Clear as crystal

Front matter

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Preface

In the Spring of 1887, the author of this book saw in some paper that Kev. J. G. Merrill, then of Davenport, la., was preaching five minute sermons to the children of his congregation every Sunday morning. He at once adopted the practice for himself, and has adhered to it ever since, believing it to be, on the whole, the most satisfactory way of preaching to children.

Having been, in an amateur fashion, a collector of minerals from boyhood, it occurred to him that he could get some sermons for the children out of the crystals that he was collecting in the Rocky Mountains, and gathering by exchange from ail over the world, and, perhaps, at the same time, interest the young in a pleasant branch of natural history, and show them that science and religion are closely allied.

At first it was a series of ten sermons, but, on repeating it a few years later, the series gradually grew (see sermon number forty) until it reached fifty or more, and extended over more than a year of time. Use has been made, not only of facts about crystals, but also of experiences in hunting for crystals, especially in the second part. The sermons are not arranged entirely in the order in which they were delivered. If there is any repetition of thought or illustration, it is mainly owing to the many months intervening between the preparation of the sermons that show such repetition.

There are three classes of persons, besides personal friends, who, we hope, will read this book.

First, the children, for whom it was specially prepared; not the youngest children, but those from ten to sixteen

VI ' PREFACE.

years of age. Surely no one can hesitate to put into their hands a book that draws moral and spiritual lessons from the facts of nature.

Second, amateur mineralogists and young collectors. There are now many such scattered over the land, in Agassiz Associations and other natural history societies. From these young people will come many of the scientists of the future, and we shall esteem it a good work done if the thoughts of any such can be turned, by means of a study that they delight in, towards moral truths and spiritual laws, towards God and His Son, Jesus Christ.

Third, ministers and Sunday school teachers who are on the lookout for fresh illustrations from nature with which to impress upon the young the truths of God's words. So far as we know, the field that we have explored is comparatively a fresh one, so far as its use for illustrations is concerned. Newton, in his Bible Jewels, treats only of precious stones, and then only, or mainly, of the fanciful qualities that have been attributed to them. Euskin, iD his Ethics of the Dust, gives in a scattered and fragmentary way a few, but only a few, of the lessons that the crystals teach. Mineralogy is only one of the many branches of natural history, and whoever makes one of those branches a specialty will, if he is on the lookout for them, find illustrative uses for all the facts and laws of his favorite science.

To the many young friends who have listened to these sermons, and to all who may read this book, we bring this crystal wreath as a humble contribution towards the crowning of Christ as Lord of all. Pronounce crystal as though it were spelled Christ-all, and you have the key to what our desire and aim has been in all these children's sermons.

Part I

Chapter. Page.

I. — Crystals, ----- 9

II.— Thinking aboot God, - - - 12

III. — Loving the Beautiful, - - 16

IV. — Clear Minds and Souls, - - - 20

V. — Reflecting the Light, 24

VI. — Alike, Yet not Alike, - - - 27

VII.— Crystals that Endure Hardness, - 80

VIII.— Working and Praying for Good Things, 34

IX.— Getting Things that Will Endure, 38

X. — A Jewel in Christ's Diadem, - 41

XL— Be Genuine, - - - - 45

XII.— Quality, not Quantity, - - 50

XIII. — Beauty out of Baseness, - - - 54

XIV. — Aiming at Perfection, 58

XV.— A Law Within Us, - - - - 61

XVI.— Glorify Your Surroundings, - 65

XVII.— The Great Healer, - - - 69

XVIII.— Crystal Inclusions, 73

XIX.— Christ on Our Foreheads, - - 77

XX.— Treed with Fire, - - - 81

XXL — Crystals and Electricity, - - 86

XXII. — All is not Gold that Glitters, - 90

XXIII. — Crystals that Shine in the Dark, - 94

XXIV. — Decayed Crystals, 98

XXV.— Crystals of Salt, - - - - 102 make use of the things your friends had seen in order to give them an idea of the things which they had not seen.

John had a vision of heaven ; and he was told to write it in a book, so that God's people in this world might get some idea of the beauty and glory of the home to which they were journeying. In order to do this he had to compare it with the beautiful things of this world, and in his description he made more use of crystals and precious stones than of any other beautiful things.

In describing the holy city he says that it is made of pure gold ; each of the twelve gates is one great pearl, and each of the twelve foundations of the wall is made of precious stone, jasper, sapphire, chalcedony, emerald, sardonyx, sardius, chrysolite, beryl, topaz, chrysoprase, jacinth, and amethyst.

He also sa} T s that ' ' before the throne there was a sea of glass like unto crystal. " And he says that the light of the New Jerusalem was " like unto a stone most precious, even like a jasper stone, clear as crystal." And then he says that he was showed a " pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb." A sea of glass, the light, and a river of water — all as clear as crystal ! What a beautiful, sparkling, crystalline place it must be ! I, for one, am anxious to go there, and you are too, are you not I

CRYSTALS. 11

But John tells us in Kevelation that it is not pos sible for any person or anything that is unclean, or that works an abomination, or that makes a lie, to enter that place. Only they whose names are written in the Lamb's Book of Life, and who keep his commandments, have a right to the Tree of Life. All such can pass right through the gates. ISTo one will hinder them. But on the outside are the dogs, and the sorceres, and the fornicators, and the murderers, and the idolaters, and everyone that loveth and maketh a he.

The word crystal is from a word that means ice. When clear quartz crystals were first found, thousands of years ago, people thought that they were a very hard kind of ice, and so they called them "krust alios,'' a word which in their language meant ice. Now we call any regular form of any mineral a crystal.

Some crystals are opaque, not letting any light through them ; some are smoky, and some are very clear, just like clear glass. Our text is a clear crystal, not a smoky one. We will look at it, and into it, and through it, and around it ; we will visit its home in the rocks, and learn all we can about it, and we will see how many useful lessons we can learn, and how many instructive sermons we can get, out of the crystal.

Chapter II. Thinking About God

" A book of remembrance was written before Mm for them * * * that thought upon his name." — Malachi iii. : 16.

One of the first lessons which we learn from the clear crystal is to think about God. It should make us think of God because God made it. Man had nothing to do with the making of this crystal. Sometimes persons look at crystals like this in my collection and they say : ' ' Why, how nicely those sides are polished ! Where did you get the work done I " They will hardly believe me when I tell them that I dug the crystals out of the ground just as they are.

They were polished thousands or millions of years ago in Nature's great lapidary. God polished the sides far smoother than man can polish them, and he made all the regular angles between the sides.

Although he made millions of these crystals, just as he made millions of birds, yet I suppose he thought about this one when he made it, just as he thinks about every bird that he makes, and is with every sparrow, Christ says, that falls to the ground.

When we see a wonderful machine or a beautiful (12)

THINKING ABOUT GOD. 13

work of art, we naturally think of the person who made it. If you see a beautiful picture hanging on the wall, you say to yourself : "I wonder who painted it." If you see a fine building you think of the one who planned it and built it. If you read a book that giyes you pleasure, you say: "Who wrote this book ? "

If you happen to be acquainted with the person who painted the picture, or planned the building, or wrote the book, you are more apt to think of him when you see it, even if you do not know him very well. When I see the telephone used I think of the man who invented it, because I was somewhat acquainted with him years ago. When I see certain books in my library, I think of the men who wrote them, because I knew those men very well.

Xow when I see this crystal, I say to myself : i ' God made this, the mighty God who made the heavens and the earth, and I have not only heard of Him, but I know Him, and He is my Friend, and He made this for me. His thought passed through it to me, and my thought shall pass through it back to Him.

A little boy was away from home once. His father was an artist, and he painted a beautiful little picture of the boy's home and sent it to him, so that when he saw it he might be led to think of his home and also of his father. The boy was pleased to receive it ; he hung it up in his room, and he said to his friends, "My father painted this picture, and it is a picture of my beautiful home."

So my father in heaven made this clear crystal and gave it to me as a picture, a little picture on a small scale, of that sea of glass, that river of water of life, and that pure light, in the New Jerusalem, our heavenly home. And when I see it, I not only think of heaven, but of my heavenly Father also.

Perhaps some boy or girl says : "I wish I had that crystal so that I could be reminded of heaven and of God." Ah! but it is not the clear crystal alone, but every beautiful thing, that ought to remind us of heaven and God. The clear sky that arches above us, the twinkling stars that stud the vault of heaven, the snow that wraps the earth in white, the brook that sings of its home in the mountains, the flower that turns its face heavenward, the butterfly that basks in the sun, the green grass that carpets the earth, the bright, happy face of a friend,— all are beautiful. God made them all and they all ought to make us think of Him.

I have an agate, on one polished face of which there is a natural image that looks just like the pictures that we commonly see of the Virgin Mary. "When a person looks at it he thinks of her. But on every one of the eighteen faces of this crystal I think I can see the reflection of God's face. And I see it

THINKING ABOUT GOD. 15

everywhere in nature. So that not only in the crystal, but in all the works of nature, I look through nature up to nature's Grocl. And when I think of Him, knowing that I am poor and needy, I remember with great gladness what the psalmist says : "The Lord thinketh upon me." and I remember, too, with gladness, what the text teaches, that He writes my name in a book, a book of remembrance for those who think upon his name.

"Lord, I care not for riches,

Neither silver nor gold ; I would make sure of heaven,

I would enter the fold.

In the book of Thy Kingdom,

With its pages so fair, Tell me, Jesus, my saviour,

Is my name written there.

Oh ! that beautiful city,

With its mansions of light, With its glorified beings,

In pure garments'of white ; Where no evil thing cometh,

To despoil what is fair, Where the angels are watching ;

Yes, my name's written there."

Chapter III. Loving The Beautiful

"Whatsoever things are lovely * * * Think on those things." —Phil. iv. : 8.

" Clear as crystal" is our text for this whole series of sermons. But we want a special text for each lesson. Oar next lesson that we learn from the crystal is to love the oeautiful, and our text is "Whatsoever things are lovely, think on those things. "

John would not have used the clear crystal in describing heaven for us if he had not admired it and thought that it was beautiful. And I imagine that when he saw one of these crystals, after having that vision of heaven, he would look at it with admiration, and exclaim : " O how beautiful ! It reminds me of that sea of glass, that river of water of life, and that wondrous light in the New Jerusalem."

The text tells us to think about those things that are lovely. The clear crystal is lovely, and therefore we ought to think about it and admire it. God wants us to love all the beautiful things that he has made. What did he make them beautiful for if he did not (16)

LOVING THE BEAUTIFUL. 17

expect us to love them, with that faculty, the love of the beautiful, which he has put into our natures (

He has filled the earth with beautiful things. They are all around us everywhere. And if we learn to admire and love the beautiful stars, the beautiful sunlight and moonlight, the beautiful rainbow, the beautiful clouds, the beautiful mountains and hills and prairies, the beautiful trees and flowers and grass, the beautiful birds, the beautiful crystals, and all other beautiful things, we shall have a source of joy and innocent pleasure that we can draw upon at any time.

Last year I read a recipe for fixing a beautiful bit of scenery in the mind so that you can call it up at any time. You are to look at it carefully, and then shut your eyes and think the image of it on the brain, and then repeat the process two or three times..

Soon after reading this recipe I made use of it on a trip of five hundred miles through some of the grandest scenery on the continent. And now I can shut my eyes, open my brain album, and enjoy all over again the many beautiful things that I saw.

If you will learn to love the beautiful, and fill your brain album with beautiful pictures, you can enjoy them at any time, even in the dark. A distinguished traveler became blind in his old age, but he would sit in his chair for hours and enjoy the mental vision of great cities and wonderful things that he had seen in his travels, and that he had impressed on his mind.

But we must learn to see the inner beauty of beautiful things. You know what concealed pictures are. When you first look at one you see only a common picture, if you look closer you see, so plainly that you wonder how you ever missed it, the outline of an animal, or a man, or something else. If God is in your heart every beautiful thing will be his photograph ; he will be its inner beauty, its concealed picture, visible to your eyes whether others see it or not.

We have just one perfect photograph of God, Jesus, the Son of God, who is his express image, in whom dwells all the fullness of the God-head bodily. Other things are beautiful but Christ is altogether lovely.

I do not think that anyone really loves the light, if at the same time he hates the sun. And I do not think that anyone really loves beautiful things, if at the same time he sees no beauty in Christ.

If we learn to love beautiful things in this life, it will help prepare us to enjoy heaven, for heaven is a wonderfully beautiful place. It is full of beautiful things, and the inner beauty of them all is the Lord of glory. The following poem tells us of twenty-four beautiful things in heaven :

L VINO THE BE A UT1 FUL. 19

"Beautiful Zion built above !

Beautiful city that I love !

Beautiful gates of pearly white ! Beautiful temple, God its light !

Beautiful trees forever there !

Beautiful fruits they always bear ! Beautiful rivers gliding by !

Beautiful fountains, never dry !

Beautiful light without the sun ! Beautiful day revolving on !

Beautiful worlds on worlds untold ! Beautiful streets of shining gold !

Beautiful heaven where all is light ! Beautiful angels clothed in white ! Beautiful songs that never tire ! Beautiful harps through all the choir !

Beautiful crowns on every brow !

Beautiful palms the conquerors show ! Beautiful robes the ransomed wear ! Beautiful all who enter there !

Beautiful throne for God the Lamb ! Beautiful seats at God's right hand ! Beautiful rest, all wanderings cease ! Beautiful home of perfect peace V

And this beautiful crystal in my hand is one of the things that God told John to use to help give us an idea of that beautiful place. And this is one of the lessons that the clear crystal teaches us — to love the oecmtiful.

Chapter IV. Clear Minds And Souls

Another lesson to learn from the clear crystal is that our minds and souls should he as clear as the crystal.

Some crystals are opaque ; that is, you cannot see any light through them. If you hold them up to the sun they will not let one of his bright rays pass through. Other crystals are what is called translucent. They let a little light through, but you cannot see any distinct image. Sometimes they are filled with impurities, like coal, or iron, or clay, or some other substance which prevent their being clear. Other crystals are transparent, that is they are clear like glass. They not only let rays of light pass through, but you can see distinct images through them.

Some people's minds are opaque. They are like muddy water. The light cannot get into them, nor through them. " Clear as mud" is an expression used of such persons. They do not have clear thoughts or ideas.

CLEAR MINDS AND SOULS. 21

Ask some boys and girls about the lessons that they have pretended to study, and they cannot give you a clear answer, which shows that they have no clear thoughts. The stream of knowledge in their minds is muddy. How many of you have clear ideas about the Sunday-school lessons, and are able to give clear answers to the questions that are asked by your teachers ? In everything which you study you should have clear ideas, clear thoughts, and clear language in which to express them. All should be as clear as the clearest crystal.

Did you ever see the old fashioned panes of glass that were formerly put into windows ? They distorted everything. As you looked through them every straight thing appeared crooked. Children looked like men, and men looked like children ; horses looked like dogs, and dogs looked like elephants. They twisted things out of their right size and shape.

Some people's minds do the same thing. They give a twist to everything that passes through them. Tell them a straight story, and in telling it to the next person they put several twists into it. Let a story pass through three such minds, and you would not know it, just as I would not know your face if I looked at it through two or three of those panes of glass.

I was with some children lately, and helped them play the game of Scandal, as it is called. I whispered to one of them the sentence : " Pike's Peak is more than fourteen thousand feet high every day." Each one tried to whisper it correctly to his neighbor, but when it came back to me it was as follows : c ' John said that Mary eat a piece of Pike ? s Peak every day. M Some of the children had twisted it when they supposed that they were repeating it correctly.

Muddy minds are bad enough, but there is something worse than that — muddy souls. I have known some boys and girls who had such souls. You could not see through them. They did not let in or give out any light. In such souls the mud is stirred up from the bottom. And just as you find slimy snakes, and croaking frogs, and poisonous insects, in muddy stagnant water ; so falsehoods and lies and deceits and impure thoughts and wicked desires, take refuge in such souls.

I know other boys and girls whose souls are as clear as this crystal. You can look into their clear eyes, right down into the liquid depths of their clear, bright, truthful, honest souls. There is no mud, no impurity, no falsehood, no deceit, nothing opaque, no twisting and turning, but all is transparent and clear as the sunlight. Those are the boys and girls that we love, and that everybody loves. They are honest and truthful, and willing that others should read their hearts.

CLEAR MINDS AND SOULS. 23

But suppose your soul is already impure and muddy, how can it be made clean and pure ? Dayid asked and answered that question three thousand years ago : c ' Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way \ By taking heed thereto according to thy word. " Put your souls into the hands of Jesus and let him cleanse it. Ask him to wash your soul, and it will be whiter than snow and clearer than the clearest crystal.

To clarify means to make clear, to purify. I haye read that blood is sometimes used in clarifying sugar and other articles to get the impurities out of them. The blood of Christ, and that alone, will thoroughly cleanse our souls and make them clean and pure.

Chapter V. Reflecting The Light

"Among whom ye shine as lights in the world."— Phillippians ii.: 15.

Our fifth lesson from the clear crystal is to reflect the light. This crystal is clear, that is, it permits the rays of light to pass through so that you can see objects through it. But it also reflects the light ; that is it throws some of it off from its surface. A crystal can be seen much farther than a pebble, because it has a smooth surface to reflect the light from.

A man told me that he saw the sun reflected from a bright spot away up on the side of a mountain. He climbed to it and found a crystal. It was reflecting the light of the sun, and thus shining as a light among the countless pebbles around it.

When we dig these clear crystals out of the ground it is easy to see them in the dirt because they shine so, reflecting the light as soon as it strikes them, though they have been lying in the dark earth for ages. Some of them sparkle like the diamond, and they sparkled as soon as they were taken out of the ground.

REFLECTING THE LIGHT. 25

If you go into a cave that has crystals on the side of its walls, they will sparkle brilliantly and reflect the light that you hold in your hand. Xear the summit of Mount Lincoln I went once into a mine that was about fourteen thousand feet above the sea. The sides of the tunnel were covered with millions of frost crystals, some of them an inch or more in length. Xo words can describe their wondrous beauty, as they reflected the light of our torches from a million "surfaces.

Why is it light when the moon shines ? Because the moon reflects to us the light of the sun that falls upon it. Do you know who is the light of the world? It is Jesus. "God, who commandeth the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ." And just as God has put the moon in the sky to reflect to us the light of the sun after it has set, so he has put us here as lights in the world. We are here to shine, to shine by reflecting the light of God as seen in the face of Jesus. Are we doing this ? Do our faces ever shine with the light of Christs love \ Are our lives all aglow with that wondrous light ?

This crystal has eighteen sides, and it reflects the light from every one of them, so that whatever way you turn it you see the light reflected from it. So ought we to reflect the light from every part of us.

I know one boy, who is generous and friendly, but he is not truthful or honest. You get the light from one side of him, but not from every side. I know a girl who is amiable and truthful, but she is lazy and slovenly. She does not reflect the light from every side. One person loves his friends and is ready to do anything for them, but he hates his enemies, and from that side of his life he does not reflect Christ's light. Such persons are like this other crystal, that has only one or two sides that reflect the light. The other sides are coarse, and rough, and rusty.

Africa is called the 'Dark Continent,' because it is so full of moral darkness. It is covered with an Egyptian darkness of sin. But look ! Away in the center of that continent I see a bright light, like the shining of a clear crystal up the mountain side. Four boys are being burned to death — it was only last year — for becoming Christians. Is it the light of the burning wood that I see? No, that light could not reach so far. It is the light of their faith, the light of Christ reflected through dark-hued faces from souls washed whiter than snow. And I can almost hear their voices as they sing the praises of Christ, while the fire is doing its dreadful work. Their light shines across the ocean to us, and it shall shine down the centuries, a bright spot in her dark past, to which redeemed Africa shall look back.

Chapter VI. Alike, Yet Not Alike

"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance." — Galatians v. : 22.

Alike yet not alike, or unity in variety, is our next lesson from the crystal. This crystal has eighteen regular sides, and every quartz crystal that you find anywhere in the world, if it is complete, has at least eighteen sides, six on the prism, and six on each of the pyramids at the end of the crystal. And the angles between the sides are always the same.

In these respects all quartz crystals are alike, and yet in other things no two are exactly alike — just as no two leaves in all the forests are exactly alike — just as no two insects or animals are exactly alike — just as no two human faces are exactly alike. I have had several thousand clear quartz crystals and I never found two exactly alike, though they are all like each other in some things.

Sometimes one face of the crystal is very large, while the other next to it is very small, crowded (27)

clown perhaps to so small a space that it seems like a point and you cannot see it without the microscope. Yet if you look close you will always find it.

Now everyone of us ought to have eighteen sides to our Christian character, eighteen ways at least in which love manifests itself, eighteen polished surfaces from which we shall reflect the light of the Sun of righteousness.

I do not say but that there may be more than eighteen, but if there were just that number I think we could give them these names : joy, peace, longsuflering, gentleness, goodness, faith, hope, meekness, temperance, truth, honesty, fidelity, obedience, humility, chastity, benevolence, forgiveness, piety.