The Hazel Green herald. [volume] (Hazel Green, Wolfe County, Ky.) 1885-19??, 1894-03-29


10 crowded audience that filed the
great building TO overlooking, the sub
jcct of his sermon being "Rubies Sur
passed. and the text: Proverbs viii,
Ii: Wisdom Is better than Rubics."
Nou have all seen the precious stone
commonly called the ruby. II is of
deep rcd color. The Bible makes much
OF IT, II glowed in the first row of the
high priests brenstplate. Under an
other name II stood in the wall of
| Heaven. jeremiah compares the rud-
dy check OF the Na2nritcs to the ruby.
E2ckicl points IL out in the robes OF the
king OF Tyre. Four times does Solo
mon use it as symbol by which to ex-
toll wisdom, or religion, always setting
its value as better than rubies.
The world docs not agree Us to how
the precious stones were formed. The
arcicnts thought that amber was made
of drops of Precipitation of the goddess
&c. The Thunderstorm was supposed
TO have dropped from n storm cloud.
The emerald was said To have been
made of the FREELY. The lapis lazu Ii
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.
THO home of the genuine ruby is
Burmah, and 80 miles from its capital,
where lives and rcigns the ruler Lord
of the Rubies." Under careful gov
ernmental guard are these valuable
mines Of ruby kept Rarely has any
foreigner visited them. When ruby
of large value was discovered it was
brought forth with elaborate ceremony,
n procession was formed, and with all
hammered pomp, military guard and
priuccly attendants, the gem was
brought to the kings palace.
OF great value is the ruby, much
moro 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 10 times as
much as n diamond of equal weight
1t was disaster when Charles the !
Bold lost the ruby he was wearing at
the Battle of Grandson. II was great |
nffluence when Rudolph the Second of
Austria inherited n ruby from his SIS |
Ter, the Queen Dowager. 1t was
lhought to have had much to do with |
the victory of Henry the Fifth, as he |
wore it into the Battle of Agincourt.
II 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
arc lightnings compressed in its double
six-sdcd prisms What shall call itP
1t is frozen fire! II is pctrified blood!
In all the world there is only one thing
more valuable, and my text makes the
comparison: Wisdom is better than
rubics"
But il is impossible to- compare two
things together unless there are some
points of similarity as well rs of fer
cucc. | 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 even
ing adjournment. How the rubies glow,
and burn and fash us the lights lift
the darkness. Catherine, of Aragon,
had on her finger ruby that fairly
lantcrncd the night Sir John Mande-
vile, the celebrated traveller of 400
years ago, said that the emperor OF
China had a ruby that made the night
as bright as the day. The proba bility
is that Solomon under some of the
lamps that illuminated his cedar pal
ace 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
upholstery, or benutitled the lip of some
chalicc, while he Was thinking at the
same time Of the excellcncy of our holy
religion rs chiefly seen in the night
OF trouble, and he cries out: Wisdom
is better than rubies."
Oh, yes, il is good thing to have re-
ligion whilr the sun OF prosperity rides
high and everything Is brilliant in for
tune, in health, in worldly favor. Yet
you can mt such time hardly tell how
much of it is natural cxuberance 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 exhaustion fill
the soul, and I'LL the house, and ill the
world; then you sit down by the lamp
OF Gods Word and under It's 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 Di-
vino Lamp revealed their equisite-
moss. Pearls and amcthysts for the day.
L.