News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1893-02-23
BIBLE CONCHOLOGY.
DR.. TALMAGE CONTINUES HIS SER
MONS ON COD IN NATURE.


derful Force and Variety of the Bible,
Imagery From Nature-How the Divine
Care Is shown In the Oceans Shells.
BROOKLYN, Feb. 19.-In the Tabernacle
this forenoon Rev. DR.. Talmage contin
ued his course of sermons on God every.
where. His subject was the "Conchology
of the Bible; or, God Among the Shells
the text being taken from Exodus, 3Ott
chapter, 34th verse, "And the Lord said
unto Moses, Take unto thee sweet spices
stacte and onycha."
You may not have noticed the shells
bf the Bible, although in this early part
of the sacred book God calls you to con-
slider and employ them as he called
Moses to consider and employ them. The
onycha of my text is a shell found on the
banks of the Red sea, and Moses and his
army must have crushed many of them
under foot as they crossed the bisected
waters, onycha en- the beach and onycha
Yin the unfolded bed of the deep. shall
speak of this shell as beautiful and
practical revelation of God. and as true
as the first chapter of Genesis and the
tIast chapter of Revelation or everything
ebeIw
Not only is this shell, the onycha,
found at the Red Sea, but in the waters
sof India. 1t not only DELEGATES the eye
with its convolutions of beauty, white
Iand lustrous and serrated, but blesses
1.-THE nostril with pungent aroma. This
,shellfsh, accustomed to feed on spike
lnard, is redolent with that odorous
lplant-redolent when alive and redolent
when dead Its shells when burned be-
witch the air with fragrance.
F, In my text God commands Moses to
mix this onchya with the perfumes of
THE altar in the ancient tabernacle, and
II propose to mix some of its perfumes at
the altar of Brooklyn Tabernacle, for,
having spoken to you on the Astronomy
Of the Bible; or. God Among the Stars;
1.-THE Chronology of the Bible; or. God
iAmong the Centuries; the ''Ornithology
lot the Bible; or. God Among the Birds,
1.-THE .Mineralogy of the Bible; or, God
Among the Amethysts;' the "Ichthyolo-
lgy of the Bible; or. God Among the
Fishes, now come to speak of the
| 'Conchology of the Bible; or, God Among
ithe Shells"
RICHES OF THE OCEAN.
| 1t is a secret that you may keep fol
me. for have never before told it to any
ilone, that i'll all the realms of the natural
world there is nothing to me so fascinat
hing. so completely absorbing, so full of
Isuggestiveness. as a shell What? More
than a bird, which can sing.
when shell cannot sing? Well, there
lyou have made great mistake. Pick
lup the onycha from the banks of the Red
Isea or pick up biyalve from the beach
of the Atlantic ocean and listen. and you
hear a whole choir of marine voices
bass, alto, soprano-in an unknown
tongue, bat seeming to chant, as put
them to my ear. The sea is his, and he
made it," others singing, THY way, q
God is in the sea- others hymning. He
ruleth the raging of the sea.
What" says some one else, does the
shell impress you more than the starr
In some respects, yes, because l can han
die the shell and closely study the shell,
while cannot handle the star, and if ]
study it must study it at distance of
and millions of miles.
What" says some one else, ARE you
more impressed by the shell than the
flower" Yes. for it has far greater va
rieties and far greater richness of color,
as | could show you in thousands of
specimens, and because the shell does not
fade. as does the rose leaf, but maintains
Iits beauty century after century, so that
the onycha which the hOof of pharaoh's
horse knocked aside in the chase of the
Israelites across the Red sea may have
kept its luster to this hour. Yes, they
are so particolored and many colored
that you might pile them up until you
would have wall wi til all the colors Of
the wall of heaven. from the jasper at
the bottom to the amethyst at the top.
Oh, the shells! The petrifed foam of
the sea. Oh. the shells! 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, grooyed cylin-
dered mottled, iridescent! They were |
used as coin by some of the nations
They were fastened in belts by others,
and made in handles of wooden nipple |
ments by still others Mollusks not only |
of the sea, but molusks Of the land Do |
you know how much they have had to |
do with the worlds history? They saved |
the church of God from extinguishment. |
The Israelites marched out of Egypt |
2, 900, 900 strong, besides focks and herds |
The Bible says 1.-The people took their
dough before it was leavened, their
kneading troughs being bound up in the
clothes on their shoulders They were
thrust forth out of Egypt and could not
tarry; neither had they prepared fol
themselves any victuals.1 Just think of
it! Forty years in the wilderness. In
fidelity triumphantly asks, How could
they live 40 years in the wilderness with
out food? You say mama fell. Oh,
that was after long while. They would
have starved 80 times before the mamma
fell. The fact is, they were chiefly kept
alive by the mollusks of the land or
shelled creatures. Mr.. Fronton and Mr.
Sicard took the same route from Egypt
toward Canaan that thu Israelites took
and they give this as their testimony:
IsRAEL's ROUTE TO CANAAN
Although the children of Israel must
have consisted of about 2,000,0 900 souls,
with baggage and innumerable focks
and herds, they were not likely to ex-
perience any inconvenience in their
march. 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. 1t soon
afterward expands to above three leagues
IN width. With respect to forage they
would be at no loss. The ground is COW
cred with tamarisk, broom, clover and
saint foin, of which latter especially
camels are passionately fond, besides al
most 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 light
ng fire, on which the Israelites could |
with the greatest ease bake the dough |
hey brought with them on small iron
plates, which form a constant appendage |
70 the baggage of an oriental traveller. |
Lastly, the heritage underneath these |
5rees and shrubs is completely covered !
with snails Of prodigious size and of
he best sort, and, however uninviting
such repast might appear to US, they |
ire here esteemed great delicacy. They |
ire SO plentiful in this valley that it may |
be literally said that it is difficult to take |
me step without treading on them"
So the shelled creatures saved the host |
If Lsraelites on the march to the prom
sed land, and the attack of infdelity at |
his noint is defeated by the facts. as in |