Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1893-10-05

Proof Of Gods Infinite Power and Wiz
dom-Jouah's Submarine Discoveries-A
New Field For Investigation.
BRooKLYx, Oct. Lin his sermon this
forenoon in the Brooklyn Tabernacle. as in
many other discourses. Rev. 7. De Witt
Talmage took his hearers and readers
through an untried region OF thought and |
found subject for most practical Rospeli- |
Eation In ''The Garden Of the Sea- The |
text selected was Jonah II, s, "The weeds |
were wrapped about my head"
''The Botany Of the Bible; or, God among |
the Flowers" is a fascinating subject. 1 hold |
in my hand book which 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
Jerusalem, flowers from Gethsemane,
flowers from Mount of Olives, flowers from
Bethany, flowers from Sloan, flowers
from the valley of Jehoshaphat, red anen-
ones and wild mignonette, buttercups, dai-
sizes, cyclamens, camomile, bluebells, ferns,
moses, grasses and wealth Of fora that
keeps me fascinated by the hour, and every
time open it it is a new revelation. 1t
is the New Testament OF the fields. But
my text leads us into another realm Of the
botanical kingdom.
Having spoken to you in course of ser
mons about God everywhere-on THE AS
tronomy of the Bible; or, God Among the
Stars" "The Ornithology Of the Bible; or,
God Among the Birds" "The Ichthyology
,ot the Bible; or, God Among the Fishes"
1.-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 speak now to you
about ''The Botany Of the Bible; Or, God
In the Gardens of the Sea-"
BOTANY OF THE BIBLE.
Although purposely take this morning
for consideration the least observed and
least appreciated Of all the botanical prod
ucts of the world, we shall find the contem-
plation very absorbing. In all our theolog-
ical seminaries where we make ministers
there ought to be professors to give lessons
In natural history. Physical science 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 Scrip
tural world.
What freshening up it would be to our
sermons to press into them even frag-
mert of Mediterranean seaweedi Weshould
have fewer sermons awfully dry If we imi-
tated our blessed Lord, and in our dis
courses, like him, we would let q lily
bloom, or q crow fly, or q hen brood her
chickens, or crystal Of salt flash out the
preservative qualities of religion. The trou-
.ble is that in many of our theological SEM
inaries men who are SO dry themselves
they never could get people to come and
hear them preach are now trying to teach
young men how to preach, and the student
Is put between two great presses of dog
matte theology and squeezed until there is
no life left in him. Give the poor victim
at least one lesson on the botany Of the
Bible.
That was an awful plunge that the re
,creant prophet Jonah made when, dropped
over the gunwales Of the Mediterranean
ship, he sank many fathoms down into 6
tempestuous sea- Both before and after
the monster of the deep swallowed him, HI
was entangled in seaweed. The junglei
of the deep threw their cordage of vegeta
ton around him. Some of this seaweet
was anchored to the bottom Of the watery
.abysm, and some of it was afioat and swal
lowed by the great sea monster, so thai
while the prophet was at the bottom of th,
deep after he was horribly imprisoned
he could exclaim and did exclaim in th'
words of my text, 1.-THE weeds were wrap
ped about my head"
JoNAH's SUBMARINE DISCOVERIES.
Jonah was the first to record that ther,
are growths upon the bottom of the sea a!
\ q - -, II
owned was handful of seaweeds pressed OF
a page, and I called them ''the shorn lock-
of Neptune" These products of the deep
whether brown or green or yellow or purpl
or red or intershot of many colors, are mos
fascinating. They are distributed all owe
the depths and from Arctic to Antarctic
That God thinks well OF them conclud,
from the fact that he has made 5000 specie
of them. Sometimes these water plant
are 400 or 700 feet long, and they cable tn
sea. One specimen has growth of 1,50
feet.
On the northwest shore of our country il
a seaweed with leaves 30 or 40 feet long
amid which the sea otter makes his home
resting himself on the buoyancy of the lea
and STEM The thickest jungles of tn
tropics are not more full Of vegetation
than the depths of the sea. There are for
ests down there, and vast prairies al
abloom, and God walks there as he walked
in the garden of Eden lin the cool of tn
day." Oh, what enhancement, this sub
aqueous worldl Oh, the God given won
ders of the seaweed! Its birthplace is
palace of crystal. The cradle that rocks !
is the storm. It's grave is a sarcophagus 0
beryl AEd sapphire. There is no nigh
down there.
There are creatures of God on the bottom
Of the sea SO constructed that strewn al
along they make armament besprent wit
stars, consultations and galaxies of impo:
ing luster. The sea feather is lamplight
er. The gymnotus is an electrician, and h
is surcharged with electricity and make
the deep bright with the lightning of th
sea. The gorgonia flashes like jewels. Ther
are sea anemones ablaze with light. Ther
are the starfish and moonish, these calle
because they SO powerfully suggest stella
and lunar illumination.
Oh, these midnight lanterns of the ocea
caverns; these professions of flame over th
white floor of the deep; these illumination
three miles down under the sea; these go
geously upholstered castles of the Almight
in the underworld The author of the teS
felt the pull of the hidden vegetation of th
Mediterranean, whether or not he apprec
ated it's beauty, as he cried out, "TheweeG
were wrapped about my head"
THE sEPULCHER OF THE SEA.
Let my subject cheer all those who ha
friends who have been buried at sea or
our great American lakes. Which of I
brought up on the Atlantic coast has M
tad kindred or friend thus sepulchered
We had the useless horror of thinking thu
they were denied proper restingplace. "
said: "Oh, If they had lived to CON
3 ashore and had then expiredl What a
alienation of our trouble it would hay
been to nut them in some beautiful fami
.sFeak and Weeble."