The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1894-02-23
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
Rsligion VIII Bring True Happiness,
While Jewels Viii Not.
The World with All It's Riches Can Bring
No Satisfaction 70 the sOuI-Sacri-
hce Upon Which True Re-
liGlon Depends.

Rev. T. Dewitt Talmage, in a recent
sermon in the Brooklyn tabernacle,
took for his subject 'Rubies Surpassed, "
basing it on the text:
Wisdom is better than rubies.-ProVerbs
Will. II.
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 rud-
dy cheek of the Nazarites to the ruby.
Ezekiel points il out in the robes of the
king of Tyre. -Four times does Solo
mos use it as "a symbol by which to ex-
tol wisdom, or religion, 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
Ge. 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
BurmaR, 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
a ruby of large value was discovered it
was brought forth with elaborate cere-
mony, a 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 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 carats is worth
at the present day ten times as much
as 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 affiuence
when Rudolph II. 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 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
lightnings compressed in its double
six-sided prisms. What shall call it?
II is frozen fire! 1t is petrifed blood!
In all the word 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. | 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,
md burn, and flash as the lights lift
he darkness! Catherine of Arragon
1ad on her finger a ruby that Ian
erned the night. Sir John Mande-
Vile, the celebrated traveller of four
hundred years ago. said that the en-
peror 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 pc
culiar glow of the ruby as it looked in
the hilt of a sword, or hung in the up
hOlstery, 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 rubies.'.
Oh, yes, it is good thing TO have
religion while the sun of prosperity
rides high and verything 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 il 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 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 appears. You never
fully appreciated their power until in
the deep night of trouble the Divine
lamp revealed their exquislteness.
Pearls and amethysts for the day, but
rubies for the night.
All of the books of the Bible attempt
in some way the Arrangement of mis-
fortune. OF one hundred and fifty
psalms of David at least ninety allude
to trouble. There are sighings in
every wind, and tears in every brook,
and pangs in every heart. 1t was
originally proposed to call the presi-
dents residence at Washington The
Palace" or THE Executive Mansion"
out after it was destroyed, in the war
of 1914, and rebuilt, it was painted
white to cover up the marks of the
smoke and fire that had blackened the
stone walls. Hence it was called 1.-THE
White House." Most of the things
now white with attractiveness were
once black with disaster What the
world most needs is the consolatory,
and here it comes, our holy religion,
with both hands full of ano-
dynes, and sedatives, and balsams, as
in Daniels time to stop mouths leon
inc; as in Shadrach's time to cool blast
furnaces; as in Ezekiels time to con-
sole captivity; as in st. Johns time TO
enroll an apocalypse over rocky DESC
lations. Hear its soothing voice as it
Harlar-aS. ffXTaaY,ipr mo endure for n