AND the third, a chalcedony.—Obedience; Submission. A green quartz, found in the copper mines of Chalcedon. It crystallizes in the twelve-sided and twenty-four-sided forms of cubic crystalline formation. In the twelve sided crystals each side is a surface of five equal sides and angles. The Church's obedience is perfect towards God as indicated in the faces of the crystals, five being a symbol of Divinity. It is operative towards the brethren as in the twelve-faced crystals, and towards both phases of the Kingdom, as in the twenty-four-sided crystals.
The fourth, an emerald.—Deathlessness. One of the most beautiful of gems, of a bright green color, without any mixture, crystallizing in long, hexagonal (six-sided) crystals. The stone loses color when strongly heated. From those originally imperfect (as shown in the six-sided crystals) God is creating a race of deathless ones. Nevertheless, though begotten to the Divine nature, should [pg 325] they cling to the dross of their fleshly natures too determinedly, so great fires may be applied to burn away the dross as will destroy the value of the gem. This gem, too, represents the Church's power to bestow life upon the dead world. The crystals may be broken or split crosswise. The everlasting life for the world, which may be made continuous, is nevertheless susceptible of being broken off at any time for disobedience.
21:20. The fifth, sardonyx.—Humility; Purity; Martyrdom. An ornamental stone much used for seals and cameos. It was considered by ancient oriental authorities that a fine oriental sardonyx should have at least three strata, a black base, a white intermediate center, and a superficial layer of red; these colors typifying the three cardinal virtues—humility, black; chastity, white; modesty or martyrdom, red.
The sixth, sardius.—Loyalty to Christ. A reddish stone much used by the ancients as a gem stone; it has been in all ages the commonest of the stones used by the gem engraver.—Rev. 4:3.
The seventh, chrysolyte.—Heavenly Wisdom. Greek Chrysos, gold, and lithos, stone. The meaning of the term makes it the golden stone. It is a gem of a golden color, lightly tinted with green. It is very transparent. “The wisdom that is from Above is first pure.”—Jas. 3:17.
The eighth, beryl.—Love of the Father. A pellucid gem of a bluish green color, much prized as a gem stone by the ancients. It crystallizes in the hexagonal system, with sixty-six sides of various sizes and shapes. On each of the six principal sides are diamond-shaped marks, alternately five and eight marks to a side, with four marks at the end. The sixty-six sides represent the sixty-six books of the Bible; the two ends represent the Old and New Testaments; the diamond shaped marks represent the Heavenly Father; the three groups of eight each represent the twenty-four prophecies of the kingdom; five is a symbol of Divinity, and four represents Justice, Power, Wisdom and Love.
The ninth, topaz.—Benevolence. It is generally held that the mineral now called topaz was unknown to ancient writers, and that their topaz is our peridot. This is the name applied by jewelers to “noble olivine.” It is a dark, decidedly green-colored mineral. Much mystery for a long time surrounded the locality which yielded most of the peridot for commerce; but it is now identified with the island of St. John in the Red Sea, probably the “Topaz Isle” of the ancients. It crystallizes in twenty-six-sided figures. In some views—i. e., when the Great Company [pg 326] or the classes that are to be destroyed are taken into consideration—the tribes of Israel number thirteen; and when Spiritual and Fleshly Israel are considered separately, the total number is twenty-six. It is not the wish of the Heavenly Father that any of these should perish, and it is the wish of the Church to do all humanly and Divinely possible to save the unworthy from the final consequences of their own willfulness. This spirit will be exercised to the last limit of love.
The tenth, chrysoprasus.—Constant, cheerful endurance. The modern Chrysoberyl is a yellow or green gem stone, remarkable for its hardness, being exceeded in this respect only by the diamond and the jacinth. It is not infrequently cloudy, due to microscopic cavities. The hardness signifies ability to “endure hardness as good soldiers,” and the clouds signify difficulties, troubles, to be overcome.
The eleventh, jacinth.—Unchangeableness. The modern sapphire, next to the diamond in hardness; a beautiful blue stone. Many of the crystals are parti-colored, the blue being distributed in patches in a colorless stone; but by skillful cutting the deep-colored portion may be caused to impart color to the entire gem. This stone crystallizes in the most beautiful and wonderful pattern conceivable, consisting of a six-sided pyramid at either end, separated by three different sets of surfaces of six each and two different sets of surfaces of three each. We may think of the two ends as representing the teachings of the Twelve Apostles, and the twenty-four surfaces between as representing the twenty-four elders (prophecies pertaining to the Kingdom of God). God is unchangeable; although the different operations of His Plan, in different ages, make Him seem changeable to mankind. But the perfected Plan will be the adoration of all His creatures. This gem also shows how God can take characters whose conduct may have been very irregular, and by skillful cutting make them copies of Himself.
The twelfth, an amethyst.—Royalty. A stone of a violet color, bordering on purple, composed of a strong blue and deep red. The name is derived from the Greek a, not, and methyskein, to intoxicate, expressing the old belief that the stone protected its owner from strong drink. It was held that wine drank out of a cup of amethyst would not intoxicate. It crystallizes in double pyramids (base to base) of three sides on each pyramid. Amethyst was Pastor Russell's birth-stone; and behold how perfect its application! He was true blue in his faithfulness, and fully loyal to the blood of Christ, as shown by the red. He has the royalty now, thank God! The cup which he [pg 327] poured never intoxicated with error those who drank its live-giving draughts from the Fountain of all Truth, our Father's Word. The six-sided crystallization represents his Six Volumes of Scripture Studies, and this, the Seventh, a summary of all, represents the stone as a whole. There are over ninety varieties of crystals in nature. Surely, “The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God.”