Courier Democrat. (Langdon, N.D.) 1891-1920, 1893-10-12
THE GARDENS OF THE SEA.

- 49, Wan "A As6ANk vi Il
GODS WONDERFUL, WORKS IN THE
DEPTHS OF THE SEA.
Jonnh's "Wecds' Were Glorious
Flowers-The Forests of the Ocean
The Burial Place of Those Lost
mt Sen.
Brooklyn, N. Y, Special.-In his SER
mon Sunday in the Brooklyn tabernacle,
as in many other discourses, Rev. T.
De Witt Talmage took his hearers
and readers through an unt.ied re-
gion Of thought and found subj .cs
for most practical gospel:.ation i'll Ihe
Gardens Of the Sea-" The text ;, I'll
was Jonah H.. !, Tie weeds wrre
wrapped about my Ii ,.ld.'
The botany of the Bible. or God
among the flowers, is fascinating sub
ject. hold III my hand hook, which
l brought from Palestine. bound in
olive wood, and within it are pressed
flowers which have not only retained
their color, but their aroma; flowers
from Bethlehem, flowers from Jerllsa-
lem. flowers from Gethscmane, flowers
from Mount of Olives. flowers from
Bethany, flowers from Sloan, flowers
from the Valley of Jehosaphat, butter
cups, daisies, cycllmens, chamomilc,
blue-bells, ferns, MOSES, grasses and
wealth of flora that keep me fascnat-
ed by the hour, and every time l open
it 1t is a new revelation. 1t is the new
testament of the fields. But my text
leads us into another realm of the bot
anical kingdom.
Having spoken to you in a course
of sermons about God everywhere; ON
the astronomy of the Bible, or God
among the birds; the ichthyology of
the Bible, or God among the fishes;
the mineralogy of the Bible, or God
among the amethysts; the conchology
Of the Bible, or God among the shells;
the chronology of the Bible, or God
among the centuries, 1 speak now to
you about the botany Of the Bible,
or God an ong the gardens Of the sea.
Although l purposely take this morn
ing for consideration the least OBJ
served and least appreciated Of all the
botanical products Of the world we
shall find the contemplation very alb
sorbing. In all our theological semi
AAetA "I1'tS "C 1lllAC 1ululSlt1S, lllclC
ought to be professors to give lessons
ought to be taught side by side With
revelation. 1t is the same God who
inspires the page of the natural world
as the page Of the scriptural world.
What Il freshening up it would be to
our sermons to press into them even Il
fragment of Mediterranean sea weed.
We should have fewer sermons awfully
dry if we initiated our blessed Lord,
and i'll our dscourSes, like him, we
would let Il lily bloom, or il crow fly,
or Il hen brood her chickens. or Il cryS-
tai of salt flash out the preservative
qualities of religion. The trouble is that
in many OF our theological Scminayies
men who are so dry themselves they
never could get people to come and
hear them preach, and the student is
put between two great presses Of dog
matte theology and SqeeZed until there
is no life left in him. Give the Door
victim at least one lesson on the bot
any Of the Bible
That was an awful plunge that the
recreant prophet Jonah made when,
dropped over the gunwalcs Of the Med
iterranean ship, he sank many fathoms
down into Il tempeStuOuS sea. Both
before and after the monster Of the
deep swallowed him, he was entangled
in seaweed. The junglcs of the deep
threw their cordage of vegetation
around him. Some of this scaweed
was anchored to the bottom Of the
watery abysm and some of it was
atioat and swallowed by the great sea
monster, so that, while the prophet was
ut the bottom of the deep after he
was horribly imprisoned, and he could
eNclaim and did eXclaim in the words
of my text: ',Ihe weeds were wrapped
about my head" Jonah was the first
to record that there are growths upon
the bottom of the sea, as well as upon
. land. The first picture L ever owned
was handful Of seaweed pressed on
Il page, and 1 called them THE Shorn
Locks Of Neptune" These products of
the deep, whether brown or green or
yellow or purple or red or intershot
of many cOlors, are most fascinating.
They are distributed all over the
depths and from Arctic to Antarctic.
That God thinks well of them L con-
clude from the fact that he has made
c,00O species of them. Sometimes
these water plants are 400 or TOO feet
long, and they cable the sea. One
specimen has a growth Of 1900 feet.
On the northwest shore Of cur country
is seaweed with leaves thirty OF
forty feet long, amid which the sea
otter makes his home, resting himself
on the buoyancy Of the leaf and stem.
The thickest jungles of the tropics are
not more full of vegetation that the
depths Of the sea. There are forests
down there and vast prairies all abloom
and God walks there as he walked
in the Garden of Eden lin the cool of
the day" Oh, what enhancement, this
sub-aqucous world! Oh, the God-given
wonders of the seaweed! It's birth
place is palace Of crystal! The
cradle that rocks it is the storm. Its
grave is Il sarcophagus of beryl and
sapphire. There is no night down
there. There are creatures of God on
the bottom of the sea SO constructed
that, strewn all along, they make q
armament besprent with stars, constel
]ations and gallaxies Of imposing lus'
~, 4,.~