Weekly expositor. (Brockway Centre, Mich.) 1882-1894, 1893-02-24
TABERNACLE PULPIT.
TALMAoE ON "ooD AMONG THE
SHELLS"
And the Lord Said Unto Moses, Take
Unto Thee Sweet Spices, stacte and
Onycha-A Most Eloquent Sermon
from Exodus.

| BHOOkLNN, N. T., reO,ib. Ia the IaDeruhCle
this forenoon, the Rev nr. Talmage con-
tinued 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. 30th chapter. 34th
verse; "And the Lord said unto Noses Take
unto thee sweet spices, stacte and onycha."
You may not have noticed the shells
of the Bible, although in this early
part of the sacred book God calls you
TO consider 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 on the beach and onycha in the
unfolded led of the deep. l shall
speak of this shell as n beautiful and
practical revelation of God, and as
true as the first chapter of Genesis and
the last chapter of Revelation or every
thing between. Not only is this shell,
the onycha, found at the Red Sea, but
in the waters of India. 1t not only de-
lectates the eye with its convolutions Of
| beauty, white and lustrous and SER
lated, but blesses the nostril with a
| pungent aroma. This shell-fsh, ac-
redolent with that odorous plant,
redolent when alive and redolent
when dead. Its shells, when burnt,
bewitch the air with fragrance. In
my text, God commands Joseph to
mix this onycha with the perfumes of
the altar in the ancient Tabernacle,
and propose to mix some of it's per-
| fumes at the altar ( Brooklyn Taber-
nacle, for having spoken to you on the
Astronomy of the Bible or God among
the Stars, the Chronology of the Bible
or God among the Centuries, the Or
anthology of the Bible or God among
the Birds, the Mineralogy of the Bible
or among the Amethysts, the Ichthy-
| ology of the Bible or God among the
Fishes, | nov come to speak of the
Conchology of the Bible or God among
the Shells.
1t is secret that you may keep for
me, for have never before told 1t to
anyone, that in all the realms of the
natural world, there is nothing &c me
so fascinating, SO completely absorb
ing, so full of suggestiveness, as a
she'll What? More entertaining
than a bird, which can sing, when
shell cannot sing? Well, there you
have made a great mistake. Pick up
the onycha from the banks 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, alto, soprano-in
an unknown tongue, but seeming to
chant, as / put them to my ear, THE
sea is his and he made it," others sing
ing, Thy way, Oh God, is in the sea-"
others hymning, He ruleth the rag
ing of the sea-" What" says some
one else, "does the shell impress you
more than the star2" Ia some respects
yes, because can handle the shell and
closely study the she'll, while cannot
handle the star, and if study it, must
study it at distance of millions 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 varieties 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 its
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 parJi-colored
and many colored that you might pile
them up until you would have wall
with all the colors of the wall of
Heaven, from the jasper at the bot
tom to the amethyst at the top
Oh. the shells The petrifed foam
of the sea. Oh, the shellsl The hard
ened bubbles of the deep. oh, the
shells! which are the diadems thrown
by the ocean to the feet of the conti-
nents- How the shells are ribbed,
grooved, cylindered, notified, irri-
descent They were used as coin by
some of the nations They were
fastened in belts by others, and made
in handles of wooden implements by
still others. Mollusks not only of the
sea but mollusks of the land. Do you
know how much they have had to do
with the worlds history They saved
the Church of God from extinguish-
ment. The Israelites marched out of
Egypt two million strong, besides
floclls and herds The Bible says
"the people took their dough before
it was leavened, their kneading
troughs being bound up in the clothes
on their shoulders. Thew
were thrust forth out of Egypt and
could not tarry, neither had they pre-
pared for themselves any victuals"
just think of It'll Forty years in the
wilderness. Infidelity triumphantly
asks, how could they live forty years
in the wilderness without food? You
say mama fell. Oh, that was after
long while. They would have starved
long before the mama fell. The fact
is they were chiefly kept alive by the
mollusks of the land or shelled crea-
lures. Mr.. Fronton and Mr.. Sicard
took the same route from Egypt toward
Canaan that the Israelites took, and
they give this as their testimony:
although the children of Israel
must have consisted of about two mill
ion of souls, with baggage and in
Vulnerable flocks and herds they were
not likely to experience any incon-
venience in their march. Several thou
sand persons might walk abreast with
the greatest ease in the very narrow
est part of the valley in which they
first began TO file off. IL soon after
wards expands to above three leagues
in width With respect to forage,
they would be at no loss The
ground is covered with tamarisk,
broom, clover and Saint Foin, of
which latter eanacia11v oo ,,,at. -