Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1893-02-25

4
You could cover with a ten-cent piecs and
clothes In armor against all attack coral
no bigger than snowflake. do not think
| that God will take better care OF bivalve
than Of one Of His own children
l 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
most comforting theology. O1, ye Of little
taith, walk among these arbors OF coraiine
and look at these bouquets OF shell, at to be
handed queen on her coronation day, and
| see these fallen rainbows OF color, and ex-
anime these lilies ip stone, these primroses
in stone, these he..Stropes in stone, these
cowslips IN stone, these geraniuns in stone,
these japonicas in stone.
Dye who have your telescopes ready looS.
ing out on clear nights. trying to see what
/ Is Transporting in Mars, Jupiter and Msrcarv.
know that within few hoars walk or rids
OF where you now ara :hars are whole
worlds that you mi yht explore, bat OF which
| you are unconscious AMI among the most
beautiful and suggestive of these worlds is
the concholo sical world. Take this lesson of
providential care. How does that old
I hymn goi
We may, like ships, by sem2ss.s be to,ssi
On perllous deeps, out cannot be lost
Ihongh sstau enrages the wind aud the tide
| Inc promise assures US the LORD Will provits.
But while you get this pointed lesson Of
1 providential care from the saelied creatures
| OF the deep, notice in their construction
/ that God helps them to help themselves. Tnis
house Of stone in which they live is not
dropped on them and is not built around
| them. The material for it exu les from their
own bodies and is adorned with a coIored
duiI from the pores OF their own neci. 1t
is most interesting thing to sea these crus-
tacean animals fashion their own homes out
OF carbonate of lime and mem rane
And all OK this is mighty lesson to those
who are waiting for otaers to build their
fortunes waen they ought to go to WORK
and. like the mollusks, build their own
fortunes out OF their own brain, out of their
owa sweat, ous OF their own industries.
| Not q moilust on all the beaches of all tho
seas would haTs house OF shell if it had
aot itself built one. Do rot wait for Others
to shelter you or prosper you. All tina
| srusJacecus creatures CT the earth from
every fake OF their covering and from every
| ridge OF their tiny castles on Atlantic and
! Pacific AMI Mediterranean coasts ser,
Help yourself, while GO helps you to help
| Yourself"
Those people who ara waitin, for their
/ father or rich Old uncle to die al lsaye them
fortune are as silly as moilust woui | be
to wait for soma other lnollusx to drop on
it she'll equipment. L would kill the mol.
lusk as in most cases it destroys man. Not
one person out of q hun ired evir was strong
enough to stand large estate By Inherit
apce dropped on him in a chunk. Havs
great expectations from only two persons
God and yourself. Let the onycha Of my
text become your preceptor.
But the more | examine the shells the
more am impressed Tat 20 Is a God of
emotion. Many scof at emotion and seem
to think that ID is Go OF cold geom etry
and iron laws and eternal apathy and en-
throned stoicism. No! No! 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
crustacea, all shades OF crimson from faint
est blush to blood Of battlefield, all shades
of green, all shades of all co!ors from deepest
black to whitest light just called out on the
! shells with no more order than a mother
premeditates or calculates how many kisses
and hugs she shall give her babe waking up
in the morning sunlight
Yes, my God is an emotional God, and He
saws 1--WE must have colors and let the sun
paint all of them on the scroll Of that shell,
and we must have music, an here is a carol
for the robin, and a psalm for man, AMI a
doxology for the seraphim, and resurrec-
ton call for the archsngel." Aye, He
showed Himself Goi 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
it would exhaust or the agonies it would
cru-h out.
When see the Louvres ami the Luxem-
tourgs and the Vaticaus Of Divine painting
strewn along tn $500 miles of coast, and
hear in a forest on su inner morning mus
ical academies ami Handel societies OF full
orchestras, | say God is God OF emotion,
and if He observes mathematics 1t IS math =
mates set to music. aud His fl cures are writ
ten not in white chalk on bacdboards, but
written by finger of sunlight on walls OF
jasmine and trumpet creeper.
In my study of the conchology OF the blbis
/ this opycna of the text also impresseS nus
with the fact that religion is perfumed !.
What else coul God have meant wnen lie
said to Moses, Take unto thee sweet spices.
stacte aud onycha" Moses took that shell
{ of the onycha, put it over the fire, aud as 1t
rruuhled into ashes it exhaIei an odor that
hung in every curtain AMI filled the ancient
Tabernacle, and its sweet smoke escape
from the sacred precincts and saturatei the
outside air.
Perfumei That is what religion is. But
( instead OF that some make it maiodor.
| They serve God in a rough and acsro way
/ They box their ciiidis ears because hs does
not nrouerly keep Sunday instead of making
! Sunday so attractive the child could MOI
help but keep it. They make MIN learn by
| heart a difficult chapter in the book or EXC
| dus. with all the hard names, because he ma
| been naughty. How many disagreeable
4 good people there arel No one doubts theii
| piety, and they will reach heaven. but the,
/ will have to get fixei up before they &
there or they will make trouble by calling
/ out to us: keep off that grassm "Wha
do you mean by plucking that flower?
'tShow your tickets %
Oh. how many Christian people need b
obey my text and take into their worship
and their behavior and their consolation
and presbyteries and general assemblies anC
conferences more onychai / have some
! times gone III a very gala of spirit into thu
presence of some disa rreeable Christian
and in five minutes felt wretched. and a
some other time / have gone depressed int.
the company of suave and genial souls aut
in a few moments felt exhilarant. VIVA
was the diiferences It was the difference IL
what they burned on their cense1s. The on
burned onycha; the other burned asafetids
In this genealogical study of the Bible
also notice that the molusks or shellej ami
mails furnish the purple that you see richl,
darkening SO many Scripture chapters
The purple stuff in the ancient tabernacle
the purple girdle OF the priests, the purpl
mantle OF Roman Emperors, the apparel G
Dives In purple and fine linen--ave. th
purple robe which in mocSery was throw
/ upon ChflSt-were colored by the purple Q
the shells on tue shores of the Mediterrs
mean. 1t was discovered by a shepherd
dog having stained his mouth by brsakin
one OF the shells, and the purple aroused I'D
miration.
Costly purple, Six poun l. OF the purpl
liquor extracted from the shellfshes wer
used to prepare one pound of wool Purp'
was also used on toe pages Of books. Bible
and prayer books app cared in purple vsllun
which may still be 70 ind in some OF the ms
tional libraries OF Eur o2e. Piutarch speak
of the purple watch kept his beauty for 10
years. But after awhile the purple becam
easier to get, and that which had been
sign of imperial authority when worn
robes was adopted by many people. and
an emperor. jealous of this Appropriation o
the purple, made law that any one excep
royalty wearing purple should be put
death.
Then, as il to punish the world for tas
outrage of exolusiyeuess, God obliterate
the co.or from the earth, a much as to say
"If all cannot have it. none shall have it.
But though God has deprived the race {
that shellfisa which afforded the purp
there are shells enough left to make US gia
and worshipful. Oh, the enhancement (
hue and shape still left all up and down Il
beaches of all the continentsl These crestur'
of the sea have what roofs of enameied pc
celainl They dwell under what pavilion
blue as the SKY and fiery as sunset AT
mysterious an auroral And am N
right in leading you for a few momen
through this mighty realm OF Cob 50 ne;
lected by human eye and human footsteps
1t is said that the harp and lutte were ii
vented from the fact that in Egypt the Nj
Cyerfinwsi ira hangs and xyhau tha yyafa