Weekly expositor. (Brockway Centre, Mich.) 1882-1894, 1894-02-16
TABERNACLE PULPIT.
DR.. TALMACE breaches O!s
WISDOM'S WORTH.
-wisdom Is Better Than RubIes"-Pro-
verbs 3 T; ii-ReiigIon tho only True
Basis OF Human society---Dearth OF
Truth Haunting the Death Bed.

ence that filed the great building to
overlooking, the subject of his sermon
being "Rubies Surpassed" and the
text: Proverbs : ii: "Wisdom is bet
ter than Rubies.'
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 ruddy
cheek of the Nazarites to the ruby.
Ezekiel points it out in the robes of
the king of Tyre. Four times does
Solomon use it as symbol by which
to eXtol wisdom, or religion, always
setting IFS 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 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 To me the ruby seems like a
spark from the anvil of the setting
sun.
The home of the genuine ruby is
Burmah, and sixty miles from its cap
ital, where lives and reigns the ruler,
s.T A. u
a careful governmental guard are
these valuable mines of ruby kept
Rarely has any foreigner visited them.
When ruby of large value was dis
covered it was brought forth with
elaborate ceremony, a procession was
formed, and with all hammered pomp,
military guard and princely atten-
dants, 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 YOU. An expert
on this subject writes: "a ruby of
perfect color weighing five carats is
worth at the present day ten times as
much as a diamond of equal weight"
Bold lost the ruby he was wearing at
the Battle of Grandson. 1twas great
affluence when Rudolph the Second of
Austria inherited n ruby from his
sister, the Queen Dowager. 1t was
thought to have had much to do with
the victory of Henry the Fifth as he
wore it into the Battle of Agincourt.
It is the pride of the Russian court to
own the largest ruby Of all the world,
presented by Gustavus the Third to the
Russian empress. Wondrous ruby! 1t
has electric characteristics, and there
are lightnings compressed in its double
six-sided prisms. What shall call it?
1t is frozen fret 1t is petrifed blood!
In all the world there is only one
thing more valuable 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 differ
ence l 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 flash as the lights lift
the darkness Catherine of Arragon
had on her finger ruby that fairly
lanterned the night Sir John Mande-
vile, the celebrated traveller of 400
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 illumined his cedar palace
by night, noticed the peculiar glow of
the ruby as it looked in the hilt of n
sword. or hung in some fold of the up
holstery, or beautified the lip of some
chalce, 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,
"Wisdom is better than rubies."
Oh, yes, it is a good thing to have re-
ligion 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 tell
how much of it is natural exuberance
and how much of it is the
grace of God. But let the sun set, and
the shadows avalanche the plain, and
the thick darkness OF sickness, or
poverty, or persecution, or mental ex-
haustion fill the soul, and fill the
house, and fill the world; 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 APP
pears. You never fully appreciated
their power until in the deep night of
trouble the divine lamp revealed their
exquisiteness. Pearls and amethysts
for the day, but rubies for the night. =.
All of the books of the Bible attempt
in some way the assuagement of mis-
fortune. OF the $50 Psalms Of David
at least ninety allude to trouble.
There are sighings in every wind, and
tears 10 every brook, and pangs in
every heart It was originally pro-
posed to call the Presidents residence
at Washington, 1.-THE Palace. or 1.-The
Executive Mansion" but after it was
| dactrovad In tho xvar of 1874 and ,-a-