Highland recorder. (Monterey, Highland County, Va.) 1877-1972, 1894-02-23
REV. DIR. TALMAGE,.
The Eminent Brooklyn DiVin0'S Sun
day Sermon.
Subject: "Rubies Surpassed"

TEXT: " Wisdom, is better than ruJies,"-o
| Proverbs viii, IL.
You have all seen the precious stone COM
monty called the ruby. 1t is of deep red
| color. The Bible makes much of it. 1t
| glowed in the first row OF the high priest 8
| breastplate. Under another name it stood
| in the wall of heaven. jeremiah compares
| the rudy cheek ofthe Nazarites 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 relig-
ion, 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 of the goddess &c. The thun-
derstone was supposed to have dropped from
stormcloud. The emerald was said to
| have been made Of the frefy The lapis
lazuli was thought TO have been born of the
cry of an Indian giant. And modern min
eralogists say that the precious stones wore
made of gases and liquids. TO me the ruby
seems like a spark nom the anvil Of the set
| ting sun.
The home fthe genuine ruby is Burmah,
and sixty miles from its capital, where lives
! and feigns the ruler, called Word 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 ceremony, a
| procession was formed, and, with all ban.
| nered pomp, military guard and princely at.
tendants, the gem was brought to the kings
| palace
OF great value is the ruby, much more SD
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 diamond Of equal weight.
1t was disaster when Charles the Bold lost
the ruby he was wearing at the battle OF
Grandson. 1t was a great af1uence when
! Rudolph II 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 Y. as he wore it into the battle OF
Agincourt
it is the pride of the Russian court 10 own
the largest ruby Of the world, presented 10y
Gustavus III to the Russian Empress. Won.
drous ruby IT has electric characteristics,
and there are lightnings compressed in its
double six sided prisms. What shall call
tn 1t is frozen frel 1t is petrifed blood
In all the world there is only che thing more
valuable, and mytext makesthe comparison,
"Wisdom is better than ru6ies."
| But il is impossible 10 compare two things
| together unless there are some points of SIM
| ilarity as we'll as OF difference. am glad
| there is nothing lacking here The ruby is
more beautiful in the night and Under the
lamplight than by day. 1t is preferred for
evening adoPnmeht. How the rubies glow
and burn an / flash as the lights lift the dark
ness Catherine Of Aragon had on her finger
a ruby that fairly lanterned the night.
Tob~ oil {ro1,
eler of 400 years ago. said that the Emperor
of China had ruby that made the night as
bright as day, The probability is that Solo,
mon, under some OF the lamps that illumined
| his cedar palace by night, noticed the pecu-
| liar glow of the ruby as it looked in thethit
| OF Il sword, or hung in some fold OF the up
| bolstery, or beautihed 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 lie cries cut,
"Wisdom is~petter 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 ii is natural eXuber-
| ance and how much Of it is the grace of God.
But let the sun set. and the shadows ava
lanche the plain, and the thick darkness OF
sickness or poverty or persecution or mental
exhaustion fiji the soul and I'll the. house
and fill the world then you sit dowhby the
lamp OF Gods word and under its light the
consultations of the gospel come out the
peace Of God which passeth all understand
ing appears. You never fully appreciate
their power until in the deep night oftrouble
the Divine Lamp revealed their exquisite
ness. 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 misfortune.
OF the $50 psalms of David at least ninety
alude tc trouble. There are sighings in
every wind, and tears in every brook, and
pangs in every heart. 1t was originally pro-
posed to call the Presidents residence at
Washington 1.-THE Palace or ''the Execu-
tive Mansion, but after it was destroyed in
the war of 1914 and rebuilt in was painted
white to cover up the marks of the smoke
and fire that had blackened the stone walls.
Hence il was called "The White House.
Most of things now white with attractiveness
were once black with disaster.
What the world most needs is the consola-
tory and here il comes, our holy religion,
with both hands fun of ano1ynes and soda
tives ond balsams, az in Daiieis time TO stop
mouths lsohine as in Shadtachs time TO
cool blast furnaces as i'll Ezekiel's time to
console captivity as in 81. Johns time to
unroll an apocalypse over rocky desolattons.
Hear its soothing voice as it declares
"weeping may endure for a night, but Joy
! cOmeth in the morning" "The montains
shall depart and the hills be removed but
NV loving Kindness shall not depart from
YOU" Whom the Lord loveth He chas-
teneth.n "rhey shall hunger no more,
neither thirst any more, neither shall the
sun light on them. nor any heat, for the
Lamb which is in the midst of the throne
Il. foff Of
and God shall wipe away all tears from their
eyes"
The most wholesome thing on earth is
trouble, if met in Christian spirit. To make
Paul what he was it took ship wreck, and
whipping onthe bare back, and penitentiary,
and pursuit Of wild mobs. and the sword OF
decapitatioD. To make David what he was
it took all that Ahithophel and Saul and Abb
SALON and Goliath and all the Philistine
hosts could do against him. 1t took Robert
| Chambers's malformation of feet to make
| him the literary cOnGueror
II was bereavement that brought William
! Hawortb, of Wesleys time, from wickedness
10 an evangelism that won many thousands
for heaven. The world would never have
| known what heroic stuff Ridley was made of
| rad not the fires been kindled around his
feet, and not liking this slow work he cried
| 81 cannot burn. Let the fire come to me. L
cannot burn" Thank God that there are
gems that unfold their best glories under the
lamplight Thank God for the ruby.
Moreover, I am sure Solomon was right in
saving that religion or wisdom is better than
rubies, from the fact that a thing is worth
what it will fetch. Religion will fetch solid
happiness, and the ruby will not. In all
Your observation did you ever find person
| thoroughly ieicitated by an incrustment of
Jewels? As you know more of yourself than