The News-Herald. [volume] (Hillsboro, Highland Co., Ohio) 1886-1973, 1892-09-22
SPIDERS WORK.
Their Mechanism the drandest b
the World


a Place IN the Most Magnificent Palaces,
Even Though Loathsome-eermon
By Rev. I. Dewitt Talmage, DID,
The text selected for Sunday is from
Prov. XXX, 1s: 1.-The spider taketh hold
with her hands and is in kings palaces"
Permitted as was few days ago to
attend the meeting of the British scien.
tiflc association, at Edinburgh, 1 found
that no paper read had excited more
interest than that by Rev. DR.. McCook,
of America, on the subject Of spiders
1t seems that my talented countryman,
banished from his pulpit for short
time by i'll health, had in the fields and
forests given himself up to the study Of
insects And surely If it is not beneath
the dignity of God to make spiders it Is
not beneath the dignity OF man to
study them
We are all watching for phenomena
A sky full Of stars shining from January
TO January calls out not so many re-
marks as the blazing Of one meteor. A
whole flock Of robbins take not 80 much
Of our attention as one laundering bat
darting into the window Of summer
eve. Things Of ordinary sound, and
sight, and occurrence, fail to reach us,
and yet no grass-hopper ever springs
up IN our path, no moth ever dashes In
to the evening candle, no moat ever
floats IN the sunbeam that pours
through the crack of the
window shutter, no barnacle on ships
hull, no burr on chestnut, no hmpet
clinging to q rock, no rind Of an arti-
we were not 30 stupid God in his Bible
sets forth for our consideration the lily,
and the snowflake, and the locust, and
the stork's nest and the hind's foot
and the aurora borealis, and the ant
hills. One OF the sacred writer's, sitting
amid the mountains, sees hind skip
ping over the rocks The hind has such
peculiarly-shaped foot that 1t can go
over the steepest places without falling.
and as the prophet looks upon that
marking of the hind's foot on the rocks,
and thinks of the divine care over him,
he says: "Thou makest my feet like
kinds feet that l may walk on high
places" And other sacred writer sees the
ostrich leaving his egg in the sand of the
desert, and, without any care OF incuba-
tion, walk off; and the Scripture says
that is like some parents, leaving their
children without any wing Of proteo-
ton 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 upon the mag
niicence, inspiration points us to q
spider plying It's shuttle and weaving
its net on the wall It does not call us
to regard the grand surroundings Of the
palace, but to solemn and earnest con-
sideration of the fact that: ''The spider
taketh hold with her hand. and Is In
kings palaces.
1t Is not very certain what was the
particular species of insect spoken Of In
the text but 1 shall proceed to learn
from 1t 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 the intruder, and
the servant of Solomon's palace comes
with his broom and dashes down the
insect saying: "What a loathsome
thing 1t is" But under microscopic
inspection l find it more wondrous of
construction than the embroideries of
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
his prey. or as any of It's eight eyes
We do not have to go so far up to see
the power of God In the tapestry hang.
ing around the windows of heaven. or
In the horses or chariots of fire with
which the dying day departs, or
TO look at the mountain swing
ing out its sword-arm from
under the mantle of darkness
until it can strike with its scimeter of
the lightning love better to study
God In the shape of a fly's wing, in the
formation Of fish's scale, in the snowy
whiteness of pond lily. I 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 habitation for God In an apple
blossom, and tune 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 hol-
low of his hand goes forth to find
heights, and depths, and length, and
breadth Of omnipotency in q dewdrop
and dismounts from the chariot Of mid
night hurricane to cross over on the
suspension 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 l shall take the
leaf holding the spider. and the spiders
web, and shall bring the microscope
to my eye, and while I gaze, and look,
and study, and am confounded, I will