The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1892-09-30
TALMAGE's SERMON.
Examples for Men to Follow Found
in insignificant Things.
The Busy Spider and the Exquisite Mech
anIsm of His Web an Object Lesson
for Mankind In Diligence
and Perseverance,.

during his tour in England. It's based
on the text:
The spider taketh hold with her hands and
Is in kings palaces.-Proverbs XIX, %
Permitted as was few days ago to
attend the meeting of the British Sci
entific association, at Edinburgh,
found that no paper read had excited
more interest than that by Rev. DIR.
McCook, of America, on the subject of
spiders. 1t seems that my talented
countryman, banished from his pulpit
for short time by nl-health, had in
the fields and forests given himself TO
the study Of insects. And surely if it
is not beneath the dignity of God to
make spiders, it is not beneath the dig
nifty of man to study them
We are all watching for phenomena.
A sky full of stars shining from Janu-
airy to January calls out not so many
remarks as the blazing of one meteor.
A whole flock of robins take not so
much of our attention as one blunder-
ing bat darling into the window on a
summer eve. Things of ordinary
sound, and sight, and occurrence, fail
to reach us, and yet no grasshopper
ever springs up in our path, no moth
ever dashes into the evening candle, no
mote ever floats in the sunbeam that
pours through the crack of the window
shutter, no barnacle on ships hull, no
burr on chestnut, no limpet clinging to
a rock, no riud of an artichoke but
would teach us lesson If we were not
so stupid. God in His Bible sets forth
for our consideration the lily, and the
snowflake, and the locust, and the
81, L.
the aurora borealis. and the ant hills.
One of the sacred writer's, sitting amid
the mountains, sees a hind skipping
over the rocks. The hind has such
peculiarly shaped foot that it can go
over the steepest places without fall
ing, and as the prophet looks upon
that marking of the kinds foot on
rocks, and thinks of the Divine care
over him, He says: Thou mal1est my
feet like kinds feet that may walk on
high places" And another sacred
writer sees the ostrich leaving its egg
in the sand of the desert, and without
any care of incubation, walk off; and
the Scripture says that is like some
parents, leaving their children without
any wing of protection or care. In my
text, inspiration opens before us the
gate of palace, and we are inducted
amid the pomp of the throne and the
courtier, and while we are looking.
around on the magnifcence, inspira-
ton points us to a spider plying it's
shuttle and weaving it's net on the
wall. 1t does not call us to regard the
grand surroundings of the palace, but
TO a solemn and earnest consideration
of the fact that: 1.-THE spider taxeth
hold with her hands, and is in kings
pal aces"
1t is not very certain what was the
particular species of insect spoken of
in the text, but shall proceed to learn
from it the exquisiteness of the Divine
mechanism. The kings chamberlain
comes into the palace and looks around,
and sees the spider on the wall, and
says, Away with that intruder" and
the servant of Solomon's palace comes
with his broom and daShes down the
insect, saying: What a loathsome
thing ii is" But under microscopic in
spection 1 find it more wondrous of
construction than the embroideries on
the palace wall and the upholstery
about the windows. All the machinery
of the earth could not make anything
so delicate and beautiful as the pre-
hensile with which that spider clutches
its prey, or as any of its eight eyes.
We do not have to go so far up to see
the power of God in the tapestry hang
ing aroInd the windows of Heaven, or
in the horses or chariots of fire with
which the dying day departs, or to
look at the mountain swinging ont its
sword-arm from under. the mantle of
I,vlrv,acc ,,r,kf1 - -, -.
scimetar of the lightning. love bet
ter to study God in the shape of ay's
wing, in the formation of a fish's
scale, in the snowy wilderness of a
pond-lily. love to track His footsteps
in the mountain moss, and to hear His
voice in the hum of the rye-fields, and
discover the rustic of His robe of light
in the south wind. Oh this wonder
of Divine power that can build hab-
station for God in an apple blossom,
and tune a bees voice until it is fit for
the eternal orchestra, and can say to
FREELY: Let there be light;" and from
holding an ocean in the hollow of His
hand goes forth to find heights and
depths and length and breadth of ON
nipotency in a dewdrop, and dis
mounts from the chariot of midnight
hurricane to cross over on the suspen-
sion bridge of a spiders web You
may take your telescope and sweep it
across the heavens in order to behold
the glory of God, but / shall take the
leaf holding the spider, and the spi-
der's web, and / shall bring the micro
scope to my eye, and while gaze and
look and study and am COMPOUNDED,
will kneel down in the grass and crys
Great and marvellous are Thy works,
Lord God Almighty ="
Again, my text teaches me that in
significance is no excuse for inaction
This spider that Solomon saw on the
wall might have said: II can't weave a
web worthy of this great palace; what
can do amid all this gold embroidery?
am not able to make anything fit for
so grand a place, and so will not work
my spinning-ienny. Not so, said the
spider. THE spider taketh hold with
her hands" Oh, what lesson that is
for you and me! You say if you had
some great sermon to preach, if you
only had a great audience to talk to, if
you had a great army to marshal, If
YOU only had a constitution to write, il
there was some tremendous thing in
the world for you to do-then you
would show us Yes, you would show
u.s. What If the Levite in the ancient
temple had refused to snuff the candle
because he could not be a high priest?
ba b,rr7rnirn-hird sho