Connecticut western news., 1894-02-15
RUBIES SURPASSED.
AN ELOQUENT SERMON BY REV. T.
 DE WITT TAlMAGE.

A Comparison of Wisdom With the Most Precious stons-The Value of Religion. Words of solomon-Contrasts Brought Out by the Text.
 BROOKLYN, Feb. 11.-In the Tabernacle this forenoon Rev. pr. Talmage preached to a crowded audience that filled the great building to overhowing, 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. It is of deep red color. The Bible makes much of it. It 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 the ruby. Ezekiel points 1t out in the robes of the king of Tyre. Four times does Solomon use it as sym bol by which to extol wisdom or reli- zion, 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 precipitation of the goddess Ge. The thunderstone was supposed to have dropped from 8 stormcloud. The emerald was said to have been made of the firefly. The lapis lazui 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 8 spark from the anvil of the setting sun.
 The home of the genuine ruby is Bur nah. and 60 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 bannered pomp, military guard and princely attendants, the gem was brought to the kings palace.
 Of great value is the ruby, much more 90 than diamond, as lapidaries and jew elers will tell you. An expert on this subject writes. "A ruby of perfect color weighing five carats is worth at the pres ent day ten times as much as diamond of equal weight" It was disaster when Charles the Bold lost the ruby he was wearing at the battle of Grandson. It was Q great aff1uence when Rudolph II of Austria inherited 8 ruby from his sis ter. the queen dowager. Itwas thought to have had much to do with the victory of Henry V, as he wore it into the battle of Agincourt.
 It 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 rubyi It has electric characteristics, and there are hghtnings compressed in it's double six sided prisms What shall I call it? It is frozen firel 1t is petriied bloodl In all the world there is only one thing comparison, "Wisdom is better than ru- bies."
 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 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 darknessl 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 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 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- biee."
 WHAT THE WORLD NEEDS.
 Oh, yes, it is good thing to have re- Hgion 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 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 fill the soul and fill the house and fill the world; then you sit down by the lamp of Gods word, and un- der its light the cancellations of the gospel come out; the peace of God which passeth Ill 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 arrangement of misfor- tune. Of the 150 psalms of David at least 90 allude to trouble. There are sighings in every wind, and tears in ev- cry brook, and bangs in every heart. Ii was originally proposed to call the pres ident's residence at Washington ''The Palace" or ''the Executive Mansion, ? but after 1t was destroyed in the war of 1874 and rebuilt it was painted white to cover up the marks of the smoke and fire that had blackened the stone walls Hence 1t was called 1.-The White House. Most of the things now white with at tractiveness were once black with dis aster.
 What the world most needs is the con. solatory, and here it comes, our holy re ligion, with both hands full of anodynes and sedatives and balsams, as in Daniels time to stop mouths leonine; as in Shad rach's time to cool blast furnaces; as ir Exekiers time to console captivity; as ir St. Johns time to unroll an apocalypse over rocky desolations. Hear it's sooth ing voice as it declares: Weeping may 5 endure for 8 night, but joy cometh ir the morning" 1.-The mountains shal lepart and the hills be removed, but my loving kindness shall not depart from you." "Whom the Lord loveth he chas teneth." "They shall hunger no more
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