, and the fragments are
brought ont and polished and trans
ported and cut into canoes ana
put behind the glass doors of muse
ums The portraits of Roman emperors
were cut into il. II suggests to me that
Heaven Is 4 place of all colors-colors
of opinion, colors Of creed, colors OF
skin. colors Of taste.
But we must pass mp in this inspec-
ton OF the foundations Of the great
wall of Heaven. and after reaching the
Jasper the next precious stone reached
Is sapphire, and it sweeps around the
city fifteen hundred miles. All lapida-
ries agree in saying that the sapphire of
the Bible IS what we now call lapis
lazulL Job speaks with emotion of
The Place of Sapphires." and God
thought so much OF this precious stone
that lie put it in the breastpiece of the
high priest, commanding, The second
row shall be an emerald, a sapphire
and a diamond Tine sapphire is blue.
but varies from faintest hue 70 deepest
ultramarine 1t IS found a pebble in
the rivers of Ceylou. It is elsewhere in
compact masses. Persia and Thibet
and Burmah and New South Wales and
North Carolina yield exquisite speci-
mems Its blue eve is seen in the val
ley OF the Rhine. After a burial of
thousands of years it has been brought
to sight in Egyptian monuments and
AsSyrian cylinders
Sapphire based on jasper; a blue sky
over fiery sunset St John points to
it in Revelation, and says: The
second. sapphire" and this suggests to
me that though our earth and all its
furniture of mountains and seas and
atmoSpheres Is TO collapse and vanish,
we viii throughout all eternity have in
some way kept the most beautiful of
earthly appearances, whether you take
the sapphire OF the second layer as
literal or fGurative. The deep blue of
our skies and the deep blue of our seas
must cot, viii not, be forgotten. If
thousand years after the world has
E-'AAA AZ ciE'ttNFN. ttA VI want " ICN0Al
how the earthly skies looked in a sum-
mer noon. or the mid-ocean in a calm.
we VIII have only to look at the second
row e the foundation of the wall of
Heaven.
\ step higher and you come to chal- |
cedony. another layer in the foundation
wall and running fifteen hundred miles
around the heavenly city. Chalcedony.
Translucent A divine mixture of
agates and Opals and comedians
Striped with white and gray. Dashed |
of pallor blusilinC into red and darken- |
ing into purple. Iceland and the Heb |
rides hold forth beautiful specimens of
chalceGony.
But now we must make a swift ascent |
TO the top Of the foundation wall, for |
we cannot 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-third of the way to tie |
top of the foundation, for the fourth |
row is emerald. That / would Judge is |
Gods favorite among gems, because it |
holds what seems evident l. His favor |
lite color on earth, the green. since that |
is the color most widely diffused across
all the earth's continents-the grass.
the foliage, the everyday dress of /
nature. The emerald. Kings used it
as a seal TO stamp pronunciamentos
The rainbow around the throne
of God is by St John compared |
TO it Conquerors have considered
it the greatest prize to capture
Napoleon wore an emerald at Auster-
litz. In the Kremlin museum at Mos