The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1894-02-16


their best glories under the lamp light!
Thank God for the rubyl
Moreover, l am sure that SOLOMON
was right in saying that religion. or
wisdom, is better than rubies, from the
fact that thing is worth what 1t will
fetch. Religion will fetch solid happi-
ness, and the ruby will not In all your
observation did you ever find a person
thoroughly felicitated by an encrust-
ment of jewels? As you know more of
yourself than any one else, are you
happier now with worldly adornments
and successes than before you won
them? Does the picture that cost
you hundreds or thousands of dollars
on your wall bring you as much salts
faction as the engraving that at the ex-
pense of five dollars was hung upon
the wall when you first began to keep
house? Do all the cutlery and rare
plate that glitter on your extension
dining-table surrounded by flattering
guests contain more real bliss than the
plain ware of your first table, at which
only two sat? Does a wardrobe crowd
ed with costly attire give you more
satisfaction than your first clothes
closet with its four or five pegs? Did
not the plain ring set on the third
finger of your left hand on the day of
your betrothal give more gladness than
the ruby that is now enthroned on the
third finger of your right hand? If in
this journey of life we have learned
anything. we have learned that this
world neither with its emoluments nor
gains can satisfy the soul Why. here
come as many witnesses as l wish to
call to the stand to testify that before
high Heaven and the world, in COM
panionship with Jesus Christ and a
good hope of Heaven, they feel joy
that all the resources of their vocabul-
larly fail to express A converted ma
tive of India in letter said: How |
long for my bed, not that may sleep;
l lie awake often and long, but to hold
sweet communion with my God" If
so mighty is worldly joy that Julius
IL, hearing his armies were triumph
ant, expired; and if Talva hearing that
the Roman senate had decreed him an
honor, expired; and if Dionysius and
Sophocles overcome of joy, expired, and
if shipwrecked purser waiting on the
coast of Guinea in want and starvation at
the sight of vessel bringing relief, fell
dead from the shock of delight, is it any
surprise to you that the joys of pardon
and Heaven rolling over the soul should
sometimes be almost too much for the
Christian to endure and live? We have
Sc
getting letter suddenly telling them
that fortune had been left them. and
how they were almost beside them
selves with glee. taking the first ship
to claim the estate. But oh, what it is
to wake up out of the stupor of sim
full life and through pardoning grace
find that all our earthly existence will
be divinely managed for our best well
fare. and that then all Heaven will roll
in upon the soul. And now ask you
as fair minded men and women, accus-
toned to make comparisons, is not such
Joy as that worth more than anything
one can have in a jeweled casket? Was
not Solomon right when he said, "Wis-
dom is better than rubies?"
There is also something in the deep
carmine of the ruby that suggests the
sacrifice on which our whole system of
religion depends. While the emerald
suggests the meadows and the sap
phire the skies and the opal the sea,
the ruby suggests the blood of sacrifice.
The most emphatic and startling of all
colors hath the ruby. Solomon, the
author of my text, knew all about the
sacrifice of lamb and dove on the affairs
of the temple, and he knew the
meaning of sacrificial blood, and what
other precious stone could he so
well use to symbolic it as the
ruby? Red intensely red, red as the
blood of the greatest martyr of all time
Jesus of the centuries. Drive the
story of the execution out of the Bible
and the doctrine of the atonement out
of our religion, and there would be
nothing of Christianity left for our
worship or our admiration. Why
should it be hard to adopt the Bible
theory that our redemption was pur-
chased by blood? What great bridge
ever sprung its arches; what temple
ever reard it's towers; what nation ever
achieved its indepe ndence; what mighty
good was ever done without sacrifice
of life? The great wonder of the
world, the bridge that unites these
two cities, cost the life of the first
architect Ask the shipyards
of Glasgow and New York how many
carpenters went down under accidents
before the steamer was launched; ask
the three great transcontinental rail
roads how many in their construction
were buried under crumbling embank-
ments, or crushed under timbers, or
destroyed by the powder blast Tabu-
late the statistics of how many moth
ers have been martyrs to the cradle of
sick children. Tell us how many men
sacrificed nerve. and muscle and brain,
and life in the effort to support their
households Tell me how many men
in England, in France, in Germany, in
Italy, in the United States have died
for their country. Vicarious suffering
is old as the world, but the most
thrilling, the most startling, the
most stupendous sacrifice of all
time and eternity, was on bluff back
on Himself the sins, the agonies, the
perdition of great multitude that no
man can number, between IL o'clock
of darkened noon and 8 o'clock in the
afternoon, purchasing the ransom of
ruined world Dive in all the seas; ex-
plore all the mines: crowbar all the
mountains; view all the crowned jew
els of the emperors, and find me
any gem that can SO overwhelming
" symbolic that martyrdom as
the ruby. Mark you, there are many
gems that are somewhat like the ruby.