Iuka reporter. (Iuka, Miss.) 1888-1894, 1893-02-23

wiz have TO get fixed up before they 90
there or they will make trouble by calling
out to us: Keep Off that grassn what
do you mean by plucking that fower%
Show your tickets p
Oh, how many Christian people need to
obey my text and take into their worship
and their behavior and their conscientious
and presby teries and general assemblies and
conferences more onychai / have some.
tunes 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 exharant What
was the difference? 1t was the difference in
what they burned on their ceusers The one
burned onycha the other burned asafetida.
In this genealogical study of the Bible
also notice that the moiusks or shellei ami
mails furnish the purple that you see richly
darkening so many Scripture chapters.
The purple stuff in the ancient tabernacle
the purple girdle of the priests, the purple
mantle of Roman Emperors, the apparel of
Dives in purple and fine Iinen-aye, the
purple robe which in mockery was thrown
upon Christ-were colored by the purple of
the shells on the shores of the Mediterra-
mean. 1t was discovered by shepherds
dog having stained his mouth by breaking
enc OF the shells, and the purple aroused adj
miration.
Costly purplel Six pounds of the purple
liquor extracted from the shellfishes were
used TO prepare one pound of wool. Purple
was also used on the pages OF books. Bibles
ana prayer books appeared in purple vellum,
which may still be found in some of the ma
tlonal libraries of Eur ope. Piutarch speaks
OF the purple which kept his beauty for 1919
years. But after awhile the purple became
easier to pet and that which haI a
sign of imperial authority when worn In
rooes was adopted by many people, and SO
an emperor, jealous of this appropriation of
the purpte, made a law that any one except
ROYALTY wearing purple should be put to
death
Then. as if to punish the world for that
outrage OF excusiveness, God obiiterated
the color from the earth, as much as to say.
Ii all cannot have 1t, none shall have it.'
But though God has deprived the race of
that shellfish which afforded the purple
tnere are shells enough left to make us glai
ana Worshlpful. Oh, the enhancement Of
nue. and shape still left all up and down the
beaches of all the continents, These creatures
OIL the sea have what roots of enameled por-
ceialnl They dwell under what pavilions
blue as the SKY and fiery as sunset and
mysterious as an aurora! And am not
r1ght IN leading you for a few moments
through this mighty realm of Col SO neg.
1t is said that the harp and lutte were in
vented from the fact that in Egypt the Nile
overlooked 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 lett but the cartilages
ana grlstle of these creatures, which tight
ened under the heat into musical strings
that when touched by the wind or foot of
man vlbrated, making sweet sounds, and so
the world took the hint and fashioned the
harp, and am not right in trying to make
music out OF the shells and lifting them as a
harp, from which to thrum the jubilant
praises of the Lord and the pathetic strains
OF human coincidence?
But find the climax OF this conchology of
the Bible in the pearl, which has this distinc-
ton above all other gems--that it requires
no human hand to bring out its beauties.
Job speaks of it, and its sheen is in Christs
sermon, and the Bible, which opens with the
onycha of my text, closes with the pearl.
vi such value is this crustaceous product |
do not wonder that for the exclusive right
of fishing for it on the shores of Ceyion a
man paid to the English Governm snt $780,
600 for one season.
So exclusive is the pearl do not wonder
that Piiny thought it was made out of a
drop of dew, the creature rising to the sur
fase to take it and the chemistry of nature
turning the liquid into a 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, ten
divers to each boat. Thirteen men
guide and manage the boat. Down
into the dangerous depths, amid
sharks that whrl around them, plunge the
divers, while 6o,00o people anxiously gaia
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 Inconsistencies.
Oh, it is an awful exposure and strain and
peril 10 fish Tor pearls, and yet they do so,
and is it not u 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, wnea he hat
found one pearl of great price, went and
sold all that he had ana 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 exuiation from that
wound is fixed and hardened and enlarged
into pearl. The rupsured vessels of tue
water animals fashioned the gem that now
adorns finger or earring or sword hilt or
kings crown.
So out OF the wol.cds OF earth will come
the pearls OF heaven. Dat OF the wound of
bereavement the pearl of soace. Out of the
wound of loss the pearl of gain. Out of the
deep wound of the grave the pearl of resur-
recuion joy Out of the wounds of a
Saviour lie and Saviour's death the rich.
the radiant the everlasting pearl of heaven
ly gladness.
the consolation, all ye VINO have been hurt,
whether hurt in body, or hurt in mind, or
hurt in soul. Get your troubles sanceited