The Banner-Democrat. [volume] (Lake Providence, East Carroll Parish, La.) 1892-current, 1894-04-07
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
Religion win Bring True Happiness
While Jewels VIII Not.
The World with All Its Riches Can BriDR
No satisfactfon to the Soul-sacri-
Ace Upon which True Re-
ligIon Depends.

- =
Rev. T. Dewitt Talmage, in recent
sermon in the Brooklyn tabernacle,
took for his subject sRubies Surpassed,
basing it on the text:
Wisdom is better than rubics.-Proyerbs
Wit, IL.
You have all seen the precious stone
commonly called the ruby. 1t is OF
deep red color. The Bible makes much
of il. 1t glowcd in the first row of the
high priests breast-plate. Under an-
other name it stood in the wall OF
Heaven. jeremiah compares the rud-
DIV check of the Nazarites to the ruby.
Ezekiel points it out in the robes of the
king of Tyre. Four times does Solo
mos use it as symbol by which to ex-
toll wisdom, or religion, always setting
its value as better than rubies
The world does not agree as to how
the precious stones were formed. The
ancients thought that amber was made
of drops of perspiration sof the goddess
&c. The Thunderstorm was supposed
to have dropped from a storm-cloud.
The emerald was said to have been
made of the freely. The lapis lazuli
was thought to have been born OF the
cry of an Indian giant. And modern
mineralogists say that the precious
stones were made of gases and liquids.
10 me the ruby seems like spark
from the anvil of the setting sun.
The home of the genuine ruby is
Burmak, and sixty miles from its capt.
tai, where lives and reigns its ruler,
called, Lord of the Rubies. Under
a careful governmental guard are these
valuable mines of ruby kept Rarely
| has any foreigner visited them. When
a ruby of large value was discovered it
was brought forth with elaborate cere-
mony, procession was formed, and
with all hammered pomp, military
guard and princely attendants, the
gem was brought to the kings palace.
| OF great value is the ruby, much
| more SO than the diamond, as lapidaries
and jewellers will tell you. An expert
on this subject writes: "A ruby of per-
feet color weighing FIVE carats is worth
at the present day ten times as much
as a diamond of equal weight" TWAS
a disaster when Charles the Bold lost
the ruby he was wearing at the Battle
of Grandson. 1t was great afiuence
/ when Rudolph III. of Austria inherited
a ruby from his sister, the queen dow
ager. 1t was thought to have had much
to do with the victory of Henry ", as
he wore it into the battle of Agincourt.
1t is the pride of the Russian court to
own the largest ruby of all the world,
presented by Gustavus III. to the Rus
sian empress. Wondrous ruby! 1t has
electric characteristics, and there are
ligh Things compressed in its double
six-sided prisms What shall l call it?
1t is frozen fire. It is petrified blood!
In all the word there is only one thing
more veluable, and my text makes the
comparison: Wisdom is better than
rubies-
But it is impossible to compare two
things together unless there are some
points of similarity as well as of differ
ence. / am glad there is nothing lack
ing here. The ruby is more beautiful
in the night and under the lamplight
than by day. 1t is preferred for even
ing adornment. How the rubies glow,
and burn, and fash as the lights lift
the darkness. Catherine of Arragon
had on her finger a ruby that Ian
termed the night. Sir John Mande.
Vile, the celebrated traveller of four
hundred years ago, said that the en-
lperor of China had ruby that made
the night as bright as the day. The
probability is that Solomon, under
some of the lamps that illumined his
cedar palace by night, noticed the pc
culiar glow of the ruby as it looked in
the hilt of sword, or hung in the up
holstcry. or beautified the lip of some
chalice, while he was thinking at the
same time of the excellency of our
holy religion as chiefly seen in the
night of trouble, and he cries out:
ssWisdom is better than rubies.
Oh, yes, it is good thing to have
religion while the sun of prosperity
rides high and everything is brilliant
in fortune, in health, in worldly favor
Yet you can at such time hardly tel
how much of it is natural exuberanct
and how much of it is the grace o.
God But let the sun set, and the
shadows avalanche the plain, and the
thick darkness of sickness, or poverty
or persecution. or mental exhaustion
fill the soul, and fill the house, and ill
the world; then you sit down by tn,
lamp of Gods word and under its ligh
the consultations of the Gospel com,
out; the peace of God which passett
all understanding appears. You never
fully appreciated their power until il
the deep night of trouble the Divine
lamp revealed their exquisiteness
Pearls and amethysts for the day, bu
rubies for the night.
All of the books of the Bible attemp
in some way the Arrangement of mis-
fortune. OF one hundred and fit,
psalms of David at least ninety allud
TO trouble. There are sighings il
every wind, and tears in every brook
and pangs in every heart. 1t wa
originally proposed to call the presi
dents residence at Washington "Th
Palace" or The Executive Mansion,
but after it was destroyed, in the wa
of 1914, and rebuilt, it was painte,
white to cover up the marks of tn
smoke and fire that had blackened tn
stone walls Hence it was called 9Th
White House." Most of the thing
now white with attractiveness wer
once black with disaster. What tn
world most needs is the consolatory
and here it comes, our holy religion