Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1893-02-23


cites OF full orchestFas, say God is God
Of emotion, and IL he observes mathemat-
les il is mathematics set to music, and his
figures are written not in white chalk on
blackboards, but written by a finger of sun
light on walls Of jasmine and trumpet
creeper.
THE SWEETNESS OF RELIGION.
In my study Of the conchology Of the
Bible, this onycha Of the text also impresses
me with the fact that religion is perfumed
What else could God have meant when he
said to Moses, Take unto thee sweet
spices, stacte and onychai" Moses took
that shell of the onycha, put it over the
fire, and as it crumbled into ashes it ex-
hailed an odor that hung in every curtain
and filled the ancient tabernacle, and its
sweet smoke escaped from the sacred pre-
cincts and saturated the outside air.
Perfumel That is what religion is. But
instead of that some make it malodor
They serve God in rough and acerb way.
They box their child's ears because he does
not properly keep Sunday, instead of max
ing Sunday so attractive the child could
not help but keep it. They make him learn
by heart difficult chapter in the book OF
Exodus, with all the hard names, because
be has been naughty How many disagree
able good people there arel No one doubts
their piety, and they will reach heaven, but
they will have to get fixed up before they
go there, or they will make trouble by call |
ing out to us: Keep off that grassp' "What
do you mean by plucking that howeri"
SHOW your ticketsI'
Oh, how many Christian people need to
obey my text and take into their worship |
hah N otaAt
and presbyteries and general assemblies |
and conferences more onychal have some |
times gone in very gala of spirit into the |
presence of some disagreeable Christians |
and in five minutes felt wretched, and at
some other time have gone depressed into
the company of suave and genial souls, and |
in few moments felt exhilarant. What |
was the difference? 1t was the difference |
in what they burned in their censers The
one burned onycha; the other burned asa
fetida.
ANCIENT SKILL AND GODS DESIGNS.
In this genealogical study of the Bible
| also notice that the mollusks or shelled
animals furnish the purple that you SET
richly darkening SO many Scripture chap
ters. The purple stuff in the ancient taber-
nacle, the purple girdle of the priests, the
parel of Dives in purple and fine linen-aye,
the purple robe which in mockery was
thrown upon Christ-were colored by the
purple of the shells on the shores of the
Mediterranean. 1t was discovered by a
shepherds dog having stained his mouth
by breaking one of the shells, and the pur-
pie aroused admiration.
Costly purple! Six pounds of the purple
liquor extracted from the shellfshes were
used to prepare one pound of wool. Purple
was also used on the pages of books. Bibles
and prayer books appeared in purple vel
lum, which may still be found in some Of
the national libraries of Europe. Plutarch
speaks of some purple which keptits beauty
for 100 years. But after awhile the purple
became easier to get, and that which had
been a sign of imperial authority when
worn in robes was adopted by many peo-
pie, and so an emperor, jealous of this ap-
preparation of the purple, made law that
any one except royalty wearing purple
should be put to death.
Then, as if to punish the world for that
outrage of exclusiveness, God obliterated
the color from the earth, as much as to say,
IF all cannot have it, none shall have it."
But, though God has deprived the race of
that shellfish which afforded the purple,
there are shells enough left to make us glad
and worshipful. Oh, the entrancement of
hue and shape still left all up and down the
beaches Of all the continents These crea-
lures of the sea have what roofs Of enam-
eled porcelainl They dwell under what
pavilions, blue as the sky and fiery as a
sunset and mysterious as an auroral And
am l not right in leading you for few
moments through this mighty realm of |
God SO neglected by human eye and human
footstep?
1t is said that the harp and Lutte were in
vented from the fact that in Egypt the
Nile overfowed its banks, and when the
waters retreated tortoises were left by the
million on all the lands, and these tortoises
died, and soon nothing was left but the car
tilages and gristle Of these creatures, which
frightened under the heat into musical
strings that when touched by the wind or
the foot of man vibraSed, making sweet |
sounds, and so the world took the hint and
fashioned the harp. And ara not right in
trying to make music out Of the shells and
lifting them as harp from which to thrum
the jubilant praises of the Lord and the pa
thetic strains of human condolencea
wIsDoM's CHOICE OF PEARLS.
But find the climax of this conchology
of the Bible in the pearl, which has this
distinction above all other gems-that it
requires no human hand to bring out its
beauties. Job speaks of it, and its sheen
is in Christ's sermon, and the Bible, which
opens with the onycha of my text, closes
with the pearl. OF such values is this crus-
taceous product / do not wonder that flor
the exclusive right of fishing for it on the
shores Of Ceylon man paid to the English
government 5000, 600 for one season.
So exquisite is the pearl I do not wonder
that Pliny thought it was made out of
drop Of dew, the creature rising to the sur
face to take it and the chemistry of nature
turning the liquid into solid. You will
see why the Bible makes so much Of the
pearl in its similitudes if you know how
much it costs to get it. Boats with divers
sail out from the island of Ceylon, 10 divers
to each boat Thirteen men guide and man
age the boat. Down into the dangerous
depths amid sharks that swirl around them
plunge the divers, while 10000 people anx-
iously gaze on. After three or four minutes
absence from the air the diver ascends.
nine-tenths strangulated and blood rushing
from ears and nostrils, and fiinging his
pearly treasure on the sand falls into un-
consciousness.
Oh, it is an awful exposure and strain
and peril to fish for pearls, and yet they do
so. And is it not a wonder that to get that
which the Bible calls the pearl of great
price, worth more than all other pearls put
together, there should be so little anxiety,
SO little struggle, so little enthusiasm?
Would God that we were all as wise as the
merchantmen Christ commended, who,
when he had found one pearl of great
price, went and sold all that he had and
bought it,"
But what thrills me with suggestiveness
is the material out of which all pearls are
made. They are fashioned from the wound
Of the shellfish. The exudation of that |