Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1893-03-03

nat Is the use OF all this architecture o
the shell, and why is IL Dictursd from tn,
outside lip clear down into its labvrinths oI
construction Why the infinity OF skill and
radiance in a shell' What is the use OF IN,
color and exquisite curve OF a thing so in
significant asa ssslfish' Why, when tn,
conchologist by dredge or rake fetches the
crustaceous specimens to the shore does he
md at his feet whole alhambras and coli
seums and parthenons and crystal palaces OF
beauty in miniature, and these bring tolight
only an inhnitesmal part OF the opuleucs In
the great subaqueous world. Liennau'
counted 25OOspecies of shells but concholoEy
had then only begun its achievements.
While exploring the bed Of the Atlantic
Ocean In preparation for layiug the cable
shelled animals were brought up from
depths of 1000 fathoms. When lifting the
telegraph wire from the Mediterranean and
Ret Seas, shelled creatures were brou yht
up from depths OF 1000 fathoms The Eng.
lish admiralty, exoloring in behalf oil
science, found mollusks at depth Of 2435
fathoms, or 1870 feet deep. What realm
awful for vastnessi
As the shell Is only the house aud the
wardrobe OF Insignificant animals OF the
deep why all that wonder and beauty OF
construction. Gods care for them is the
only reason. And il Gro provide so munih-
Gently for them, will He not ses that you
have wardrobe and shslterS Wardrobe and
shelter for periwinklei Shall there not be
wardrobe and shelter for a man, Would
God give a coat OF mail for the defense OF a
nautilus and leave you no defense against
The stormf Does He build stone house for
creature that lasts a season and leave with
out home a soul that takes hold on centuries
and cons,
Hugh Miller found "the Footprints OF the
creator In the old red sandstone" and
hear the harmonieS OF God in the tinkle OF
the sea shells when the tides come in. The
same Christ who drew a lesson OF providen-
tial care from the fact that God clothes with
grass the field instructs me to draw the same
lesson from the shells
In almost every mans life, however we'll
born and prosperous for years, and in al.
most every wonan's life there comes a very
dark time at least once. A conjunction OF
circumstances will threaten bankruptcy and
homelessness aud starvation. 1t may be that
these words will meet the ear or will meet
the eye OF those who are in such a state of
foreboding. Come, then, and see how Col
gives an ivory pllace to a water animal that
you could cover with ten-cent piecs and
clothes in armor against all attack coral
no bigger than a snowflake. do not think
that God will take better cara OF bivalve
than OF one OF His own children.
rake TO your feet with the gospel rake
the most thorough evidences OF Gods care
for His creatures. pile aroun you great
mounds Of shslls that they may teach you
most comforting theology. OJ, ye OF little
faith, walk among these arbo.s of coralins
and look at these bouau ITS OF shell, tlt TO be
handed queen on her coronation day and
see these fallen rainbows OF color, AMI ex-
anime these lilies in stone, these primrosss
IN stone, these heliotrop,s in stone, these
cowslips In stone, these geraniu MS in stone,
these laponcas in stone.
y ye who have your telescopes ready look
ing out on clear nights, trying to see wnat
is transpiring in Mars, Jupiter and Mercury,
know that within few hour, walls or ride
ot where you now ara there are whole
worlds that you might explore, but of which
you ara unconscious ami among the most
the genealogical world. Take this lesson OF
\ providential care. How does that old
nymn goy
We may, like ships, by tempssts Oe tossed
On perllous deept, but cannot be lost.
Though satan enragss the wind aud the tide,
The promise assures us the Lord will provide.
But wnie you get this pointed lesson o.;
provideutlal care from the shelled creatures
Of the deep, notice i'll their construction
that God helps them to help themselves. This
house of stone in which they live is not
dropped on them and IS not built around
them. The material for it exuies from their
own bodies and is adorned with colored
fluid from the pores of their own meek. 1t
is most interesting thing to seq theSs crus-
tacean animals fashion their own homes out
Of carbonate OF line and membrane.
And all of tbs a mighty lesson to those
who are wait for others to build their
fortunes when UIey ought to 60 to WORK
and, like the mollusks, build their own
fortunes out OF their own brain, out Of their
own sweat, out OF their own industries.
Not a mollusk on all the beaches of all the
seas would have house OF shell II it had
not itself built one. Do rot wait for others
to shelter you or prosper you. All the
crustaceous creatures of the earth from
every fake OF their covering apd from every
ridge of their tiny castles on Atlantic and
Pacific and Mediterranean coasts say,
Help yourself, while Col helps you to help
yourself"
Those people who are waiting for their
father or rich old uncle to die and leave them
fortune are as silly as mollusk would be
to wait for some other tnollusk to drop on
it shell equipment. IL would kill the mol.
lusk as in most cases 1t destroys man. Not
one person out OF hundred evtr was strong
enough 20 stand large estate by Inherit
auce dropped on him in chunk. Have
great expectations from oalY two persons -
God and yourself. Let the onycha Of my
text become your preceptor
But the more | EXAMINE the shells the
more am impressed tnat Col is a God OF
emotion. Many scoff at emotion and seem
TO think that G ID is a Col OF cold geom etry
and iron laws and eternal apathy and en-
throned stoicism. Mol Mol rhe shells with
overpowering emphasis deny 1t. While la"
and order reign in the universe, you have
g. Ia nf color the
crustacsa, all shades OF crimson from faint
est blush to blood OF battlefield, all shades
of green, all shades OF all colors from deepest
black to whitest light just caliei out on the
shells with no more order than mother
prsmeditates or calculates how many kisses
and hugs she shall give her babe waking uE
in the morning sunlight.
Yes, my God is an emotional God, and hi
saws. ave must have colors and let the sur
paint all OF them on the scroll OF that shel
and we must have music an here is caro-
for the robin, and psalm for man, and
doxology for the seraphim. and resurrec
tjou call for the archangel." Aye, ID
showed Himself a God OF sublime EN- otioI
when He flung Himself on this world In tn
personality of Christ to save 1t, without re
gard to the tears it would take, or the bloo'
Il would exhaust, or the agonies 1t woul
crush out.
When | see the Louvres ana the Luxem
bourgs and the Vaticans of Divine paintin
strewn along the 5000 miles OF coast, and
hear In forest on a summer morning mus
IcaI academies and Handel societies Of ful
orchestras, say God is God of emotion
and il He observes mathematics 1t Is mathe
matics set to music, and His figures are writ
ten not in white chalk on blackboards, bu
written by finger of sunlight on walls
jasmine aud trumpet creeper.
In my study of the conchology OF the Bibl
this onycha OF the text also impresses m
with the fact that religion is perfumed
What else couli God have meant when
said to Moses, take unto thee sweet spice
stacte and onychaY Moses took that she
of the onycha, put it over the hre, ana as
crnmbled into ashes it exhaled an odor tbs
hung in every curtain and filled the ancier
tabernacle. and its sweet smoke escape
Syon, the sacred precincts and saturated tl