The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1893-02-20

Thank God for the wealth OF mOllusks al
up and down the earth, whether feeding
the lsraelites on their way TO the lard flow
ing with milk end honey, or. as we ar
better acquainted with the mollusks, wheI
flung to the beach Of lake or sea. There
are three great families OF them. II
should ask you 70 name three of the grea
royal families Of the earth, perhaps you
would respond TO the House OF Stuart, the
House of Hapsburg. the House OF Bourbon
but the three royal families OF mollusks
are the univalve, or she'll IN one part, tbe
bivalve, or shell Of two parts. and the
multivalve, or shell in many parts, and
see God in their every hinge, in their
every tooth, in their every cartilage, IN
their every ligament, in their every spiral
ridge, and in their every color, prism on
prism, and their adoption Of thin shell for
still ponds and thick oOatinEs for boisterons
ssas They all dash upon me the thought
of the proVidentisl care Of God. " hat IS
the use Of all this architecture of the shell,
and why Is il pictured from the outside lip
clear down into its labyrinths OF construc-
ton? Why the lntiuitY OF skin aud radi-
ance in a shell? What is the use Of the
color and exquisite curve Of a thing 50 in
significant as a sbell-rshs Why, when the
Conchologist, By dredge or rake, fetches the
crustaceous specimens to the shore, does he
find at his feet whole AlhambraS and Colos-
seums and Parthenons and crystal palaces
light only an infnitesimal part OF the
opulence in the great subaqueOus world.
Iinnaus counted twenty-five hundred spe-
cies of shells, but oOnchologY had then only
beguns its achievements. While exploring
the bed of the Atlantic ocean in prepare
tion for laying the cable, shelled animals
were brought up from depths OF ntEeteen
hundred fatboms. When lifting the tele-
graph wire from the Mediterranean and
Red seas, shelled creatures were brought
up from depths of two thousand fathoms.
The English admiralty. exploring in behalf
of science, found mollusks at a depth of
twenty-four hundred and thirty-fiye
fsthoms or fourteen thousand two hundred
and ten feet deep. What realm awful for
vastness!
As the shell is only the house and the
wardrobe of insignificant animals OF the
deep, why all thar wonder and beauty of
construcmonl Gods care for them Is the
only reason. And if God provide so mu-
niicentlv for them, will be not see that you
have wardrobe and shelteri Wardrobe
and shelter for a periwinkle; shall there not
be wardrobe and shelter for menl Would
God give coat Of mail for the defense Of
q nautilus and leave you no defense against
the storml Does ne build a stone house for
a creature that lasts a season and leave
without home q soul that takes hold on cen-
turtles and aeons9 Hugh Miller found "rhe
Sandstone aud / hear The harmonies of
God in the tInkle OF the sea shells when the
tides come in. The same Christ who drew
a lesson of providential care from the fact
that God clothes the grass of the field in
structs me to d ew the same lesson from the
shells.
In almost every mans life, however well
born and prosperous for years, and IN almost
every womans life, there comes a very dark
at laaG a Of dir
cumstances will threaten bankruptcy and
homelessuess and starvation. 1t may he
that these words will meet the ear or will
meet the eye OF those who are in such state
of forebOding. Come, then, and see how
God gives an ivory palace to a water animal
that you couli cover with a teu-cent piece,
and clothes in ermor against all attack,
coral no bigger than a snowflake. l do
not think that Geo will take better care
of bivslve than OF one of his o Sn chill
dren. / rake to your feet with the gospel
rake the most thorough evidences of Gods
care for his creatures, | pile around you
great mounds of shells, that they may teach
you a most comforting theology. o, We OF
little faith, walk among these arbors of
coraline, aud look at these bouquets Of shell
fit to be handed q queen on her coronation
day, and see these fallen rainbows OF color
and examine these lilies in stone,
these primroses in stone, these
heliotropes in stone. these oowslips
in stone, these gerRniums in stone,
these japonicas in stone. O,
We, who have your telescopes ready looking
out on clear nights, trying to see what is
transpirinR In Mars, Jupiter and Mercury
know that within u few hours walk or ride
OF where you now are there are whole
worlds that you might explore, but OF which
you are unconscious, and among the most
beautiful and suggestive of these worlds Is
ha hr,lC ralr
of providentiOl care. How does that old
hymn go9
We may, like ships, by tempest be tossed
On perilous deeps, but cannot be lost.
Though Satan enreges the wind and the tide,
The promise assures us the Lord will provide.
But while you get this pointed Lesson of
providential care from the shelled creatures
OF the deep, notice in their construction
that God helps them to help themselves.
This house of stone in which they live Is not
dropped on them and is not built about
them. The material for it exudes from
their own bodies and is adorned with col
ored fluid from the pores of their own neck
1t is most interesting thing to see these
crustAcean animals fashion their own homes
out Of carbonate of lime and membrane.
And all OF this is q mighty lesson to those
who are waiting for others TO build their
fortunes, when they ought to 90 to work
and, like the mOllusks, build their own
fortunes out Of their own brain, out OF their
own sweat, out of their own industries. Not
mollusk on all the beaches of all
the seas would have a house of shell
IL it had not itself built one Do
not wait for others to shelter YOU or
prosper you. All the crustaceous creatures
of the earth, from every flake of their COW
ering and from every ridge Of their tiny
castles on Atlantic and Pacific and Mediter-
ranean coasts, say: Help yourself, while
God helps you TO help yourself" Those peo~
pie who are waiting for their father OF rich
old uncle TO die and leave them a fortune
are as silly as mollusk would be to wait
for some other mollusk to drop on il a shell
equipment. II would kill the mollusk, as,
IN most cases, IL destroys man. Not one
person out of hundred ever was strong
enough 20 stand a large estate by inher-
ttance dropped on him in a chunk. Have
great expectations from only two persons
Sod and yourself. Let the onycha of my
text become your preceptor.
But the more l examine the shells the
more am impressed that God is a God of
emotion. Many scott at emotion and seem
TO think that God is God of cold geometry
and iron laws and eternal auathy and en-
throued stolcism. MOI Mo- The shells with
overpowering emphasis deny it. While
law and order reign in the universe you
have but to see the lavishness of color on
the crustaces, all shades Of crimson, from
fatntest blush to blood of battle field, all
shades OF blue, all shades Of green, all shades