The weekly intelligencer. [volume] (Lexington, Mo.) 1891-1901, 1894-02-17
BETTER THAN RUBIES.
DR.. Talmage Discourses on the
Happiness Of Religion.
Tho World with All Its EmoIuments Cam
not satisfy the Sacrifice on
Which the system Of Re-
liEion Depends

Which the system Of Re-
Iigion Depends
In n late sermon preached at Brook
Ign, Rev. T. Dewitt Talmagc took for
his subject: "Rubies Surpassed" His
text was from Proverbs, viii. II: wis
don is better than rubics." DIR. Tai
mage said:
You nave 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 h
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 Solo
mon use it as Il symbol by which to ex-
toll wisdom, or religion, always setting
its value as better than rubies.
The home of the genuine ruby is
Burmah, 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
n ruby of large value was discovered it
was brought forth with elaborate cere-
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 carrots is worth
at the present day ten times as much as
n diamond of equal weight" 1t was a
disaster when Charles the Bold lost the
ruby he was wearing at the battle of
Grandson. 1t was a great affluence
when Rudolph H., 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 Rus.
sian court to own the largest ruby of
all the world, presented by Gustavus
III. to the Russian empress. Wondrous
ruby! 1t has electric characteristics,
and there are lightnings compressed in
its double six-sided prisms. What shall
l call it? 1t is frozen fire! 1t is petri-
fled 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 we'll as of differ
ence. I 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 darknessl Catherine of Arragon
had on her finger a ruby that fairly
lanterned the night. Sir John Mande-
vile, the celebrated traveller of
400 years ago, said that the emperor of
China had n 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 a
sword, or hung in some fold of the up
holstery, or beautified the lip of some
chalice, while he was thinking at the
same time of the eycellcncy 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
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 tell
how much of it is natural exuberancc
and how much of it is the grace of God.
But let the sun SGT, and the shadows
avalanche the plain, and the
thick darkness of sickness, OF
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; h peace of God
which passeth all understanding ap.
pears. You never fully appreciated
their power until in the deep n ght OF
trouble the divine lamp revealed Their
"reminiscences. 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 al
least ninety allude to trouble. There
arc sighings in every wind, and tears
in every brook, and pangs in every
heart 1t was originally proposed
to. call the presidents residenc,
at Washington The Palace OIL
'.The Executive Mansion" bu'
after il was destroyed, in the war o
1872, and rebuilt, it was painted white
to cover up the marks of the smoke ant
fire that had blackened the ston,
walls. Hence it was called "Th'
White House" Most of the thing,
now white with attractiveness wer,
once black with disaster. What tn
world most needs is the consolatory
and mere it comes, our holy religion
with both hands full of anodynes
and sedatives, and balsams, a
in Daniels time, to stop mouths leonine
ari in Shadrach's time to COO bias
furnaces; as in Ezekiel's time to con
sole captivity; as in st. Johns time t
enroll an apocalypse over rocky desc
l~ations. Hear its soothing voice as
declares: weeping may endure for
night, but joy cometh in the morning;
1.-THE mountains shall depart and tn
hill be removed, but my 10,
ing kindness shall not depart froI
YOU" "Whom the Lord loveth II
chasteueth;" They shall hunge
no more, neither thirst any more
neither shall the sun light on then
nor any heat: for the Lamb which is |
the midst Of the throne shall lead thei
to the living fountains of water, an
God shall wipe away the tears from a
their eyes" The most wholesom
thing on earth is trouble if met !
Christian spirit To make Paulw viii
he was it took shipwreck, and whiI
ping on the bare back, and peniteI
tiary, and pursuit of wild mobs, an
the sword of decapitation. To max
David what he was it took all tina
Ahithophel and Saul and Absolom an
Goliath and all the Philistine host
could do against him 1t took Robel
Chambers malformation of feet I
make him the literary conquerer.
was bereavement that brought Wi
liam Haworth, of Wesley's time, fro'
~wickedness to an evangelism that wo
many thousands for Heaven. I'll
world would never have known wha
heroic stuff Ridley was made OF ha
not the fires been kindled around h