Job 28

The Topaz

The topaz of Ethiopia shall not equal it. Job 28:19.

November is often a dull gloomy month, but it brings us a cheerful sunny stone the topaz. The topaz got its name in an unusual way. “Topaz” comes from a Greek word meaning “to seek.” The stone was first found in a certain island in the Red Sea which was often surrounded by fog. And because the sailors had to seek long for the island ere they found it, they called the gem “topaz.”

How many of you know a topaz? Well, as there are three different stones called “topaz” you will be excused if you don't recognize one when you meet it. The true topaz is a stone which comes to us chiefly from Brazil, and it is usually golden or yellow or honey-colored. But it is found also without any color at all, clear and limpid, and then it is so like the diamond that it is very difficult for ordinary people to tell the difference. These colorless topazes have been nicknamed “slave's diamonds,” but there is a prettier name than that for them. Brazilians call them “pingas d'agoa,” and the French “gouttes d'eau,” both names meaning “drops of water.”

The second stone known as “topaz” is our old friend the corundum, only it is yellow corundum, not red corundum like the ruby, or blue corundum like the sapphire. This yellow corundum is called the Oriental topaz.

The third stone known as “topaz” is one we are all very familiar with, for it is nothing more or less than the stone which is set in kilt brooches and other Highland jewelry the cairngorm or Scotch topaz. I expect a good many of the girls here will have a piece of jewelry set with a Scotch topaz, and if any of the boys have a plaid to their kilt they will be very proud of the cairngorm which fastens it on the shoulder.

Now, to return to the first or real topaz. There are several remarkable things about it. To begin with, it is three and a half times heavier than water. Then if you heat it, or rub it, it becomes electric like amber. If you heat it slowly to a red heat (having first packed it in lime magnesia or asbestos) and cool it equally slowly, you will find that your yellow topaz has turned pink. That is how pink topazes are made, for the natural stone is never that shade. Then though the topaz is a hard stone, which cuts and polishes beautifully, strange to say it is very brittle, and if you let it fall you may pick it up in two.

The topaz was supposed in olden times to bring its wearer beauty, wisdom, and long life. It was also believed to quench thirst. Perhaps that was because the colorless topazes are so like drops of pure water.

There is a story of a thirst-quenching Indian topaz whose owner was a Hindu magician or necromancer.

One of the Indian Rajahs or princes, who was fighting a neighboring prince, asked the magician to help him to win a battle. The battle took place, but alas! the magician's help was vain, for the Rajah was beaten and the necromancer himself wounded to death. As he lay dying on the battlefield he heard near him the groans of a poor wounded soldier who was crying out for a drop of water to quench his burning thirst. With a last effort of strength the necromancer threw his precious jewel to the soldier, telling him to lay it on his heart. No sooner had the man done so than his thirst vanished and his wound healed.

Well, that is only a tale. But I have told it you because I think its message and that of the topaz are one “Be sympathetic.” What is sympathy? The dictionary tells us that it is “feeling with” others. There used to be an old conundrum I expect it is still alive “Why is sympathy like blind man's buff?” “Because it's a fellow feeling for a fellow creature.” Now I want to ask you, “Why is sympathy like a topaz?” And I shall give you three reasons.

1. It is cheering. the topaz is a cheerful stone. Did you ever notice that yellow is a cheerful color? It is. It “makes a sunshine in a shady place.” If you have a yellow paper on a dull north room, that room will look as if the sun were streaming into it. So sympathy warms and cheers.

2. It is electric. It is something that goes out from you to someone else, or comes from someone else to you. You can't catch hold of it and say, “This is sympathy,” but it is like a wave of electricity, you feel it. It makes you tingle with pleasure. It attracts you like a magnet.

3. It is fragile. It is a delicate sort of thing. You can't bounce in on somebody and blurt out, “Now I'm going to be sympathetic. I'm going to say so-and-so and I'm going to do so-and-so.” You must go about it in a more delicate way than that. Often sympathy can't be put into words. A look or a touch is enough.

A famous preacher tells that when he was a boy there lived in the next house a man who was a hopeless drunkard. The boy's father was very anxious that the man should be cured and he tried all in his power to help him. But the poor man found it impossible to resist turning into a public-house when he passed its open doors, and saw its flaring lights, and smelt its smell of whisky. At last, after trying and failing again and again, he said to the boy's father, “I think if I could hold someone's hand I might manage it.” The little boy heard this and was keen to help, so he offered himself for the job. Day after day he went and slipped his hand into that of the man and guided him safely past the danger spots. He didn't say anything. All he did was just to give a friendly grip; but it was the finest kind of sympathy, and it worked the man's cure.

Now a word of warning! Don't keep your sympathy for people who are sad or in trouble. Spare some of it for those who are specially happy or joyful. The Bible says, “Rejoice with them that rejoice; weep with them that weep.” And you will notice that it puts the “rejoicing with them that rejoice” before the “weeping with them that weep.” Perhaps that is because most people find it easier to be sorry for others' woes than to be glad at others' joys. I don't know why that should be, unless it is that there's a little bit of jealousy at the bottom of our hearts, and that little bit of jealousy comes up to the top when we hear of anyone who has had any special good fortune.

Boys and girls, if you are ever bothered with that mean little feeling give it no mercy, kill it right away. Do the sympathetic thing and the fine thing. Rejoice in your friend's joy. Here's the message of the topaz in other words, “Halve your friends' sorrows, and double their joys.”