Republican news item. [volume] (Laport, Pa.) 1896-19??, 1901-11-21
DIR. TALMAGES SERMON
SUNDAYS DISCOURSE BY THE NOTED
DIVINE.
subject: Good or Evil Returns TO Bless or
Blast-Actions May Make the Circuit
of Many Years, But Come Back to Us
They viii.
copyright. 1901. ]

Ihcy VIII.
Copyright. 1sull
WASHINGTON, ID. C.-In this discourse
DR.. Talmage shows that the good or evil
We Go returns 70 bless or blast us; text,
Isaiah II, y, 1T is He that sitteth upon
the circle of the earth"
While yet people thought that the
word was fiat and thousands of years be-
fore they found out that it was round
Isaiah, IN my text, intimated the shape
OF it-Got sitting upon the circle of the
earth. The most beautiful figure in all
verse on plan of the circle.
:. There are in the natural world straight
lines, angles, parallelograms, diagonals,
quadrang.es, but these evidently are not
Gods favortes. Almost everywhere
where you find Him geometrizng you find
then the curve, which is a circle that died
young. If it had lived long enough it
would have been a full orb, a periphery.
An ellipse is circle pressed only little
too hard at the sides.
Giants causeway in Ireland shows what
God thinks of mathematics. There are
over $4,000 columns of rocks-octagonal,
hexagonal, pentagonal. These rocks seem
to have been made by rule and compass.
Every artist has his molding room where
he may make fifty shapes, but he chooses
one shape as preferable to all others. l
was the worlds molding room, but l do
say out of great many figures God seems
to have selected the circle as the best.
1T is He that sitteth on the, circle of the
earth" The stars in a circle. the moon
in a circle, the sun in a circle, the universe
in circle and the throne of God the cen
tre of that circle.
Appreciation of this would correct the
architecture of churches, whose shape is
often a defiance of divine, suggestion.
When men build churches they ought to
initiate the idea of the Great Architect
and put the audience in circle, knowing
that the tides of emotion roll more easily
that way than in straight lines. Six thou
sand years ago God flung this world out of
His right hand: But He did not throw it
out in straight line, but in curvilinear,
with leash of love holding it so as to
from His hand pure and Edenic. 1t has
been rolling on through regions of moral
ice and distemper. How long it will roll
God only knows but it will in due time
make complete circuit and come back to
the place where it started-the hand of
God-pure and Edenic.
The history of the world goes in a cir
c,e Why is it that the shipping in our
day is improving rapidly? \ scientific
shipbuilder says it is because men are
initiating in some respects what the small
wits deride. the old model of Noah's ark,
as it really was according to the account
given. Great ships have we now, but
where is the ship on the sea to-day that
could outride deluge in which the heaven,
and the earth were wrecked, landing all
the passengers in safety. two OF each kind
of living creatures, hundreds of thousands
of species?
Pomology will go on with its achieve
ments until after many ceutnres the
world will have plums and pears equal to
the paradisaical. The art of gardening
will grow for centuries, and after the
Downings and Mitchells of the world have
done their best in the far future the art OF
gardening will come up to the arborescence
of the year |.
If the makers of colored glass go on i'm
proving they may in some centuries be
able to make something equal to the east
window of York minister, which was built
in the year 1900. We are six centuries be-
hind those artists. But the world must
keep on toiling until it shall make the
complete circuit and come up to the skill
of those very men.
If the world continues to improve in
masonry, we shall have after awhile, per-
haps after the advance of centuries, NOR
tar equal to that which / saw in the wall
of an exhumed English city built in the
time of the Romans 1000 years ago, that
mortar to-day as good as the day IN which
it was made, having outlasted the brick
and the stone. l say, after hundreds OF
years masonry may advance to that point
If the world stands long enough we may
have city as large as they had in old
times-Babylon. five times the size OF Lon.
don You may go into the pottenes OF
England and you find them making cups
and vases after the style OF the cups and
vases exhumed from Pompeii.
The world is not going bac k. Oh, no:
But it is swinging in a circle, and will
come around to the styles of pottery
known so long ago as the days of Pompeil:
| The world must keep on progressing until
it makes the complete circuit. The curve
is in the right direction. the curve Will
keen on until it becomes the circle.
Well, now, what is true in the material
universe is true in Gods moral govern
ment and spiritual arrangement. That Is
the meaning of EZelliel's wheel. All com,
mentators agree in saying that the wheel
means Gods providence. But wheel IS
of no use unless 1T turns, and II 1t turn IL
turns around. and if 1t turns around 1t
moves in circle. What then? Are We
parts of great iron machine whired
around and around whether we Will or
not. the victims OF inexorable fate! No!
So far from that l shall show YOU that we
ourselves start the circle OF good or bad ac,
tions and that it will surely come around
again to us unless by divine intervention
it be hindered. Those bad or good actions
NAV make the circuit OF many years. but
come back to us they will as certainly as
that God sits on the circle of the earth.
.Jezebel, the worst woman OF the bibie
Shakespeare copying his Lady Macbeth
from her picture-slew Naboth because she
wanted his vineyard While the dogs were
eating the body of Naboth Elijah, the
prophet, put down his compass and
marked a circle from those dogs clear
around to the dogs that should eat the
body of Jezebel the murderess 'Impossi-
ble!' the people said. THAT, will never
happen" Who is that being flung out of
the palace window? Jezebel. A few hours
after they came around. hoping to bury
her. They find only the palms of the
hands and the skull. The dogs that de,
voured Jezebe and the dogs that devoured
Naboth. Oh, what a swift, what an awful
circuit
But it is sometimes the case that this
circle sweeps through century or through
many centuries. The world started with
a theocracy for government-that Is. God
was the president and emperor of the
world People got tired of theocracy.
They said: eve don't want God directly
interfering with the affairs of the world.
Give us monarchy" The world had a
monarchy From a monarchy 1t is going