Fisherman & farmer. [volume] (Edenton, N.C.) 1887-19??, 1893-10-13
REV. DIR. TALMAGE
THE BROOKLYN DIVINE'S Sun.
DAY SERMON.
Subject: s.The Garde1v of the Sea-

heal. Jonah H., 5.
''The Botany Of the Bible or. GcI Among
the Flowers" is a fascinating subject hold
in my hand n book which / brought from
Palestine. bound in olive wood, and within
| 1t are pressed flowers which have hot only
retained their color, but their aroma. Flow
ers from Bethlehem, flowers from Jerusa-
| lem, flowers from Gethsemana. flowers from
| Mount Of Olives, flowers from Bethany, flow
! ers from Sloan. flowers from the valley of Je-
! h<Soaphat, red unemOnes and wild miGnO-
=s"te, buttercups. daisies, cyclamehs, camo-
| .r:3a. bluebells, ferns. moses, grasses and a
wealth OF fora that keep me fascinated by
the hcnt, 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 Il course of ser
| mons about "God Everywhera" on "The
Astronomy Of the Bible; or, God Among the
| Stars > "The OrnitholoSy of the Bible or,
| God Among tho Birds y "Thc 1Chthyol0gy
Of the Bible; or. Gol Among the Fishes !"
The MineralcgJ Of the Bible ;or. God Among
! the Ameihysts y The ConchoIogy of the
| Btblo; or, God Among the Shells = ''The
| Chronology OF the Bible or, Cod Among the
| Centuries"-I speak now to you about ''The
| Botany Of the Bible or, God in the Gardens
| of the Sea Although purpOsely take this
| morning for consideration the least observed
| and least appreciated Of all the botanical
| products Of the world we shall find the con-
| J"IHpIhtlO1 very absorbing.
! In all cur theological 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 sr@ the page OF
the Scriptural world. Wb2t4 q tshening up
them even eve a frag1 1'7nent of MediteI mean sea sea,
weed; Wofwo i,n;t, have fewer sermons
hwlu!iy d'Hr dlscour@'tt" 't"'It H., "nI blessed Lord,
m hI' IN ri0om, or ,rl- In a' va "oulu
hroot h,arasa,,c'AenS, or 2 crystal Of aa1t eaeh
ont tbe f'atfve qualities of roiginn 9, "'-'
The trouble Is ii.t-4a-. iliat Il nv of our theo-
logical seminaries men Who G1o so dry them
solves they never could get people to como
and hear them preach are now trying to
teach young men how to preach, and the
student is put between two great presses Of
dOymatic theology and squeezed Until there
! is no life left in him Give the poor victim
at least one lesson Oh the botany Of the Bible.
That was an awful plunge that the recreant
prophet Jonah made when. dropped over the
gunwales of the Mediterranean ship, Re sank
many fathOmS down into temre5tuCuS sea.
Both before aud afterth6 mtnster of the deep
swallowed him, he Was cntangled in seaWeed.
The junglea Of the deep threw their cordage
OF vegetation around him. SOmo ofthis sea-
weed was anchored to the bottom OF the
Watory ahySm. and some Of it was atlOGt and
Swallowed by the great sea monster, 50 that,
while the prophet was ut the bottom of tho
deep alter he was horribly imprisoned he
could ex.laim HHd did exclam in the words
of my text The weeds were wrapped about
my heal"
Jonah was the first TO racorI that there
are grOWths upon the bottom Of the sea as
we'll as upon land. The first picture I ever
Owned was handful Of Seaweeds pressed on
page, AMI called them ''the shorn locks
of Neptune These products of tho deep
whether brown or green or yellow or pur~
pie or red or iuter5hot Of many colors, ara
most fascinating. They are distributed all
over the depths IN from Arctic to Antarctic.
That God thinks we'll of them [ conclude
from the fact that he has made 5000 species
of them. Sometimes these water plants
are 4O) or 700 feet long, and they cable
the sea. One specimen has growth OF
1900 feet,
On the northwest shore Of our country is
seaweed with leaves thirty or forty feet long,
amid which the sea otter makes his home,
resting himself on the buOyancy OF the leaf
and stem. The thckest iungle5 of the trop-
les are not more full Of vegetation than the
depths OF the sea, There arc forests down
there and vast praities all abloom, and God
walks there az he walked III the Garden Of
Eden Tin the cool of tho day" Oh what
enhancement, this subaqUaOuS world Oh,
the Col given wonders Of the seaweed! |! Its
birthplace is a palace OF crystal. The cradle
that rocks it is tho Storm It's grave is asar
cophagus of beryl and sapphire. There is
no night down there
There are creatures Of God on the bottom
of the sea so constructed that. strewn all
along, they mako ornament besprent with
stars, consultations and gaaXieS Of impOs-
ing luster. The sen fe1theris a lamplighter.
The gymnOtuS is an electrician, and he is
surcharged with electricity and makes tho
deep bright with the lightning Of the sea.
The gorgonia flashes like jewels. There are
sea aDemOnes ablaze with light. There ara |
the starffsh and the moonfsh. 50 called be-
cause they 50 powerfully suggest stellar and |
lunar illumination.
Oh, these midnight lanterns of the ocean
caverns these professions of fame over the |
white floor Of the deep these illuminations
three miles down under the sea these |
gorgeously upholstered castles of the AL
mighty in the underworld The author of
the text felt the pull of the hidden vegetation !
of the Mediterranean, whether or not he ap- !
preciated its beauty, az he cried out, Tho |
weeds were wrapped about my head"
Let nv subject cheer all those who had |
friends who have been buried at sea or in |
our great American lakes. Which OF US |
brought up on the Atlantic coast has not had
kindred or friend thus seputchered! Wehad
the useless horror OF thinking that they We're
denied proper resting place Wesa1d 'Oh;
if they had lived TO come ashore and had
then expired What an alleviation OF our
trouble it would have been to put theLl IN
some beautiful family plot, where we cout,
Why. Col did better for them than we couto
have dOne for them. They wore let gown
into beautiful gardens. Before they haa
reached the bottom they had garlands ABOUT
their brow.
In more elaborate and adorned place than
va couId have afforded them they were put
away for the last slumber. Hear II, inothers
and fathers Of sailor boys whose sup went
Down in our last August hurricane Inere
or, no Graenwoods or Laurel HulS or Mount
full J
banked and terraced and scoopod ana nunS
in tho doptbS of the sea. Inc podteS o. our
foundered and sunken friends are Glrdted
and caHopied and hOusea with such SlorIe7
rs attend no other Metropolis.
They were swamped In ltfeboats, or they
strrck on Goodwin sands or Deal beach or
tho Skerres. and were never card OF; OF ui9-
aDpeared with the City OF Boston, or the WIG
de Havre, or the Cymbria or were run gown gown
in n fishing smack that put out from New
for1dland. But dismiss your PREVIOUS gloom
about the horrors of ocean entombment.
When SebastopoI was beJiaget i'll the
Anglo-French war, Prince Mentchtk3t' com
manding the Russian navy, saw tnae tno
only way to keep the English out of the har-
Dor was ~ sink all the Russian ships of war
in the Y0adstead. and so 100 vessels sank.
! When. after the war was over, our American
| engineer, GoWan. descended TO the depths
in diving bell, 1t was an impressive spec
| tacle
One hundred buried ships! But it is that
way nearly all across the Atlantic Ocean.
! Ships sunk not by command of admirals,
! but by the command of cyclones.
| But they all had sublime burial. and the sur
roundings amid which they sleep the last
sleep are more imposing than the Tai Mahal,
| tho mausoleum with walls incrustei with
| precious stones and built by the great moSul
| of India over his empress Your departed
ones were buried in the gardens of the sea,
! fenced off by hedges of coralline.
The greatest obsequies ever known on the
| land were those OF Moses. where no one bat
| God was present. The sublime report Of that
| entombment is in the book of Deuteronomy.
| which says that the Lord buried him. and of
| those who have gone down to slumber in the
| deep the same may be said. 1.-The Lord buried
! them As Christ was buried in a garden 50
ci,s Al frin Il md fhnSn a