Herald and news. [volume] (West Randolph, Vt.) 1878-1943, 1893-02-23


10 think that God is a God of cold geometry
Ind iron laws and eternal apathy and en-
| Ihroned stoicism. Mol Mol The shells.
While law and order reign in the universe.
you have but to see the lavishness of color
On the crustacea, all shades of crimson from
llaintest blush to blood Of battlefield, all
shades of blue, all shades of green, all
shades of all colors from deepest black to
whitest light, just called out on the shells
with no more order than a mother pre-
meditates or calculates how many kisses
Ind hugs she shall give her babe waking
| p in the morning sunlight
| Yes my God is an emotional God, and
lie says, I'VE must have colors and let the
Jun paint all of them on the scroll of that
| lhell, and we must have music, aud here is
carol for the robin, and psalm for man.
End doxology for the seraphim, and res
direction call for the archangel." Aye, he
showed himself God of sublime emotion
when he flung himself on this world in the
personality of Christ to save it without re-
gard to the tears it would take, or the blood
1t would exhaust, or the agonies it would
crush out.
When | see the Louvres, and the Luxem-
bourgs, and the Vaticans of Divine paint
ing strewn along the 5000 miles of coast,
and | hear in forest on a summer morn
ing musical academies and Handel's soci-
cites of full orehestras, | say God is God
of emotion, and if he observes mathemat-
les it is mathematics set to music, and his
figures are written not in white chalk on
black boards, but written by 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 ofthe textalso 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 onychaf" 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 filed the ancient tabernacle, and its
sweet smoke escaped from the sacred pre-
cincts and saturated the outside air
Perfume That is what religion is. But
instead of that some make it malodOr.
They serve God in rough and acerb way.
They box their ehild'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 a.
Exodus, with all the hard names, because
he 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
70 there. or they will make trouble by call
ing out TO MS. Keep of that grassp What
do You mean by plucking that fowerY'
show your tieketsp'
oh. how many Christian people need to
obey my text and take into their worship
and their behavior and their conscientious
and presbyteries and general assemblies
aud conferences more onychal have some
times gone in a 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. v hat
was the differencei 1t was the difference
in what they burned in their censers. The
one burned onycha; the other burned asa
ietida
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 SEE
richly darkening so many Scripture chap
tiers. The purple stuff in the ancient tabor
nacle, the purple girdle of the priests, the
purple mantle of Roman emperors, the ap
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 kept its 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 PEG
pie, and so an emperor, jealous of this APP
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
VI tACluSlNcucSS, OOO ObhbcAabcb
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 shellfsh which afforded the purple,
there are shells enough left to make us glad
and worshipful Oh, the enhancement of
hue and shape still left all up and down the
beaches of all the continenssl 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
sunset and mysterious as an auroral And
am ! not right in leading you for few
moments through this mighty realm of
God so neglected by human eye and human
Il is said that the harp and lutte were in
vented from the fact that in Egypt the
Nile overflowed 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 yibrated making sweet