The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1901-10-08

WASHINGTON. Oct. G.-The charm OF
an exalted religion is by DIR. Talmage In
this discourse illustrated and commended;
text, Job xviii, IL, 1.-The crystal cannot
equal it"
MANY of the precious stones Of the BIZ
ble have come to prompt recognition. But
for the present L take Up the less valu-
able crystal. Job, in my text, compares
saving wisdom with a specimen of topaz.
An inidel chemist or mineralogist would
pronounce the latter worth more than the
former, but Job makes an intelligent COM
parison, looks at religion n then looks
at the crystal Inc p~ronounces the former
as of far superior value to the latter, ex-
claiming, in the words Of my text, 1.-The
crystal cannot equal it,
Now, it is not 4 part Of my sermonic
design to depreciate the crystal, whether
it be found in Cornish mine or Harz
mountain or Mammoth cave or tinkling
among the pendants of the chandeliers
Of a palace. The crystal is the star of
the mountain; it is the queen Of the cave;
it is the eardrop of the hills; it finds its
.eaven in the diamond. Among all the
pages of natural history there is 40 page
more interesting to me than the page
crystallographic. But / want to show
you that Job was right when, taking reli-
gion il one hand and the crystal in the
other, be declared that the former is of
far more value and beauty than the lat
ter, recommending it to all the people and
to ell the ages, declaring "The crystal
canno equal it,"
In the first place, l remark that reli-
gion is superior TO the crystal in exact
ness. That shapeless mass of crystal
against which you accidentally dashed
your foot is laid out with more exactness
thar any earthly city. There are six
styles of capitalization and all of them
divinely ordained. Livery crystal has
mathematical precision. Gods geometry
reaches through it, and it is a square, or
it is a rectang!e, or 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 beau
tiful than material accuracy. Gods at
tributes 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 and the cy-
cles. His providences never dealing with
US perpendicularly when those provi-
dences ought to be oblique, nor laterally
when they ought to be vertical. Every
thing in our life arranged without any
possibility of mistake. Each life a six
headed prism. Born at the right time;
dying at the right time. There are no
happen sos in our theology. If I
thought this was a slipshOd universe, I
would be in despair. God is not an an
archist. Law, order, symmetry, precision,
Il perfect square. 4 perfect rectangle, q
perfect IhO:2bOid, 4 perfect circle. The
edge OF Gods robe of government never
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 be-
came incompetent for the day. 1t did not
just happen that John Thomas, the mis-
sionary. on = heather island, waiting for
an outfit and orders for another mission
airy tour, received that outfit and those
orders in Il box that foated ashore, while
the ship and the crew that carried the
box were never heard of. | believe in q
particular providence. | believe Gods
geometry may Ec seen in all our life more
beautifully than in crystallography. Job
was right. The crystal cannot equal it."
More Transparent Than Crystal.
Again ! remark that religion is superior
to the crystal in transparency. We know
not when or by whom glass was first dis
covered. Beads of it have been found in
tAC JILL VI SlSAduuSE SGfeEuS. dSeS
of it are brought up from the ruins of
Herculaneum. 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
crystal? The crystal in the window to
keep out the storm and let in the day;
the crystal over the watch, defending it's
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 cele-
brated windows of Rouen and Salisbury!
But there is nothing so transparent in a
crystal as in our holy religion. 1t is a
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 a transparent religion.
1nfdels tell us it is Opaque. Do you know
why they tell u it is Opaque? 1t is be-
cause they are blind. 'The natural man
receiyeth not the things of God because
they are spiritually discerned." There
is no trouble with the crystal. The trou-
BILE is with the eyes which try to look
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.
It is a transparent Bible. All the
mountains of the Bible come out-Sinai,
the mountain of the law; Pisgah, the
mountain Of prospect; Oliyet, the noun
tain Of instruction; Calvary, the noun
tain Of sacrifice. All the rivers Of the
Bible come out-Hidekel, or the river Of
paradisaical beauty; Jordan, or the river
Of holy chrism; Cherith, or the river Of
prophetic supply; Nile, or the river Of
palaces, and 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
transparent. and the earth rocks. now
with cruciixion agony and now with
judgment terror, and Christ appears in
some Of his 2l6 titles. as far as I can