Herald and news. [volume] (West Randolph, Vt.) 1878-1943, 1894-03-01
BETTER THAN RUBIES.
An Eloquent Sermon by Rev. 7
Dewitt Talmage, D. D.
A Precious STONE Serves as a Text for the
Discourse = One Thing More Ya,u-
able T al the Ruby-It Is IL
Illustrated by Two Last
Earthly Scenes.


ing Proverbs xiii, il: Wisdom is bet.
ter than rubies." Mr. Talmage spoke
as follows
You have all seen the precious stone
commonly called the ruby. 1t is OF
deep red color. The Bible makes much
Of it, 1t glowed in the first row of the
high priests breast plate. Under an
other name it stood in the wall OF
heaven. jeremiah compares the rudy
cheek of the Nazerites to the ruby.
Ezekiel points it out in the robes of
the King of Tyre. Four times does
Solomon use it as a symbol by which to
extol wisdom, or religion always set
ting 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 of the goddess
&c. The Thunderstorm was supposed
to have dropped from a storm-cloud.
The emerald was said to have been
been made of the FREELY. The lapis
lazuli was thought 10 have been born
of the cry of an Indian giant. And
modern mineralogists say that the
precious stones were made of glass
and liquids. To me the ruby seems
like a spark from the anvil of the set
ting sun.
The home of the genuine ruby is
Burmah, and sixty miles from it's capt
tai, where lives and reigns the ruler,
called, Lord of the Rubies." Under
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 GER
emony, a 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 diamond, as lapidaries
and jewellers will tell. 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 diamond of equal weight 1t
was disaster when Charles the Bold
lost the ruby he was wearing at the
battle of Gradison. 1t was a great af-
huence when Rudolph H., of Austria,
inherited a ruby from his sister, the
Queen Dowager. 1t was thought to
have had much to do with the victory
of Henry V. as he wore it into the bat
tie of Agincourt. 1t is the pride of
the Russian court to own the largest
ruby of all the world, presented by
Gustave III. to the Russian empress
Wondrous ruby. 1t has electric char
acteristics, and there are lightnings
compressed in its double six-sided
prisms What shall / call it? 1t is
frozen frel 1t is petrified blood. In all
the world there is only one thing more
valuable, and my text makes the com
parison: "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 off.
ference. am glad there is nothing
lacking here. The ruby is more beau
tiful in the night and under the lamp
light than by day. IL is preferred for
evening adornment How the rubies
glow, and burn and flash as the lights
lift the darkness, Catherine. of ARA
gon, had on her finger a ruby that
fairly lanterned the night Sir John
Vaudeville, the celebrated traveller OF
four hundred years ago, said that the
emperor of China had ruby that made
the night as bright as the day. The
probability is that Solomon. under
some of the lamps that Illuminated his
cedar palace by night, noticed the pc
enliar glow of the ruby as it looked in
the hilt of a sword, or hung in some
fold of the upholstery, or beautified
the lip of some chalice, while he was
thinking at the same time of the ex-
cellency of our holy religion as chiefly
seen in the night of trouble, and he
cries out: "Wisdom is better than
rubies."
o, yes, it is good thing to have re-
hgion while the sun of prosperity rides
high and everything is brilliant in for
tune, in health. in worldly favor. You
can at such times hardly tell how much
of it is natural exuberance and how
much of il is the grace of God. But
let the sun set, and the shadows ava
lanehe the plain. and the thick dark
ness Of sickness or poverty, or perse-
cution or mental exhaustion fill the
soul and fill the house, and fill the
world, and then you sit down by the
lamp OF Gods word and under its light
the consultations of the gospel come
out the peace of God which passeth
all understanding appears. You never
fully appreciated their power until IN
The deep night of trouble the divine
lamp revealed their exquisiteness.
Pearls and and amethysts for the day,
out ubies for the night
All the books of the Bible attempt
N some way the Arrangement of mis-
fortune. OF the one hundred and fifty
Psalms Of David at least ninety aliude
g trouble. There are sighings in every
wind. and tears in every brook. and
pangs in every heart. 1t was originally
proposed to cali the presidents resi-
denee in Washington the Palace.
The executive Mansion" but after II