The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1901-11-07
RELIGION EXALTED.
DR.. Talmage Draws a Sermon from
the Words of Job.

Discourse on the Latter's Comparison
Of Religion and the Beautiful
Crystal-Power of the
Gospel.
copyright, 1901, by Louis Klopsch, N. VI
Washington,
The charm of an exalted religion is
by DR.. Talmage in this discourse il
| lustrated and commended; text, Job,
2S:17: The crystal cannot equal it"
Many Of the precious stones of the
Bible have come to prompt recognition.
But for the present take up the less
valuable crystal. Job, in my text,
compares saving wisdom with speci-
men of topaz. An in6del chemist or
| mineralogist would pronounce the lat
| ter worth more than the former, but
Job makes an intelligent comparison,
| looks at religion and then looks at
the crystal and pronounces the former
as of far superior value to the latter,
exclaiming, in the words of my text:
''The crystal cannot equal it."
Now, it is not 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 it's heaven in the dia-
mond. Among all the pages of ma
tural history there is no page more in
teresting to me than the page crystal
lographic. But I want to show you
that Job was right when, taking re-
ligion in one hand and the crystal in
the other, he declared that the former
is of far more value and beauty than
the latter, recommending it to all the
people and to all ages, declaring: "The
crystal cannot equal it."
In the first place, remark that re-
ligion is superior to the crystal in ex-
actness. That shapeless mass of crys-
dashed your foot is laid out with more
exactness than any earthly city.
There are six styles of capitalization
and all of them divinely ordained.
Every crystal has mathema tical pre-
cision. Gods geometry reaches
through it, and it is square, or it is
rectangle, or its a rhombold, or in
some way it has 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 man
agement of the world exact. Never
counting wrong though he counts the
grass blades and the stars and the
sands and the cycles. His Providence
never dealing with US perpendicular
ly when those providences ought to be
oblique, nor laterly when they ought
to be vertical. Everything in our life
arranged without any possibility of
mistake. Each life 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 de-
Spair. God is not an anarchist. Law,
order, symmetry, precision, perfect
square, perfect rectangle, perfect
rhombold, perfect circle. The edge
of Gods robe never trays out. There
are no loose screws in the worlds ma
chinery. It did not just happen that
Napoleon was attacked with indiges-
ton at Borodino so that he became in
competent for the day. 1t did not just
happen that John Thomas, the mission
ary, on a heather island, waiting for
an outfit and orders for another mis-
sionary tour, received that outfit and
those orders in box that floated
ashore, while the ship and the crew
that carried the box were never heard
of. l believe in a particular provi,
dence. I believe Gods geometry may
be seen in all our life more beautifully
than in crystallography. Job was
right. ''The crystal cannot equal it,
Again I 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 W
from the ruins of Herculaneum. There
were female adornments made out ot
it 5000 years ago-those adornment:
found now attached to the mummies
of Egypt. A great many commen
tators believe that my text means
glass. What would we do without the
crystal? The crystal in the window tc
keep out the storm and let in the day;
the crystal over the watch, defending
its delicate machinery yet allowing US
to see the hour; the crystal of the tel
escope, by which the astronomer
brings distant worlds so near he can in
spect them. Oh, the triumphs of tht
crystals in the celebrated windows O.
Rouen and Salisbury! But there i
nothing so transparent in crystal a.
in our holy religion. 1t is trans
parent region. You put it to your ey,
and you see man-his sin, his soul
his destiny. You look at God and yo,
see something of the grandeur of Hi
character. It is a transparent reli
gion. Infdels tell us it is opaque. D.
you know why they tell US it is opaque
1t is because they are blind. 9Th
natural man receiyeth not the tbinuS n