The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1894-02-16
RUBIES SURPASSED:
AN ELOQUENT SERMON BY REV. I.
DE WITT TALMAaE.

AN ELOQUENT SERMON BY REV. I.
DE WITT TALMAaE.
A Comparison OF Wisdom with the Most
Precious stone-The Value Of Religion,
Words Oh solomop--c Contrasts brought
0at by tbs Ts.i,
BROOKLYN. Feb. lin the Tabernacle
this forenoon Rev. DR.. Talmage preached
to a crowded audience that filled the
great building to overlooking, the sub
ject of his sermon being "Rubies Sur
passed" and the text Proverbs viii, II,
"Wisdom Is better than rubies."
You have all seen the precious stone
commonly called the ruby. 1t Is of deep
red color. The Bible makes much Of 1t.
1t glowed In the first row Of the high
priests breastplate. Under another
name it stood In the wall of heaven;
Jeremiah compares the ruddy cheek Of
the Nazarites to theruby. Ezekiel points
II out In the robes Of the king Of Tyre,
Four times does Solomon use it as sym
Dol by which to extol wisdom or reli.
gion, always setting its value as better
than rubies.
QUALITIES OF THE RUBY.
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 stormcloud. 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 spark from the anvil of the setting
sun.
The home Of the genuine ruby is Bur
NAH, and go miles from its capital, where
lives and reigns the ruler, called Lord
of the Rubies." Under a careful gov
ernmental guard are these valuable
mines of ruby kept. Rarely has any for
eigner visited them. When a ruby Of
large value was discovered, it was
brought forth with elaborate ceremony,
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
30 than diamond, as lapidaries and jew
elers will tell you. An expert on this
subject writes, IA ruby of perfect color
weighing five carats Is worth at the pres:
ent 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. It
was great aff1uence when Rudolph II
of Austria inherited ruby from his sis
ter, the queen dowager. TWAS thought to
have had much to do with the victory of
Henry V, as he wore it into the battle
/ of Agincourt.
1t is the pride of the Russian court to
own the largest ruby of all the world,
presented by Gustavus III to the Rus
sian empress. Wondrous ruby! 1t has
electric characteristics, and there are
hghtnings compressed in its double sir
sided prisms. What shall 1 call 1T It
Is frozen fire! 1t is petrified blood In
hll the world there is only one thing
more valuable, and my text makes the
comparison, "Wisdom is better than ru-
bies."
But 1t is impossible to compare two
things together unless there are some
points of similarity as well as Of differ
ence. am glad there is nothing lacking
here. The ruby is more beautiful in the
night and under the lamplight than by
day. It is preferred for evening adorn-
ment. How the rubies glow and burn
and flash as the lights lift the darkness!
Catherine of Aragon had on her finger
ruby that fairly lanterned the night.
Sir John Vaudeville, the celebrated
traveller of 400 years ago, said that the
emperor Of China had a ruby that made
! the night as bright as day. The proba-
bility 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 upholstery
or beautified 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
he cries out, "Wisdom is better than ru-
bies."
WHAT THE WORLD NEEDS.
Oh, yes, it is a good thing to have re-
igion while the sun of prosperity rides
high and everything is brilliant in for
tune, 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 graceof God. But
let the sun set, and the shadows ava
lanche the plain, and the thick darkness
Of sickness or poverty or persecution OF
mental exhaustion fill the soul and fill the
house and fill the world; then you sit
down by the lamp of Gods word, and un.
der 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 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 misfor
tune. Of the $50 psalms of David al
least 80 allude to trouble. There arr
sighings in every wind, and tears in ev
cry brook, and pangs in every heart. Il
was originally proposed to call the pres
dents residence at Washington "The
Palace" or "the Executive Mansion,
but after it was destroyed in the war O.
1914 and rebuilt it was painted white
to cover up the marks of the smoke ant
fire that had blackened the stone walls
Hence it was called 1.-THE White House.
Most Of the things now white with at
Effectiveness were once black with dis
aster.
What the world most needs is the con
solatory, and here it comes, our holy re
hgion, with both hands full of anodyne
and sedatives and balsalns as in Daniel
time to stop mouths leonine; as in Shad
rach's time to cool blast furnaces; as il
Ezekiels time to console captivity; as IL
St. Johns time to unroll an apocalypse
over rocky desolations. Hear its sooth
ing voice as it declares: weeping ma
4 Il