The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1893-03-03
BIBLE CONCHOLOGY.
DR.. Talmage Discourses Upon God
Among Shells.
What Shells Have Had to DO With the
Worlds History Coos Care For the
Most Insignificant A~imnls - He
Helps Them to Help themselves.

Rev. 7. Dewitt TalmaGe, in a late
sermon, took for his subject: ''The
Conchology of the Bible. or God Among
the Shells" the text being taken from
Exodus xxx. 81: "And the Lord said
unto Moses, take unto thee sweet
! spices, stacte and onycha" The preach
err said:
You may not have noticed the shells
of the Bible, although in his early part
OF the sacred book God calls You to con-
slider and employ them, as he called
Moses to consider and employ them.
The onycha of my text is n shell found
on the banks of the Red sea, and Moses
and his army must have crushed many
of them under foot as they crossed the
bisected waters, onycha on the beach
and onycha in the unfolded bed of the
deep. l shall speak of this shell Us a
beautiful and practical revelation of
God, and as true as the first chap
ter of Genesis and the last chap
ter of Revelation, or everything
between Not only is this shell, the
onycha, found at the Red sea, but in
the waters of India. The shell-fish, ac-
customed TO feed on spikenard, is redo
lent with that odorous plant, redolent
when alive and redolent when dead.
Its shells, when burnt. bewitch the air
with fragrance In my text God com
mands Moses to mix this onycha with
the perfumes of the altar in the ancient
Tabernacle, and ! propose to mix some
of it's perfumes at the altar of brooklyn
tabernacle, for having spoken to you on
the Astronomy of the Bible, or Gcd
among the Stars; the Chronology of the
Bible, or God among the Centuries; the
ORTHODOXY of the Bible. or God among
the Birds; the Mineralogy of the Bible,
or God among the Amethysts: the Ich-
THEOLOGY of the Bible, or God among
the Fishes, | now come to speak of the
Conchology of the Bible, or God among
the Shells.
1t is a secret that you may keep for
me, for have never before told it to
any one. that in all the realms of the
natural world there is nothing to me so
fascinating, so completely absorbing,
so full of suggestiveness as a shell.
What? More entertaining than a bird,
which can sing, when shell cannot
sing2 Well. there you have made great
mistake. Pick up the onycha from the
banks of the Red sea or pick up a BIZ
valve from the beach of the Atlantic
ocean, and listen, and you hear a whole
choir of marine voiceS--bass, alto, So
prano-in an unknown tongue, but
seeming to chant, as put them to my
ear: THE sea is his and he made it,
others singing: Thy way, oh God, is
in the sea-" others hymning: He rul-
eth the raging of the sea" ''What,"
says some one else, docs the shell i'm
press you more than the stare" In
some respects, yes, because | can handle
the shell and closely study the shell,
while cannot handle the star. and if
! study it, must study it at a distance
of millions and millions of miles.
Oh the shells, The pctritied foam of
the sea. Oh the shells! The hardened
bubbles OF the deep. Oh, the shells.
which are the diadems thrown 10y the
ocean to the feet of the continents
How the shells are ribbed, groOvcd,
cylindcred, mottlcd, iridescent They
were used as coin by some of the ma
tiops. They were fastened in belts by
others, and made in handles of wooden
implements by still others. Mollusks
not only of the sea, mollushs of the
land. Do you know how much they
have to do with the worlds history?
They saved the church of God from ex.
tinguishment The Israelites marched
out os Egyp. 100000 strong, besides
fiocks and herds The Bible
says 'the people took their dough
before it was leavened, their kneading
troughs being bound up in the clothes
on their shoulders = They
were thrust forth out of Egypt and
could not tarry, neither had they pre-
pared for themselves any victuals.
just think OF it. Forty years in the
wilderness. Infdelity triumphantly
asks, how could they live forty years in
the wilderness without food? You say
mamma fell. Oh, that was after long
while They would have starved long
befor the mamma fell. The fact is, they
were chiefly kept alive by the mollusks
of the land or shelled creatures. Mr.
route from Egypt toward Canaan that
the Israelites took, and they give this
as their testimony:
Although the children OF Israel must have
consisted of about 2.Jl100I of souls, with bag
gage and innumerable flocks aud nerds. they
were not likely toexperience any Inconvenience
in their march. Several thousand persons
might walk abreast with the greatest ease in
the very narrowcst part of the valley in which
they first began to file of 1t soon afterward
expands to above three leagues in width With
respec; to forage, they would be at no
loss. The ground is covered with tamsrisk
broom clover, and Saint Foin Of which lat
ter especially camels are paSsiOnately fond,
besides almost ever; variety OF odoriforous
plant and herb proper for plStu-ace-
The whole sides of the valley through which
the children of Israel marched ere still tuf.cd
with brushwood. which doubtless afforded food
for their beasts, together with MANY drier sorts
for lighting fire, on which the Israelites could
with the greatest ease bake the dough they
brought with them on small iron plates which
form 4 constant appendaGe to the baggage ofau
oriental traveller. Lastly, the heritage under
meath these trees and shrubs is completely GOV
cred with snails Of prodigious size and Of the
best sort and however uninviting such i Depast
might appear to US, they are here esteemed
great delicacy. They are so plentiful in this
valley that it may be literally said that il is
difficult to take one step without treadinS on
them.
So the sheIled creatures saved the
hosts of Israelites on the march to the
promised land, and the attack of inf
deity at this point is defeated by the
facts, as infidelity is always defeated
by facts, since it is founded on igno-
rance.
Thank God for the wealth of moi
lusks all up and down the earth.
whether feeding the Israelites on their
way to the land flowing with milk and
honey, or, as we are better acquainted