The Chanute times., 1901-10-11

before becomes pellucid. Now you
find God is not trying to put you down.
Now you understand why you lost
that child and why you lost your
property. 1t was to prepare you for
eternal treasures. And why sickness
came, 1t being the precursor OF immor-
tai juvenescence. And now you under
stand why they lied about you and
tried to drive you hither and thither.
1t was to put you in the glorious com
pany of such man as Ignatius, who,
when he went out to be destroyed by
the lions, said, 81 am the wheat, and
the teeth of the wild beasts must first
grind me before l can become pure
bread for Jesus Christ" Or the COM
pany of such men as that ancient
Christian martyr" who, when standing
in the midst OF the amphitheater walt
ing for the lions to come out of their
cave and destroy him and the people
in the galleries jeering and shouting,
THE lions!" replied, Let them come
ont" and then, stopping down toward
the cave, where the wild blasts were
roaring to get out again cried, Let
them come on!" All, yes, it is perse-
cution to put you in glorious company,
and while there are many things you
will have to postpone to the future
world for explanation I tell you that
it is the whole tendency Of your relig-
ion to unravel and explain and inter-
pret and Illuminated and iradiate. Job
was right. 1t is a glorious traspar-
ency. THE crystal cannot equal it."
Harmony and Symmetry.
Beautiful in its symmetry. When
1t presents Gods character, it does not
present him as having love like a great
protuberance on one side of his nature,
but makes that love in harmony with
his justice-a love that will accept all
those who come to him, and a justice
that will by no means clear the guilty.
Beautiful religion in the sentiment it
implants! Beautiful religion in the
hope it kindles! Beautiful religion in
the fact that it proposes to garland
and enthrone and emparadise an i'm
/
lily. Paul says it is a crown. The
Apocalypse says it is fountain kissed
| by the sun. Ezekiel says it is a
foliaged cedar. Christ says it is a
bridegroom come to fetch home a
bride. While Job in the text takes up
a whole vase of precious stones-the
topaz and the sapphire and the chryso-
prasus-he holds out of this beauti-
full vase just one crystal and holds it
up until it CLEANS in the warm light
of the eastern sky, and he exclaims,
"The crystal cannot equal it,
Oh, it is not stale religion; it is
not a stupid religion; it is not tooth
less hag, as some seem to have repre-
sented it, it is not Meg Merrilies
with shriveled arm come to scare the
world; it is the fairest daughter of
| God, heiress of all his wealth; her
cheek the morning sky, her voice the
music of the south wind her step the
| dance of the sea. Come and WOO her.
The Spirit and the Bride say come,
| and whosoever will, let him come. Do
you agree with Solomon and say it is
a lily? Then pluck it and wear it over
your heart. Do you agree with Paul
and say it is a crown? Then let this
hour be your coronation. Do you agree
with the Apocalypse and say it is a
springing fountain? Then come and
slake the thirst Of your soul Do you
believe with Ezekiel and say it is a
foliaged cedar? Then come under its
shadow. Do you believe with Christ
and say it is a bridegroom come to
fetch home a bride? Then strike
hands with your Lord and King while
pronounce you everlastingly one. Or
| il you think with Job that it is a
Jewel. then put it on YOUR hand like
a ring, on your neck like bead, on
your forehead like star, while look
ing into the mirror of Gods word you
acknowledge, "The crystal cannot
equal it."
Superior to Crystal.
Again, religion is superior to the
crystal in its transformations. The
diamond is only a crystallization. Car
| Donate of lime rises till it becomes
calcite or aragonite. Red oxide of
copper crystallizes into cubes and
octahedrons. Those crystals which
| adorn our persons and our homes and
our museums have only been resur-
rected from forms that were far from
lustrous. Scientists for ages have
been examining these wonderful trans
formations. But 1 tell you in the gos-
pei of the Son of God there is more
wonderful transformation. Over souls
by reason of sin black as coal and
hard as iron God, by his comforting
grace, stoops and says, "They shall be
mine in the day when l make up my
| jewels"
What" say you. 'Will God wear
jewelry?" If he wanted it, he could
make the stars of the heaven his belt
and have the evening cloud for the
sandals of his feet, but he does not
want that adornment. He will not
have that jewelry. When God wants
jewelry, he comes down and digs it out
of the depths and darkness of sin.
These souls are all crystallizations Of
mercy. He puts them on, and he
wears them in the presence OF the