REV. DR. TALMAGE. THE BROOKLYN DIVINE'S SUN. DAY SERMON, ¥ Subject :'“The Brilliancy of Religion.’ Text: “The crystal cannot equal it, Job xxviii, 7. Many of the precious stones of the Bible have come to prompt recognition. But for the present I take up the less valuable crys tal. Job, in my text, compares saving wis dom with a specimen of topaz. An infidel chemist or mineralogist would pronounce the latter worth more than the Job makes an intelligent comparison, looks at religion and then fooks at the erystal and pronounces the former as of suparior value to the latter, exclaiming, in the words of my text, “The crystal cannot equal it.” Now, it is not a part of my sermonic de sign to deoreciate the crystal, whether it be | found in Cornish mine or Hartz mountain or Mammoth Cave or tinkling among the pen dants 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 heaven in the diamond Among all the pages of natural history there Is no page more interesting to me than the | But I want to show | ou that Job was right when, taking religion ! page crystallographic, n 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 Yo all the people and to all the ages, declar tog, “The crystal cannot equal it.” In the first place, I remark that religion is superior to the crystal in exactness, That shapeless mass of crystal against which you accidentally dashed your foot laid with more exactness than any earthly city There are six styles of crystallization, and all of them divinely ordained. Every crystal bas mathematical precision. God's geometry reaches through it, and it is a square, or it is is a rectangle, or it is a rhomboid, or in some way it bath a mathematical figure. Now, religion beats that in the siruple fact that spiritual accuracy is more beautiful than material accuracy. God's attributes are exact God's law exact, God's decrees exact God's management of the world exact \ sounting wrong, though He counts th blades, and the stars, and the sands, and the cycles. His providences never dealing with u perpendicularly when those providences to be oblique r lateral when th I be vertical. Everything in without any possibility of i & life a six sided prism. Born at ther dying s T pen so's” Was a siij God is not metry, pr rectangie, The edge is ' n ur | ha I w perfect riect square, a wimboid, a perf i's robe of governinent pever frays out. There are no loose screws in the world's machinery. It did not just happen that Napoleon was attacked with in- digestion at Borodino so that he competent f lay. Itdid n n ) cle WCAIUS In Just bap on a and fved v the «0 that John Thomas, the missionary, vert we island, waiting for an outfit orders for another missionary tour that and those ords a box that flonted ashore, while the ship and the crew that carried the box were never heard of The barking of F. W. Rober , he ts us, led to a line of ev bn from the army in ishy, where he served owned usefulness 1 believe ina rod’s 10H oats rs in rents wii s (3 raphy. Job was right. equal it.’ Again I remark that religion perior to the crystal in transparency. We know not when or by whom glass was first dis covered. Beadsof it have been found in the tomb of Ale {it are brought up from the ruins of Herculaneum There were female adornments made out of it three thousand yoar those adorg ments found now : 3 of Egypt pre mar COME be ov th } text is supe sander Severus. Vases o 5 AZO mies tators What uid crystal in storm and let the watch def yet allowin : ) : of the telescoy by which the astronomer brings distant worlds so near he them Ob, the tri in the celebrated Salisbury But there is n g tran sryetal as in our holy religion parent religion. You put it to your ou see man-his sin, his soul, 1} 2 u look at God and you see something of the grandeur of His character. It is a tran ent religion " Infidels tell us it 1s opaque be vou know why they tell it is opagu It is because they are blind The natural man receiveth not the things of God because they are spiritually discerned. There trouble with the ervstal; the trouble is with the eves which try to look through it. We way for wisdom, Lord, that our eves might pene i When the eve ¢ find that religi Means giass w without the pdow to day; the delicate nn see the § cry staal out th stal ov PY the ory t ke oni 0 kewp cry Diner to tu RB us RE Dns mot r crvst windows of Rouen mx thing so rent in a a trans and ® destiny us iN no Ww cures blindness then w parent. It is a transparent Hil tains of the Bible come tain of the law Pisgah, the n prospect; Olivet, the mountain of instruc tion: Calvary, the mountain of sacrifice. All the rivers of the Bible come out—Hidokel, 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 besa touched by grace we find it all transparent, and the earth rocks now with erucifixion agony and now with judgment terror, and 0 is Lrans le. AlN Hite nai the moun the moun. wantain of Christ appears in some of His two hundred | and fifty-six titles, as far as | can count them «the bread, the rock, the captain, the com mander, the congueror, the star, and on and beyond any capacity of mine to rebearss then. Transparent religion ! The providence that seemed dark before becomes pellucid, Now you find God is not trying to put you down, Now you under stand why you lost that child, and why you lost your property; it was to prepare you for eternal treasures. And why sickness eame, it belong the precursor javenescence. And now you understand why they lied about you and tried to drive ou hither and thither, n the glorious company of such men as Ignatius, who, wheti be went out to be de stroved by the Hons, said: “1 am the wheat, and the teeth of the wild beasts must first | ind me before I oan become pure bread for esus Christ” or the company of such men as Polyearp, who, when standing in the inidst of the amphitheatre waiting for the lions to come out of Shelf cave and destroy vy and the people in the galleries jecring and shoat- ing: The lions for Polyearp,” fod: “Lad them come on,” and then ste down to ward the cave where the wi our to unravel and explain Serprit and 1 Jumine and i te. Jobwas right, Itisa glorious transparency. “The crystal cannot ual it, “ remark that rel sur al in ite beauty, That lum pifying glam ol former, but | out | of immortal | It was to put you | not enough about their crown, Do you know the Bible mentions a cross but twenty-seven times, while it mentions a crown eighty times? Ask that old man what he thinks of religion. He has heen a close observer, He has been culturing an wsthetic taste, He has seen the sunrises of half a contnry, He has been an early riser. He bax been an ad- mirer of cameos and corals and all kinds of beautiful things. Ask him what he thinks of religion, and he will tell you, “It ix the most beautiful thing 1 ever saw.” “The crystal cannot equal it." | Beautiful in its symmetry. When it ore sents God's character {t does not present Him i a8 having love like a great protuberance on one side of His nature, but makes that love in harmony with His justice—a love | that will accept all those who come to Him, | and a justice that will by no means clear | the guilty, Beautiful religion in the senti- | ment it implants? Beautiful religion in the hope it kindlos! | fact that it proposes to garland and enthrons | and imparadise an immortal spirit, Bolomon | says it is a lily, Paul says it is a crown | The Apocalypse says it is a fountain kissed {of the sun. Ezekiel says it is a foliaged codar, Christ says it is a bridegroom come to fetch home a bride. While Job in the | soxt takes up a whole vase of Frecions stones | | ~~the topaz, and the sapphire, and the | chrysoprasus--and he takes out of this beau- tiful vase just one crystal, and holds it up until it gleams in the warm light of the esst- ern sky, and he exclaims, “The crystal can not equal it." Oh, it is not a stale religion, it is not | some seem to have repuesented it; itis not a Meg Marriles with shrivelad arin came to scare the world. It is the fairest daughter of God, heiressof all His wealth, Her cheek the morning sky; her voice the music of the south wind; her step the dance of the wa. Come and woo her. The Spirit and the bride say come, and whosoaver will, let him come. | Do you agree with Solomon and say it Is a lily? Then pluck it and wear it over your heart. Do you agree with Paul and say itis | a crown? Then let this hour be your “oro- nation. Do you agree with the Apocalypse and say it is a springing fountain? Then come and slack the thirst of your soul. Do you believe with Ezekiel and say it is a foliaged cedar? Then come under its shadow Do you believe with Christ and say it is a to fetch home a bride » hands with your Lord the King s I pronounce you everiastingly Or u think with Job that it is a jewel, then our hand like a ring, on your neck e a bead, on your forehead a star ile looking into the mirror of God's Word ige ‘the crystal t one my lke YOu acknowl it’ Again, religion i= superior CAnnos equa to th diam ” ar bomes and our u ted from fo Irjent Solent SUT lustrous, examining these w But I tell y« God there | «ta mderful trans u in the ml comforting grace stoops and h shall be Mine in the day when I make up My Jowels” “What” say you, “will God wear jew i ry?” If He wanted He could make the gtars of heaven His bait apd have the even ing cloud for the sandals of His feet, but He does not want that adornmen have that jewelry. W ry He comes down and depths and darkoess of sin all erystallizations + ATR nailed, ove 0 the all be t ; 1 | make upiMy jewels” derful transformation! “The crystal cannot equal it Thera she fa a wall of the street, but she shall be a sister There he ix, a sot in the ditch, At was temples th Mine" saith y no Hing tstinn meet i orsers seme t wpa tions The number ed and ths number » VETY poor prayer that, it dis Pe WHO never £ t it it is pleasant to know 1 were farthest down have been br est up. Out of infernal serfdom libort of darkness oon te th solitaire “The oy ial it TT ha wting rhetor ther Christian e anything ios ww sto nt into crystal v friends, the chief transforming wor of th wpal will ! on in 8 breaks upon the the what g not be # ' r.d. and not uatll heaves ¥ hen that light falls seo the crystals an Oh will wn You 3 mn. setting for th ty I sometimes hear heaven in a way thal is It seams almost a valgas 1 it. with great blotches o lor and bands of music making s loafoning racket. John represents heaven as exquisite ly beautiful, Three crystals. In one place he says, Her light was like a precious stons, clear as crystal.” Io another place he says “| saw a pure river from under the throne, clear as crystal.” In another piace he says “Before the throne there was a soa of glass clear as orys tal Three crystals! John says crystal at mosphere, That means bealth, alm of eternal June, What weather after the | world's east wind! No rack of storm clouds One breath of that air will cure the worst | tubercle. Crystal light on oll the leaves Crystal light shimmering on the topaz of the | temples, Cryetal light tossing in the plumes of the equestrians of heaven on white hw But “the crystal cannot equal it.” Joho says crystal river, That. means joy. Deap | and ever rolling. Not one drop of the | Thames or the Hudson or the Rhine to soil it. Not one tear of human sorrow to mbit tor it. Crystal, the rain out of which it was | made. Crystal, the bad over which it shall r il | and ripple. Crystal, its infinite surface. But | “ihe crystal cannot equal IL" John says | | crystal sen. That means multitudinously vast, Vast inraptare, Rapture vast asthe sea, deep an the sen, strong as the sea, ever | changing as the sea, Billows of light. Bil | | Jows of beauty, blue with skis that were | never clouded and gresn with ths that | were never fathomed, Arctios and Antare- | | ties and Mediterransans and Atlantics and | | Pacifies in crystalline magnificence, Three | | crystals—crysted light falling on a erystal | | river; crystal river rolling into a I] | sen. Buf “the erystal cannot equal it. his hand who have nfl It prop om they reprosent yw, beaits were | 5 ¥ i EE if g Beautiful religion in the | " stupid religion, it is not a toothless hag, as | river would be befouled by our touch, The crystal soa would wheln us with ite glisten~ ing surge. Transformation now or no trans formation at all, (Give sin a full chance in your heart and the transformation will be downward in- stoad of upward. Instead of a crystal it will bea cinder. In the days of Carthage s Christian girl was condemned to die for her faith, and a boat was bedaubed with tar and siteh and filled with combustibles and set on | fire, and the Christian girl was placed in the | boat, and the wind was off shore and the | boat floated away with its precious treasure. | No one can doubt that boat landed at the shore of heaven, | Sin wants to put you in a flery boat and | shove you off in an opposite direction-—off | from peace, off from God, off from heaven, everlastingly off; and the port toward which you would sail would be a port of darkness, and the guns that would greet you would be the guns of despair, and the flags that would | wave at your arrival would be the black flags of death, 0, my brother, you must either | kill sin or sin will kill you. It ix no wild exaggeration when I say that any man or woman that wants to be saved may be saved, | Tremendous choice! A thousand people are choosing this moment between salvation and | destruction, between light and darkness, be- ! twean heaven and hell, botween charred ruin | and glorious crystallization A Miraculous City. Until the end of 1886, writes a corre- spondent of the London Graphic, Joban- nesburg, South Africa, could not boast a { postoffice. Now it has a population of 20.000, of a motley 3 unaer com prised drawn from every nation { the sun, as a walk through the built streets of the town soon shows, There is the original Boer, born and bred in the country, rough of manner, careless of drees, with | lank hair and dress, master of the situation for the present; her, who bx some | crowd stone- mg, the occasional Brit ars him little good will, and wh ome out, 1 | t may be, as a ulthy Cornisd st wand face tw their black cork, species of African tribes n, strips place of glasses, wit} the reson with the F ol Crease : if Attar of Roses. Tradition hb first Nourmahal, Harem." garden, through hat ’ it that a (38 §) was used rosewater, she epi particles that with the wiry Bulgaria 1s the rose garden There, upon the worth hill slopes he plants the hundred The any leaf rose and tends it assiduously. plant is fickle and capricious Up m i om nd broaden magnificently, yet wholly lack ya another not half a mile away fairly intoxicate you th ta ne “ its p May By | wile One scent, while it will rium is the flowers by th before must be picked sunrise, a they open, else they lose more than hall bir The leaves are put into clay still twice their own weight of water, sweolness., with What nasses over is the rosewater of commerce, Ihe attar floats on top in oily globules that are hardened by exposure to the cool night air, then skimmed off Sixty pounds of good leaves will yield an ounce of attar..-San Franciscs Evaminer, A Mummified Rat. It was only a rat. Bob it war an un- commonly wonderful rat. It was the mummy of a rat, and no one knows how many ages ago it made the feminine Toltec wish she were somewhere else. It was a real Toltee rodent, for it came from the eastern side of the Sierra Madre Mountains in Mexico, and about 200 miles south of Deming. A Mexican archmologisd while traveling between Corralitos and Cams Gran les came across a hermetically sealed cave ft an elevation of nearly 7000 feet. The cave was vast in extent and proved to be a veritable sepulchre filled with the mumanifed bodies of dead Towtecs. Among them | was the well-preserved body of a rodent, The flesh had not sunken much upon the boaes and was in an excellent state of , It has a dark brown ap . In alse 4 dos not diffet from " , ordinary, everyday mt, Ag the same, and it is on exhibition in the room of the Mining Bureau. The floor of the cave in which the dis- covery was made was as smooth a8 a board, but the sides were rough and | ragged and the vault was covered with tition, San Francisco Eraminer. 0. Il. Carpenter, has bought a section of land will make into a frog farm. It is in County, i G. LL. Hamillon, of South Bend, Ind., who is an extensive breeder of Short ! horn cattle, in conversation with a Star. Bayings reporter said: “The ages of horned cattle may generally be known by the rings on the horn till their tenth year, but after that time they give ne indication of further than that the animal has passed its tenth year. The first ring appears on the horn after the animal is two years old general rule, that age. During the third year the ring grado ally increases, and at three years of age it is completely formed, The second ring appears during the fourth year, and at the end of the fifth year it is com. plete. After this period an additional ring is formed each year. This rule is sufficiently plain, and even a farmer needs but little practice to enable nye after, as o before sOON though sometime young him to read T old, old, a cow's age on her horny. with three rings is six years with four rings she is seven years COW No new ring are formed after the tenth year, the deeper rings, however, and the appearance of the horns are pretty sure indication of old age.”- St worn Lowis Star S 1yings. The Poor Flower MBkers. ywer making is one of wtries of 1 Iwo the starving New York City. Years to It takes learn the CLs to six busi Caves, Yi the popular the eect CoPrranT wav Too large ¢e vold-fashioned pill. ; in its way of doing 88. too. It cleans you it uses you up, and your outraged system rises uj against it. Dr. Pierce's Pleas ant Pellets have a better way, They do just what is needed -no more. Nothing can be more thorough—nothing is as mild and gentle. They're the smallest, cheapest, the casiest to take. One tiny, sugar coated granule’s a gentle lax: ative——three to four are ca thartic. Sick Headache, Constipation, Indigestion, Bil: ious Attacks, and all derange- ments of the Liver, Stomach and Bowels are promptly re lieved and permanently cured \ 1 EN IME ; 1810. Por Internal sud External Use, Storm Pain, Cram Inflammation tn body or Bw Phe Cures Croup Asthoos, Coble, Ostarvh, hol ora Morte, arrives, fibeumatiom, Seuraigia Lame hark, SU Joints and Strains Fall particulars free. Price 8 cm pot ratd 1 8 FeTwe ~ ad PY A. FrCCKICSS busi out, ; n 00 L THE GREAT ENGLISH REMEDY, BEECHAM'S PILLS Por Bilious tnd Nervous Disorder, Yor 25 Cents, BY ALL BRUGGINTS, With may aeuive Merchant to & MR ¥ | PROF. LOISETTE'S NEW MEMORY BOOKS, would display our pollution. The crystal ! qeiing tne Age of nornea Cattle, | Meare or Unto, Urry oF TOLEDO, ( ' Lucas County, ) Frank J. Cheney makes onth that he is the senior partner of the firm of | J. Cheney & 0. doing business fu the City of Joledo, County nud State aforesaid, aud that sald firm will pay the sum of 8100 for ench and every case of catarrh that csunot be cured by the use of Hull's Catarrh Cure f , Fuaxxk J Bworn to before me and ribed in 1 presence, thls Oth day of December, A. D,, 156, § an A.W, GLEABON, § BEAL { CHENEY, PTR EY yo Natary Puliie. Hall's Ontarrh Cure is taken internally and acts dircotly on the blood sud mucous surf of the syste. Bend for testimaonin F.J.Onexey & Co., Toledo, OQ, EE Bold by Druggists, CALIPORNIA'S gold product $10,000,000, If afflicted with sore eves use Dr. laaae TO son's Eye-water. Druggl woes fre Tix fon inst sia sell nt Tx yc o “4 . eee 3 ONE ENJOYS Both the method and results when Syrup of Figsis taken; it is pleasant and refreshing to the taste, and acts guntlyyet pi mptly on the Kidneys, ver and Bowels, cleanses the sys tem effectually, dispels colds, head. aches and fevers and cures habitual constipation. Syrup of Figs is che only remedy of ite find ever pro duced, pleasing t« the taste . ot ptabie to the stomach, prompt in its action and truly beneficial in its effects, prepared only from the most heaithy and agreeable rubstances, ite many excellen mend it to all and the most popular remedy known Byrup of Figs is for sale in 5% and 81 bottles by all leading drug. gista. Any reliable druggist who may not have it on hand will pro cure it promptly for any one who wishes to try it. Do not accept any substitute, CALIFORNIA FI6 SYRUP CO. SAN FRANCIBOO, CAL, SOWSYILLE. XY KEW YORE, AP. -VASELINE FOR AONE DOLLAR BILL we wil vor, (ree f he t qualities com 1 have made it sont a po Bid Chr Joa, any pe Illy fas Le Cw Sow postage stam os aay vin vie aris’ al wopmed mnt aoeount be pereui ied te your druggist any Vaseline or preparation Deve fr Red VADs lh OWT REE, DOO Lae tain yrooeive an teilal ion whe Choesebrough Mig. Le. ED. 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The best classes ‘cleanliness—and the Ent — ‘are always the most scrupulous in matters of classes use SAPOLIO. TARR H ¥
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers