Republican news item. [volume] (Laport, Pa.) 1896-19??, 1901-10-31
DIR. TALMAGES SERMON
SUNDAYS DISCOURSE BY THE NOTED
DIVINE.
Subject: Tho Charm of tho Chris tian
Religion - 1t llluminates and Bright
ems the Lives Of Men and Women
The Beauty of Gods Love.


tCopyright. 1sOl.l
WASHINGTON, d. C.-The charm of an
exalted religion is by DR.. Talmage in this
| discourse illustrated and commended;
text, JOB xviii, II, "The crystal cannot
Many of the precious stones of the
Bible have come to prompt recognition, ,E 1oI
valuable crystal Job, in my text, com.
pares saving wisdom with a specimen of
| topaz. An infdel chemist or mineralogist
would pronounce the latter worth more
| than the former, but job makes an intel
lgent comparison, looks at religion and
then looks at the crystal and pronounces
the former as of far superior va lue to the
latter, cxcaming in the words OF my
,ext, "The crystal cannot equal it,"
| Now, it is not part of my sermonic de-
! sign to depreciate the crystal. whether it
| be found in Cornish mine or Harz Mount
ain or Mammoth Cave or tinkling among
the pendants of the chandeliers of PAL
ace. The crystal is the star OF the mount
ain; it is the queen Of the cave; it is the
eardrop of the hills; it finds its heaven in
the diamond. Among all the pages of nat
ural history there is no page more inter
esting to me than the page crystallogra-
phic. But / want to show you that Job
was right when, taking religion in one
hand and the crystal in the other, he de-
clared that the former is of far more value
|
it to all the people and to all the ages,
declaring, "The crystal cannot equal it"
In the first place l remark that religion
is superior to the crystal in exactness.
That shapeless mass of crystal against
which you accidentally dashed your foot
is laid out with more eXactness than any
earthly city. There are six styles of crys-
tallizaton and all of them divinely or
dained. Every crystal has mathematical
| precision. Gods geometry reaches through
it, and it is a rhomboid or in some way it
has a mathematical figure. Now, religion
beats that in the simple fact that spiritual
accuracy is more beautiful than material
accuracy. Gods attributes are exact,
Gods law exact, Gods DEGREES exact, Gods
management of the world exact. Never
counting wrong, though He counts the
grass blades and the stars and the sands
dealing with us perpendicularly when
those providences ought to be oblique, nor
laterally when they ought to be vertical.
Everything in our life arranged without
any possibility of mistake. Each life q
sixheaded prism. Born at the right time,
"happen SOS" in our theology. If
thought this was u slipshod universe
would be in despair. God is not an An
archist Law, order, symmetry, precision,
a perfect. square, perfect rectangle, a
perfect rhomboid, perfect circle. The
trays out. There are no loose screws in
the worlds machinery. 1t did not just
happen that Napoleon was attacked with
Indigestion at Borodino so that he became
incompetent for one day. 1t did not just
happen that John Thomas, the mission
airy, on heather island, waiting for an
outfit and orders for another missionary
tour, received that outfit and those or
ders in box that foated ashore, while
the ship and the crew that carried the box
were never heard of. l believe in partic-
ular providence. | believe Gods geometry
may be seen in all our life more beauti-
fully than in crystallography. Job was
right, The crystal cannot equal it,"
Again, | remark that religion is supe-
rior to the crystal in transparency. We
know not when or by whom glass was first
discovered. Beads of it have been found
in the tomb of Alexander Severus. Vases
OF it are brought up from the ruins OF
Herculaueum. There were female adorn-
ments made out of it 5000 years ago
those adornments found now attached to
the mummies of Egypt. A great many
commentators believe that my text means
glass. What would we do without the
Crystalline crystal in the window to keep
out the storm and let in the day, the crys-
tai over the watch, defending its delicate
machinery, yet allowing us to see the hour;
the crystal OF the telescope, by which the
astronomer brings distant worlds so near
he can inspect them!
Oh, the triumphs of the crystals in the
celebrated windows of Rouen and Sails
bury! But there is nothing SO transpar-
ent in crystal as in our holy religion.
1t is transparent religion. You put it
to your eye, and you see man-his sin,
his soul, his destiny. You look at God,
and you see something of the grandeur of
His character. 1t Is transparent rel-
gion. Infdels tell us. is opaque. Do
you know why they tell us it is opaque?
1t is because they are blind. "The nat.
ural man receiveth not the things of God
because they are spiritually discerned."
There is no trouble with the crystal; the
through it. We pray for vision, Lord,
that our eyes might be opened! When
the eye salve cures our blindness then we
find that religion is transparent; ,-.s--r''~-,
1t is transparent Bible. All the mount
aims of the Bible come opt-SSinai, the
ain Of prospect; oiiySet, The mountain OF
instruction; Calvary, the mountain of sac
rifce. All the rivers of the Bible come
out-Hidelel, or the river of paradisaical
beauty; Jordan, or the river of holy
chrism; Cherith, or the river of prophetic
the pure river OF life from under the
throne, clear as crystal. While reading
this Bible, after our eyes have been
touched by grace, we find it all transpar-
ent, and the earth rocks, now with cru
cifixion agony and now with Judgment ter
ror, and Christ appears in some of His 256
titles. as far as can count them-the
Bread, the Rock, the Captain, the Com
mander, the Conqueror, the Star, and on
and beyond any capacity of mine to re-
hearse. Transparent religion.
The providence that seemed dark 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, it being the precursor
OF immortal iuvenescence. And now you
understand why they lied about YOU and
! tried to drive you hither and thither. 1t
was to put you in the glorious company
of such men 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
can become pure bread for Jesus Christ"
or the company of such men as ''that an
cient Christian martyr" who, standing
in the midst of the amphitheatre wait
ing for the lions to come out of their cave
and DESTROY him. and the people in the