The Maryville times. (Maryville, Tenn.) 1884-1944, 1892-10-05
SPIDERS WORK.
Their Mechanism the Grandest In
the World.
Place In the Most Magnificent Palaces
Even Though Lonthsome-Sermon
by Rev, I. Dewitt Talmage, DID.


Prov. xxx, IS. 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-
tific association, at Edinburgh, i 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 a 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 $50 many re-
marks as the blazing OF one meteor. A
whole flock of robbins take not SO 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 limpet
clinging to a rock, no rind of an arti-
choke, 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 stork's nest, and the kinds foot,
and the aurora borealis, anduthe ant
hills. One of the sacred writers, sitting
| amid the mountains, sees hind skip
ping over the rocks. The hind has such
q peculiarly-shaped foot that it can go
over the steepest places without falling,
and as the prophet looks upon that
marking of the kinds foot on the rocks,
and thinks of the divine care over him,
he says: '"Thou makest my feet like
kinds feet that I 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-
ton, walk off; and the Scripture says
that is like some parents, leaving their
children without any wing of protec-
ton or care. In my text inspiration
opens before us the gate of palace,
and we are indicted amid the pomp of
the throne and the courtier, and while
we are looking around upon the mag
nifcence, inspiration points us to a
spider plying its shuttle and weaving
its net on the wall. 1t 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 hot 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, ard
says: away with the intruder, and
the servant of Solomon's palace comes
with his broom and dashes down the
| u
thing it 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 Z re-
hensile with which that spider clutches
his prey, or as any of it's eight eyes.
We do not have to 60 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 fly's wing, in the
formation of fish's scale, in the snowy
whiteness of pond lily. 1 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 a 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 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
1t across the heavens in order to behold
the glory of God, but shall take the
leaf holding the spider, and the spiders
web, and shall bring the microscope
to my eye, and while l gaze, and look,
and study, and am COMPOUNDED, l will
kneel down in the grass and cry: 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: 81 can't weave a
web worthy of this great palace; wha,
can do amid all this gold embroidery
am not able to make anything fit fol
so grand a palace, and so l will moi
work my spinning-jenny." Not so, said
the spider. THE spider taketh holG
with her hands" Oh, what lessor
that is for you and me! You say if yor
had some great sermon to preach, if yor
only had some great audience to talk to
If you only had a great army to mar