Rensselaer Republican, Volume 25, Number 26, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 February 1893 — SERMONS IN SHELLS [ARTICLE]

SERMONS IN SHELLS

k§WBARIng at a policeman is placed M Ijgyei with nil other profanity by a Philadelphia^ - rzrj r: . The January thaw was a lit tle laid this year and moved in a very gentle way its melting to perform. _ Eve’s tomb is said to have been Joes ted, butahqdv-guard hay atlt placed at the grave as yet. .. ' The original ‘ Liberty bell” from Independence ball will bd 6h exhibition at Chicago during the FaTrT It is said that President-eldct Cievcland and Gov. Boies are mrttoi* mous in the opinion that the Governor of lowa wants no Cabinet position. ' Chicagols taking alrsoverASbuvenir spoon with a pig in the bowlg Chicago generally acts the hog and the souvenir may be regarded as highly appropriate. True to its traditions, Great Britian has taken advantage of the embarrassment of the government of France to break treaties with that (Country in relation to Egypt. Two deaths, was the grand total of mortuary results from forty French duels last year. As an amusement dueling in France is less dangerous than football in this country. Privileges at the World’s Faircome high, the purchaser of the right to sell popcorn on the grounds, having paid SBOO,OOO to the commissioners for the exciusiue control of the traffic in that commodity. A hundred South Americans have arrived at Chicago and will participate in the celebration of the 400th anniversary to the extent of their ability. They are mummies and “hain’t sayin’ a word.” Chicago claims credit for all the enterprise extant, even the doubtful honor of prompting the issue of the Columbian postage stamps, and the press of that city are. disposed to find fault because they are not larger, more showy and artistic. It having been alleged that Mr. Blame’s resignation as Secretary of State last June was caused by Russel Harrison, that gentlemen hastens to assure tHe public that statements “do myself and Mr. Blaine great injustice.” The Queen Oity is trying to keep up with the procession, and proposes to erect 12,000,000 stock yards and a palatial hotel. With the rapid development of the South, and the great wealth of Cincinnati, that city may be said to have a promising future. , The Smith family now have a representative in the United States Senate in the person of Mr. James Smith, jr., of Newark, being the first of the name to succeed to a seat in that body. He is a Democrat and it is believed will achieve distinction in the national Senate. Senator Cameron is reported to have said that he would “back up Quay in his fight for God,” in reference to closing the Columbian Exposition on Sunday. Now the Chicago press is so unkind as to accuse both the Keystone Senators of infidelity and drunkenness. Since the discovery of the diamond fields of South Africa in 1867 there have been exported from Cape Colony fifty million carats of diamonds, weighing over ten tons and valued at $350,000,000. Yet the export of South African diamonds is regulated by the owners of the fields in strict accordance with the demand for them. Eighteen -val dealers belonging to the Rochester Coal Exchange have been indicted by the grand jury and the indictments have been reported to Justice Rumsey in the Circuit CcJtirt in that city. The dealers are charged with conspiracy in illegally combining to advance the price of coal. There wore 180,000 persons without occupation of any kiud among the immigrants of 1892; and there ean certainly bo no doubt as to the propriety of excluding that kind of people from the country, whatever may be said about those who come prepared to make a living and contribute something to the public prosperity and welfare. A bonanza is in full blast in Mexico, but the slow greasers do not avail themselves of the inducement* so lavishly laid at their fbet by the volcano now in active operation in their territory, If it was located in

the domains of Unde Sam the tourist’s guide%would already herald the manifold attractions to be found at its base and thousands of travelers wonld hasten to fill tlie coffers of the hotel# of such a novel resort. The Detroit gas supply is furnished from the Ohio fields by the Standard Oil Company, and the citizens of that municipality are congratulating themselves over the outlook for a long lfiase of this valuable fuel. IJ Is the district has been surrounded by the Standard Company, and that it has many wells plugged up on which it has not yf t drawn and room for many move! in the territory which it has secured. ( * ■ A German is 20 cents, and it has cost the German government, during the last nineteen years eleven thousand million of them to maintain the army. During the first five years after the Franco-Prussian war, that is up to 1877, the Army expenditures were paid from the French indennity of five milliards of francs. Since -thw the money has been raised"By" taxation, and the people are yearly becoming more restless beneath the burden. ■ The clipper sailing ship, Allen, sailed from San Francisco October Ist, 1892, and arrived at New York January 27, 1873, after a voyage around the Horn of 114 days, covering an estimated distance of 10,000 miles. Iu these days of fast steamships and continental railroads, such voyages seem strangely out of place, and yet they present many attract-, ive features to the tourist, who has the time and means to avail himself of their numerous attractions. An eastern syndicate headed by a brother of ex-Seeretary Whitney, has obtained control of the Nova Scotia coal mines in anticipation of the repeal of the duty on soft coal, which, they believe, will give them the control of the New England market. A contest seems likely to ensue over this item in the tariff schedule, there being a very powerful interest in the Democratic ranks, backed by the soft coal producers or Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland and Pennsylvania, that will, contest for the retention of the present duty. High officials have always had a prediction for bringing down game, and Harrison and Cleveland are no exceptions to the rule, being adepts with the shotgun and a terror to the feathered tribe of the entire Atlantic coast. President Diaz, of Mexico, relishes a bear hunt, and occasionally brings down a wild cat that he happens to encounter in the forest. Probably it is the desire to hit something hard, to relieve the vexations to which they must gracefully submit in their official duties, that alike prompts these high'digs’to “have it out” with the wild game of the woods and streams. _# The United States has been “enjoying” an old-fashioned winter, but Boreas has dispensed his frigid favors with a more lavish hand upon the effete monarchies of the East. Cable dispatches toll us that the snow in Southern Russia and along the Dneiper is on a level with the housetops. The houses are not as high as the Chicago auditorium, but they are high enough to make snow measured by their altitude a dreadful visitation that will cause widespread misery and untold hardships of every character to all classes of people. —— The two most powerful personages in the world at this time are Pope Leo XIII, 83 years of age, and Gladstone, 84 years old in December last. Both wield a vast and far reaching power with a hand that has not faltered from the weight of years. Roth are well to-day, but how long can the world hope to have the benefit of their experience, wisdom and the intuition that comes only with advancing years? Soon they must “go the way of all flesh,” as have so many of the great ones of our own country, and the world will not in all probability soon see their equals in the exalted stations they so grandly fill. The hope of the Irish in all lands is for establishment of home rule in Ireland, and yet if their desires are realized very few of the Irish born citizens of this country will leave it for the old sod. to which they bid farewell' forever in sorrow and in tears. A large majority of the Irish people in the United States tvire prosperous and contented and their interests in the Emerald Isle arc largely matters of sentiment. Few of them could endure the thought of agaiii becoming British subjects, and full well they know that a Parliament that could give home rule to Ireland could again impose the hateful bonds of tyranny that have cursed that race so long.

Opuchology ol the Bible—God : Among the Shells. “TUe Pe»rl Great Pric-e”—The Royal j ——Purple—Dr. Tannage's Seruron. Dr. Tahnagc ipfeached at the] Brooklyn Tabernnek* hvsF Sunday, j continuing his series' of sermons on | “God His subject: j I “Conch‘deg)' Of the Bible.” j Exoclus xxx: 34—“ And the Lord slid unto thee SWCCi gpicos. star In and bnveha/" lie said; W v " \Ou may not have not iced the shells of the Bible, although in this early part ?f the sacred book God j calls you to consider and employ them. The onyclia of my text is a shell found on the banks of the Red sea, and Moses his army must foot as they crossed the bisected waters, onycha on the bc-aeh and onycha in the unfolded bed of the deep. I shall speak of this shell as u beautiful and practical revelation of Goth amJ-ms-trtre tts"the first Chap-' 7 " ter of Genesis and the last chapter of Revelation or ?verytbiu|f—between. It is a secret that you may keep for me, for 1 have never before told It to any one, that in ail the realms of the natural world there is nothing to me so fascinating, so completely absorbing, so full of suggestiveness as a shell. What? More entertaining than a bird, which can sing, when a shelf cannot sing? Well, there you have made a groat mistake; . Pickup the onycha from the batiks of the Red sea or pick up a bivalve from the beach of the Atlantic ocean and listen, and you hear a whole-choir of marine voices—bass, al to, soprano— : u an unknown tongue but seeming to chant as I put them to my oar. “The sea is his, and be made it:” others singing, .“Thv way, O God is in the sea. ’ others hymning. "He ruleth the raging- of the st?a ” Oli, the shells' The petrified roam of the sea. Oh, the shells 1 The hardened bubbles of the deep. Oh, the shells! which are the diadems'thrown by the ocean to the feet of the continents How the shells are ribbed, grooved, cylindered, mottled, irides cent! They were vised as coin by someiof the nations They were fastened in bolts by others and made in handles of wooden implements by still others Moilusks not only of of the sea. but moilusks of the land. Do you know how much they had to do with the worlds history? They saved the church of God from ex tin guishment. flic Israelites marched out of Egypt 2,000.000 strong, besides flocks and herds. Mr.Fronton and Mr. Shard took the same route from Egypt toward Canaan that the Israelites took, and I they give this as their testimony VAlthough the children of Israei ' must have consisted of about 2,000,000 souls,-with baggage and innumerable flocks and herds, they were not likely to experience any incon j venience in their inarch. Several thousand persons might walk abreast | with the greatest ease in the very ' narrowest part of the valley in which they first began to file off. It soon afterward expands to above three leagues in width. With respect to forage, they would be at no loss. The ground is covered with tarn a risk, broom, clover and saint foin, of which latter especially camels are passionately fond, besides almost, every variety of odoriferous plant and herb proper for pasturage. | “The whole sides of the valley , through which the children of Israel marched are still tufted with brushwood, which'doubtless afforded food for their beasts, together with many drier sorts for lighting fire, on which the Israelites couid with the greatest ease bake the dough they brought with them on small iron plates, which form a constant appendage to the baggage Of an oriental traveler. Lastly, the herbage underneath these trees and shrubs in completely covered with snails of a prodigious size and of the best sort, and, however uninviting such a repast might appear to us, they are here esteemed a great delicacy. .They are so plentiful in this valley that it may be literally said that it is difficult, to take one step without treading on them.” So the shelled creatures saved the host of Israelites on the march to the promised land Thahk God for the wealth of moliusks all up and down the earth, whether feeding the Israelites on their way to the land flowing with milk and honey, or, as we are better acquainted with the moilusks, when flung to the beach of lake or sea. While exploring the bed of the Atlantic ocean in preparation for laying the cable, shelled animals were brought up from depths of 1,900 fathoms. When lifting the telegraph wire from the Mediterranean and Red seas, shelled creatures were brougnt up from depths of 2,000 fathoms. The English admiralty, exploring in behalf of science, found moilusks at a depth of 2,435 fathoms, 14,210 feet deep. What a realm awful for vastness! As the shell is only tht house and the wardrobe of insignificant anii mals of the deep, why all that wonder and beauty of const ruction? God s care of them is the only reason. And if God provide so munificently for them, will lie not see that you Have wardrobe and shelter? \Vardrobe and shelter for a periwinkle! Shall there not he wardrobe shelter for a man? .Would God 1 give a coat of mail for the defense

of a nautilus and leave—you no defense against Does he build a stone house for a creature _lhat.la.9ts a sex-on and leave without. home a »ou! that- 'takes hold oil centuries and ecus? Hugh Miller found the footprints bf the Creator fa th» old red sandstone,” and I hear the harmonies of God in the tinkle of Hie- .o-ashells when the tides come in. : -In alme?G-oyefy tiatiY kite howA ever well born, and prosperous for years anil iimshncst every wean's life there comes a very dark time— At least ouee. A conjunction of circumstances will threaten bankruptcy and homelessness ..and starvation. It may be that these words will meet tite eye or will meet the oar of thesb who are In such a state of boding. Como, then, and sec how .God gives an ivory palace to a water animal that you could iovex with a 10-oent pjeces and clothes in armor against all attack a eera! no bigger than a snow flake. Ido not think that God will take better care of a bivalve than of one of his own children. * —l as I rake to your feet with the gospel rake the most thorough evidences of God's care for his creatures. I pile around -you 'gTeat maundsTrf •shells that they may teach you a most com folding theology. Oh. ye of little faith, walk among These arbors Of coraline, and look at these bouquets of shell fit io be handed a queen on her coronation day. and see these fallen rainbows of color, and examine these lilies in stone, these primroses in stomc th&sc cowslips in stone, these heliotropes in stone, these 1 geraniums in stone, these japonieas in stone. But while you get this pointed lesson of providential, care from the shelled creatures of the deep, notice in their construction that God helps them to help themselves. This house of stone in which they live is not dropped on them and is not built around them. The material for it exudes from their own bodies and is adorned with a colored fluid from the pores of their own neck. It is a most interesting thing to see these crustacean animals fashion their own homes out of carbonate of lime and membrane. And all of this is a mighty lesson to those whe-hee waiting for others to build their fortunes, when they ought to go to work and, like the moilusks, build their own fortunes out of their own brain. out of their own sweat, out of their own industries. Not a iuollu.sk on all the beaches of all the seas would have a house of shell if it had not built itself OIK'. But the more I examine the shells the more I am impressed that God is a God of emotion. Many scoff at emotion, and seem to think that God is a God of cold geometry and iron laws and eternal apathy and enthroned stoicism. No! No! The shells. \vith overpowering emphasis, deny it. Yes, my God is an emotional God, and lie says: “We must, have colors. And let the sun paint all of them on the scroll of that shell; and we must have music, and here is a carol , for the robin, and a psalm for man. and a doxology for the seraphim, and a resurrection call for the archangel.” Aye, he showed himself a God of sublime emotion when he flung himself on this world in the personality of Christ to save it without regard to the tears it would take, or the blood it would exhaust, or the agonies it would crush out. In my study of the eonchology of the Bible, this onycha of the text also impresses me with the fact that religiou is perfumed. What else could God have meant when he said to Moses, “Take unto thee sweet spices, staete and onycha?” Moses took that shell of the onycha, put it over the fire, and as it crumbled into aShes it exhaled an odor that hung in every curtain and filled the ancient tabernacle, and its sweet smoke escaped from the sacred precincts and saturated the outside air. Oh, how many Christian people need to obey my text and_ take into worship and their behavior and the consociations and presbyteries and general assemblies and conferences more onycha! I have sometimes gone in a very gala of spirit into the presence of some disagreeable Christians and in five minutes felt wretched. and at some other time I have gone depressed into the company of sauve and genial souls, and in a few moments I felt exhilarant. What was the difference? It was the difference in what they burned in their censors. The one burned onycha; the other burned asafetida. In this conchological study of the Bible I also notice that the moilusks or shelled animals furnish the purple that you see richly darkening so many Scripture chapters. The purple stuff in the ancient tabernacle, the purple girdle of the priests, the purple mantle of Roman emperors, the apparel of Dives in purple and fine linen —ave, the purple robe which in mockery was thrown upon -flhrist—were colored by the purple of the shells on the shores of the Mediterranean. It was discovered by a shepherd’s dog having stained - his mouth by breaking one of the shells, and the purple aroused admiration. It is said that, the harp and lute were invented from the fact that in Egypt the Nile overflowed its banks, and when the waters retreated tortoises were left by the million on all lands, and these tortoises died, and soon nothing was left but the cartileges and gristles of these creatures, which tightened under the heat into musical strings that when touched by the wind or the foot of man vibrated. making sweet sounds, and so the world took the hint and fashioned

the harp. And -am I not right in trying to moke music out of the shells and lifting them as e harp from which to ihnuri the jubilant, praises of the Lord and the pathetic strains' of human condolence? ' But I find the climax of this conchotegy of the Bible—in The pearl, which has this distinction above all otlk r gem s - -that it,' requires no, hupaar. har:d td hririg mil Us hcnntms Job of it, and its ahgea is iii Christ's sermou, and the Bible, which opens with the onycha of my text 'Jos?? with the pearl. Of such values is this crusiacecus product I do not wonder that for the exclusive right of fishing for it em th; shop* of Ceylon a man paid to the English government $600,000 for one season. So exquisite is the pear! I do not wonder that Pliny thought it was made out of a drop of dew, the creature rising to the surface to tike it and the chemistry of nature turning th; liquid into a solid, Oh, it is an. awful exposure and strain and peril to v-te for pearls, and yet they do so. And is it not a wonder tliat. to get that which the Bible calls the pearl of great price, worth more than all other pearls put together, there should be so little auxiGty; enthusiasm? Wouk] Gcd that We wer; al| as wise; as the merchantman Christ wmmic-ndc-d. “who. when he had found one pearl of great price, went-nnd sold all that, Vie had and bought it. ' But what thrills me with suggestivehes? is the material out of which, all pearls are made. They are faslitoned from the wound of the shellfish. The exud.ation -of”that wound is fixed and hardened and enlarged into a pearl. The ruptured vessels of the water animal fashioned the gem that now adorns finger or earring or sword hilt or king's crown. So out of the wounds of earth will come the pearls of heaven. Out of the wound of conviction the pearl of pardon. Out of the wound of bereavement the pearl of solace. Out of the wound ol' toss the pearl of gain. Out of the deep wound of the grave the pearl of resurrection joy. Out of the wounds of a savior’s life arid a Saviors death the rich, the radiant, the everlasting pearl of heavenly gladness. “And the twelve gates were twelve pearls.” Take the consolation, all ye who have been hurt, whether hurt in body, or hurt in mind, or hurt in soul. Get your troubles sanctified. If you suffer with Christ on earth, you will reign with Him in glory. “The tears of earth are the crystals of heaven; 1 Every several gate was one pearl.”