The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-02-12

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. 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 satlsfac-
. ton as the engraving that a the expense
. 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 eXuentiOn dining table surrounded
by hattering guests contain more of real
! bliss than the plain ware of your first table,
/ at which sat only twO2 Does a wardrobe
crowded 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 emOlu-
! ments nor gains can satisfy the soul.
| Why, here come as many witnesses as |
! wish 10 call to the stand TO testify that
| before high heaven and the world, In COM
| partnership with Jesus Christ and a good
| hope of heaven they feel Joy that all
/ the resources of their vocabulary fail 10
express. Sometimes it evidences itself in
CALCULATIONS of hOsanna; sometimes in
dOXOlogy; sometimes in tears A con-
verted native of India in a letter said:
How long for my bed, not that l may
sleep; lie awake often and long. but to
hold sweet communion with my God"
If so mighty is worldly Joy that Julius II
hearing his armies were triumphat, eX
pired; 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 ship
wrecked purser waiting on the coast of
Guinea in want and starvation at the
Giubf n a uacGpl h1.iD raliaf fell dead
from 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 liVe2 An aged aunt said TO
me, Dewitt, three times | have tainted
dead away under the too great Christian
JOY. 1t was in all three cases at the holy
communion" An eminent Christian man
while in prayer said, stop, Lord, can
not bear any more of this gladness; il is
too much for mortal Withhold. With
hold" We have heard of poor worlimen
or workwomen getting letter suddenly
telling them that fortune had been left
them, and how they were almost
beside themselves with glee, taking the
first ship TO claim the estate But, oh,
what 1t is TO wake up out of the stupOr of
a sinful life and through pardoning grace
find that all our earthly existence will
be divinely managed for our best welfare,
dlQ LLdb JuCu al heaven III IOll III uDOu
the soul Compared with that a spring
morning is stupid, and an August sunset
is lnane, and an aurora has no pillared
splendOr, and a diamond has no flash, and
a pearl no light and beryl no aqua-ma-
rine, and ruby no ruddiness My gra-
ciOus Lord My glorious God My pre-
cious Christ Roll over on US a few bill
lows of that rapture. And now l ask you
as fair-minded men and women, accus-
toned to make comparisons, is not such a
Joy as that worth more than anything one
can have in a jeweled casket2 Was not
Solomon right when he said, wisdom is
better than rubies.
There IS also something in the deep car
mine of the ruby that suggests the sacri-
fee on which our whole system of religion
depends. While the emerald suggests the
meadows, and the sapphire 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 the lamb and dove
on the affairs of the temple, and he knew
the meaning of sacrifcial blood, and
what other precious stone could he so
well use to symbolic it as the ruby2
Red, intensely red, red as the blood of the
greatest martyr of all time-Jesus of the
centuries Drive the story of the cruel
fiXion out of the Bible and the doctrine
of the atonement out of our religion, and
there would be nothing of Chris tianity
left for our worship or our admiration
Why should it be hard to adopt the Bible
theory that our redemption was purchased
by blood} What great bridge ever sprung
its arches; what temple ever reared its
towers; what nation ever achieved it's in
dependence; 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 Glas-
gov and New York how many carpenters
| went down under accidents before the
steamer was launched; ask the three
| great trans-continental railroads how
many in their construction were buried
| under crumbling embankments, or crushed
| under timbers, or destroyed by the
| powder blast. Tabulate the statistics of
| how many mothers 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
! heir households. Tell me how many men
/ in England, in France, in Germany, in
| Italy, in the United States have died for
| their country. Vicarious suferingis as old
| as the world, but the most thrilling the
| most startling, the most stupendous saCri-
| nee OF all time and eternity, was on a bluff
| back of Jerusalem when the Being took
| upon himself the sins, the agonieS the
| perdition of great multitude that no
| man can number, between u o'clock of a
| darkened noon and 3 o'clock in the after
! noon, purchasing the ransom of ruined
/ world. Dive in all the seas explore all
/ the mines; crowbar all the mountains {;
! view all the crowned jewels of all the EN-
/ perors, and find me any gem that can so
overwhelmingly symbolic that martyr
dom as the ruby. Mark you, there are
many gems that are somewhat like the
ruby. So is the cornelian; so is
the garnet; so is the spinel /;
so is the balas so the gems
brought FROM among the gravels of Ceylon
and New South Wales; but there is only
! one genuine ruby, and that comes from
the mine in Burmah. And there is only
, one Christ, and he comes from heaven
redeener, one ransom, one Son of God {;
only lone name given under heaven
among men by which we can be saved q"
Ten thousand times ten thousand beauti-
full limitations of that ruby but only one
ruby. Christ had no descendant. Christ
had no counterpart. In the Iifted-up
grandeur, and glory, and love. and
sympathy of his character he is the in
comparable, and infinite one! The only
wise God, our Saviour" Let all hearts,
all homes, all times, all eternities bow
low before him! Let his banner be lifted
in all our souls.
In olden times Scotland was disturbed
by freebOoters and pirates To rid the
GaaRc uFn 4 fgT 81 . a L.