People's Pilot, Volume 2, Number 31, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 January 1893 — MOVING IN CIRCLES. [ARTICLE]

MOVING IN CIRCLES.

The Far-ftenrhlng Influences <J ’ Good OT Bad Wk* Cause Mar be Present? But It? Msy be Years, or Centuries. Before ■” the Effect is Seen, But It Will Come. The following discourse on the subject •of “The Circle ot the Earth” was delivered by Rev. j. Dewitt Talmage during a recent visit to Atlanta,' Ga., from the text: .... ( , ' 1 ; ( i **, I I/ » < t J ’lt is He that sitteth upon the circle of the earth.—lsaiah xl., 22. When yet people th'onght that the world was flat, and thousands of years before they found out that it was round, in my text, intimated the shape of it, God sitting upon the circle of the earth. The most beautiful figure in all geometry is the circle. God made the universe on the plan of a circle. There are in the natural world straight lines, angles, parallelograms, diagonals, quadrangles; but these evidently are not God’s favorites. Almost everywhere where .you will find Him geometrizing, you will find the circle dominant, ana if not the circle, then the curve, which is a circle that died young! Wit had lived long enough, it would have been a full orb, a periphery. An ellipse is a circle pressed only a little too hard -at the

•nides. Giant’s Causeway in Ireland shows what God thinks of mathematics. There are over thirty-five thousand columns of. rocks—octagonal, hexagonal, pentagonal. These rocks seem to have been made by rule and by compass. Every artist has his molding room, where he may make flfty shapes; but he chooses one shape as preferable to all others. I will not say that the'Giant’s Causeway was the world’s molding Toom, but I do say, out of a great many figures God seems to have selected the circle as the best. “It 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 a circle, the throne of God the center of that cirele. When men build churches they ought to imitate the idea of the Great Architect and put the audience ih a circle, knowing that the tides of emotion roll •more easily that way than in straight lines. Six thousand years ago God flung this world out of His right hand; but He did not throw it out in a straight line, but curvilinear, with a leash of love holding it so as to bring it back again. The world started from His -hand pure and Edenic.' It has been Tolling on through regions of moral ice and distemper. How long it will roll God only knows; but it will in due time make a complete circuit and come back to the place whence it started—the hand of God—pure and Edenic. 1 The history of the world goes in a circle. Why is it that the shipping in our day is improving so rapidly? It is because men are imitating the -old model of Noah’s ark. A ship cor■penter gives that as his opinion. Although so much derided by small wits, • that ship of Noah's beat the Majectic and the Etruria and the City of Paris, of which we boast so much. Where is the ship on the sea to-day that could outride a deluge in which the heaven and the earth were wrecked, landing all the passengers in safety?—two of each of living creatures, thousands of . species. Pomology will go on with its ■achievements, until after many centuries 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 aborescence of the year one. If the makers of colored glass go on improving, they they may: in some centuries -be able to make something equal to the. east window of York minster, which was built in 1290. "We are six centuries behind those arte ists, but the world must keep on toilsing until it shall make the complete •circuit and come up to the skill qf those very men. If the world continues to improve in masonry, we shall haveafter awhile, perhaps after the advance of centuries, tnqrter equal to that which I saw last summer 'in the wall of an exhumdd English city, built in the time of the Romans, one thousand six hundred yfears ago—that mortar to-

day as good as the in which it was made, having outlasted the brick and the stone. I say, after hundreds of jyears, masonry may advance to that point If the. world swamis Long enough, we taay have a city as they had in old times. Babylon, five times the size of London. You go into the potterries in England, and you find ■them making cups and Vases after the style of the cups and vases exhumed from Pompeii. The world is n®.t going back. Oh no! but it is swinging in a circle, and will come back to the styles of pottery known so long ago as the days of Pompeii. The world must keep on progressing until it makes the complete circuit The curve is in the right direction, the curve will keep on until it becomes the circle. Well now, my friends, what is true in the material universe is true in God’s moral government and spiritual arrangement. That is the meaning of Ezekiel’s wheel. All commentators agree in saying that the wheel means .■God’s providence. But a wheel is of no -use unless it turns, and if it turns it turns around, and if it turns around It ,-jnoves in a circle. What then? Are we parte of a great iron machine whirled •round whether we will or not, the victims of inexorable fate? No! So far from that, I shall show you that we ourselves start the circle of good or bad aud that it will surely come us unless by Divine inthe circuit of ru.ni) yA% lini; sjoiae b-aek to u, they will as that God sits Miyte earth. - • tl'>- Bit.!.-, - .. his vineyard. V. - F/dole's luC OCM1V”0’I v WUj, put do.

1 r * f rAnlii I UXJipass markedrf Circle from those dogs elear around to the dogs that should eat .the body of Jezebel, the murderess. “Impossible!” the people said; “that will never happen.” Who 4® that beirfg flung out of the palaee window?' Jezebel A few hours later they came around, hoping to bury her. They find only the palms of her hands and the skull.- The dogs that devoured Jezebel and .the dogs that devoured Naboth. Oh, what a swifts y hat an , awfulcireuit! . * But ft is sometimes the case that this circle Sweeps through a 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 a theocracy. They said: “We don’t want God indirectly interfering with the affairs of the world; jgive us a monarchy.” The world had a monarchy. From a monarchy It ‘is going to have a limited monarchy. After awhile the limited monarchy is given up, and the republican form of government will be everywhere dominant and recognized. Then the world will get tired of the republican form of government, and it will have an anarchy, which is no government at alt And then, all nations finding out that man is not capable of righteously governing man, will cry out again for a theocracy, and say: “Let God come back and conduct the affairs of the world. Every step —monarchy, limited -monarchy, republicanism, anarchy, only different

steps between the first theocracy and the last theocracy, or segments of the great circle of the parth on which God sits. But do not’'become impatient because you can not see the curve of events, and 'therefore conclude that God’s government is going to break down, history tells «s .that in the making of the pyramids it took two thousand men ttvo years to drag one great stone from the quarry and put it into the pyramids. Well now, if men short-lived can afford to work so slowly as that, ean pot Gqd in the building of tfie eternities .afford to wait? What though God should take ten thousand years to draw a circle? Shall we take our little watch, which we have to wind up every night lest it run down, and hold it np beside the clock of eternal ages? if, according to the Bible, a thousand years are in God’s sight as one day, then according to that calculation the six thousand years of the world’s existence have been only to God as from Monday to Saturday. But it is often the case that the rebound is quicker, and the circle is sooner completed. You rosolve that you will do what good you can. In one week you put a word of counsel in the heart of a Sabbath-school child. During that same week yon give a letter of introduction to a young man struggling in business. During the same week you make an exhortation in a prayer meeting. It is all gone; you will never hear of it perhaps, you think. A few years after a man comes up to you and says: “You don’t know me, do you?” You say:. “No, I don’t remember ever to have seen you.” “Why,” he says: “I was in the class over which you were teacher; one Sunday you invited me to Christ; I accepted the offer; you see that church, with two towers yonder?” “Yes,” you say. He says: “That is where I preach.” or, “Do you see that governor’s house? That is where I live.” One day a man comes to you and says: “Good morning.” You look at him and say: “Why you have the advantage of me; I can not place you.” He says: “Don’t you remember thirty years ago giving a letter of introduction to a young man—a letter of introduction to Moses H. Grinnell?” “Yes, yes, I do.” He says: “I am the man; that was my first step toward a fortune; but I havt* retired from business now, and am giving my ■time io philanthropies and public interests. Come up and see me." Or a man comes to ’you and says: “I want to intrdduce myself to you. I Went intp a prayer meeting in Atlanta some years ago; I sat back by the door; you

arose to make an exhortation; that talk changed the course of my ftfe, and if I ever get to Heaven, under God I will owe my salvatidn to you,” Jn only ten, twenty or«thirty years-the circle swept out an’d swept back again to ycmr own grateful heart. But sometimes it is a wider circle, and does not rgtprnlrn* a great while. I saw a bill of expenses for bn&fngfoatfmey and Ridley. <The bill of expenses says; ’ . . .* * » One load of fl re fagots ;*?.3s l 4d Cartage for four loads ot wood 2-t Item, apost . is Item, two chains 8s 4d Item, two staples ft) Item, four laborers... . 2s 8d That was cheap fire, considering all the circumstances; but it kindled a light that shone all around the world and aroused the martyr spirit, and out from that burning of Latimer and Ridley rolled the circle wider and wider, starting other circles, convoluting overrunning, circumscribing, overarching all Heaven—a circle. But what is true of the good is just as true of the bad. You utter a slander against your neighbor. It hasgone forth from your teeth; it will never come back you think. You have done the man all the mischief you can. You rejoice to see him wince. You say, “Didn’t I give it to him!” That word ihas gone out, that slanderous word, on ts poisonous and blasted way. You think it will never do you any harm. But I am watching that word, and I see it begining to curve, and it curves around, and it is aiming at your heart. You had better dodge it. You can not dodge it. It rolls into your bosom, and after it rolls in a word of an old book which says: “With what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.” You mafltreat an aged parent. You begrudged him the room in your hduse. You are impatient of his whimsicalities and garrulity. Jt. makes you mad to hear him tell the same story twice. You give notftiasticate. -You Msh he was jiway." You wonder if he is goiug.y|jtetiV'e forever. He will very- His steps are porter- and' He is going to stop. But God has to settle

with you on that subject. After awhile your eye will be dim and your gait will halt, and the sound of the grinding will be low, and you will tell the same story twice, and your children will wonder if you are going to live forever, and wonder if you will never be taken away. They ealled yon “father” once; now they call you the “old man." If you live a few years longer they will call you the "old chap!” What are thoßs rough words with which your children are accosting you? They are the echo of the very words you used irr the ear of your old father forty years ago. What is that which you are trysng to chew, but find it unmasticable and your jaws ache,' and you surrender the attempt? Perhaps it may be the gristle which you gave to your father for his breakfast forty years ago, A gentleman passing along the street saw a son dragging his father into the street by the hair of the head. The gentleman, outraged at this brutal conduct, was about to phnish the offender, when the old man arose and said: “Don’t hurt hiqa; it’s all right. Forty years ago this morning I dragged out my father by the hair of , his head!” It is a circle. My father lived into the eighties, and he had a very wide experience, and he said that maltreatment of parents was always punished in this way. Other sins may be adjourned to the next world, but maltreatment of parents is punished in this world. The circle turns quickly, very quickly. , Oh, what a stupendous thought that the good and the evil we start come ■ back to us. Do you know that the

judgment day will be only the points at which the circle join, the good and the bad we have done coming back to us, unless Divine intervention hinder—coming back to us with welcome of delight or curse of condemnation. “Oh, I would like to see Paul, the invalid missionary, at the moment when his influence comes to full orb —his influence rolling out through Antioch, through Cyprus, through Lystra, through Corinth, through Athens, through Asia, through Europe, through America, through the first century, through five centuries, through twenty centuries, through all succeeding centuries, through earth, through Heaven; and at last, the wave of influence having made full circuit, strikes his great soul. Oh, then I would like to see him. No one can tell the wide sweep of the circle of his influence, save the One who is seated on the circle of the earth. I should not want to see the countenance of Voltaire when his influence comes to full orb. When the fatal hemorrhage seized him at eighty-three years of age his influence did not cease. The most brilliant man of his century, he had used faculties far assaulting Christianity; his bad influence widening through France, widening out through Germany, widening through all Europe, widening through America, widening through the one hundred and fifteen years that have gone by since he died, widening through earth, widening through hell; until at last the accumulated influence of his bad life ih fiery surge of omnipotent wrath will beat against his destroyed spirit, and at that moment it will be enough to make the black hair of eternal dark l ness turn white with horror. No one can tell how that bad man’s influence girdled the earth save the One who is seated on the circle of the earth—the Lord Almighty. “Well, now,” say people in this audience, “this in some respects is a very glad theory, and in others a very sad one; we would like to have all the good we have ever done come back to us, but the thought that all the sins we ever committed will comq back to us fills us with affright,” My brother, I have to tell you God can break that circle, and will do so at your call. I can bring twenty passages of Scripture to prove that when God for Christ’s sake forgives a man the sins of his past life never come back. The wheel may roll on and roll on, but you take your position behind the cross and the

wheel strikes the cross and is shattered forever. The sins fly off from .the circle into the perpendicular, falling at right angles with complete oblivion. Forgiven! Forgiven! The meanest thing a man can do is, after some difficulty has been settled, to bring it up again; and God will not be so mean as that. God’s memory is mighty,enough to hold all the events of the ages, but there is one thing that is -sure to slip His memory, one thing He is sare to forget, and that is pardoned transgression. How do I know it? I will prove i£, “Their sins and their iniquities will I remember mo more.” Come into that state this morning, my dear brother, my dear .sister. “Blessed is the one whose transgressions are forgiven.” But do not make the mistake of thinking that this doctrine of the circle stops with this life; it rolls on through Heaven. You might quote in opposition to me what St. John says about the city of Heaven. He says it “lieth four-square.” That does not seem to militate against this idea, but you know there is many a square house thet has a family circle facing each other, and in a circle moving, and I can prove that this is so in regard to Heaven. St. John says: “I heard the voice of many angels round about the throne, and the beasts and the elders.” Again he says: “There was a rainbow round about the throne.” The two former instances a circle; the last either a circle or semicircle. The seats facing each other, the angels facing each other. The men facing each other. Heaven an ampitheater of glory. Circumference of patriarch and prophet and apostle. Circumference of Scotch Covenanters and legion and Albigenses. Circum--1 ference of the good of all ages. Periphery of splendor unimagined and in-, describable. A circle! A circle. —A writer in the Interior suggests the transformation of the older members of the church and tion into a senior Christian endeavor society, after the pattern of the young people’s organization. Why not? It might wake up and adjust to usefulness some of the idlers in the vineyard.