Excerpt from Religion and Rank: A Sermon Addressed to the Second Presbyterian Congregation in Albany, Feb, 3, 1839, the Sabbath Immediately Succeeding the Funeral of the Hon. Stephen Van Rensselaer A ruby is a precious stone, of a red colour, sometimes verging to violet. It is of great value in jewelry; and in point of hardness is second only to the diamond. By a common figure it is made to represent the most valuable earthly post sessions, The meaning of the text then obviously is, that true religion is greatly to be preferred above all earthly treasures and enjoyments. And yet the wise man does not mean to intimate that earthly treasures and enjoyments are of no value; for the form of expression that he has adopted implies the contrary: the fact that wisdom is bet ter than rubies, takes for granted that rubies are worth something. It will therefore be no depar ture from the Spirit of the passage, if we con sider it as illustrating the superiority of religious character to earthly rank, when they are separately considered and the peculiar attractiveness of both, when viewed in combination. And this is what I purpose to do in the following discourse. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.