Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1901-10-10

this discourse illustrated ana commenced,
text, Job xviii, II, THE crystal cannot
equal it."
Many of the precious stones of the BIZ
bic have come to prompt recognition. But
for the present take up the less valu-
able crystal. job in my text, compares
saving wisdom with a specimen of topaz.
An iniidcl chemist or mineralogist would
pronounce the latter worth more than the
former, but Job makes an intelligent COM
parison, looks at religion and then looks
at the crystal and pronounces the former
as of far superior value to the latter, ex-
claiming, in the words of my text, The
crystal cannot equal it
Now, it is not Il part Of my sermonic
design to depreciatc the crystal, whether
it be found in Cornish mine or Harz
mountain or Mammoth cave or tinkling
among the pendants of the chandeliers
Of 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
heaven in the diamond. Among all the
pages of natural history there is no page
more interesting to me than the page
crystaograp But | want to show
you that Job was right when, taking reli-
gion in one hand and the crystal in the
other, he declared that the former is of
far more value and beauty than the lat
ter, recommending it to all the people and
to all the ages, declaring The crystal
cannot equal it."
In the first place, remark that reli-
glon 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 cxactness
than any earthly city. There are six
styles of capitalization and all of them
divinely ordained Every crystal has
mathematical precision. Gods geometry
reaches through it, and it is n square, or
it is rectangle. or it is a rhomboid, or in
some way it has q 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-
dcnces 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 six
headed prism. Born at the right time;
dying at the right time. There are no
"happen SOS" in our theology. II |
thought this was slipshod universe, l
l would be in despair. God is not an an
. archist. Law, order, symmetry, precision.
perfect square, a perfect rectangle, a
. perfect rhomboid q perfect circle. The
. edge of Gods robe of government never
, trays out. There are no loose screws in
= the worlds machinery. 1t did,spot just
q harmon that NnDoleOD voc al 1-a1 with
indigestion at Borodno so that he lr-
came incompetent for the day. 1t did not
just happen that John Thomas. the mis-
q sionary, on q heather island, waiting for
1 an outfit and orders for another mission
airy tour, received that outfit and those
orders in a box that floated ashore, while
e the ship and the crew that carried the
= box were never heard of. | believe in n
particular providence. I believe Gods
geometry may be seen in all our life more
beautifully than in crystaography. 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
the tomb of Alexander Seyerus. Vases
of it are brought up from the ruins Of
Herculaneum There were female adoru-
ments made out of it 5000 years ago
those adornments found now attached to
the mummies OF Egypt. a great many
commentators believe that nv 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 its
delicate machinery vet 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 il to your
eve and Won sec 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.
Infdcls tell us it is OPAQUE. Do you know
why they tell us it is opaque? 1t is he
cause they are blind. The natural - Il
receiycth not the things of God because
they are spiritually disctrned.' There
Is no trouble with the crystal The trou'
bic is with the eyes which try to look
through 1t. we pray for vision. Lord,
tho eve soIve cures our blindness Then
we find that religion IL tronsnorent