The Fulton County news. [volume] (McConnellsburg, Pa.) 1899-current, 1901-10-10
The CHARM OF RELIGION.
Or faImage Says II Eliminates ard
Brighiens The Lives Of Men
and Wom:a.
Relg'cn Is Superior to tae Crystal in
Exactaess.


WASHINGTON, d. C.--The charm Of an
exalted religion is by DIR. Talmage in this
discourse illustrated and commended; /;
text, !ob, xviii, II, "The crystal cannot
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, com.
pares saving wisdom with specimen Of
topaz. An inhdel chemist or mincraiogist
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 value to tho
latter, exclaiming in the words OF my
text, 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 tinklng among
the pendants of the chandeliers Of a 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
and beauty than the latter, recommending
it to all the people and TO all the ages,
declaring, The crystal cannot equal it"
In the first place 1 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 exactnoss than any
earthly. city There are six styles OF crys-
tallization and all of them divinely or
dained. Every crystal has mathematical
~, o1,,, ~,
it, and it is rhomboid 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 decrees exact, Gods
management 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 perpendcularly 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 a
six-headed prism. Born at the right time,
dying at the right time. There are no
"happen SOS" in our theology If l
thought this was a sipshod universe l
would be in despair. God is not an An
archist. Law, order, symmetry, precision,
a perfect square, perfect rectangle, a
perfect rhomboid, a 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 became
incompetent for one day. 1t did not just
happen that John Thomas, the mission
ary, on a 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. | believe in partic-
ular providence. i 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
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
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-hls sin,
his soul, his destiny. You look at God,
and you see something of the grandeur of
His character. IL is n transparent reli-
gon. Infidels tell us it 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 i. no trouble with the crystal; the
trouble is with the eyes which try to look
through it. we pray for vision, Lord,
that our eyes might be openedl When
the eye salve cures our blindness then we
find that religion is transparent.
1t is transparent Bible. All the mount
aims of the Bible come, out--Sinai, the
mountain Of the law; Pisgah, the mount
ain of prospect; Olivet, the mountain of
instruction.; Calvary, the mountain of sac
rifce. All the rivers of the Bible come
Hidckel, 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 oil transpar-
ent, and the earth rocks, now with cru
cifxion agony and now with judgment ter
Tor, 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 juvenescence. 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 amphithcatre wait
ing for the lions to come out Of their cave
and destroy him, and the people in the
galleries jeerinG and shouting, "The
lionsl" replied let them come ont" and
then, stopping down toward the cave
where the wild beasts were roaring to get
Q t, again cried, Let them come onl"