Weekly expositor. (Brockway Centre, Mich.) 1882-1894, 1893-02-24

creatures of the sea have what roofs
of enamelled porcelainl They dwell
under what payillions. blue as the sky
and fiery as sunset and mysterious
as an auroral And am / not right in
leading you, for few moments,
through this mighty realm of God SO
neglected by human eye and human
footstep? 1t is said that the harp
and lutte were invented from the fact
that in Egypt, the Nile overhowed it's
banks, and when the waters retreated
tortoises were left by the million on
all the lands, and these tortoises died,
and soon nothing was left but the
cartilages and gristle of these crea-
lures, which frightened under the heat
into musical strings that when
touched by the wind or the foot of
man, vibrated, making sweet sounds,
and so the world took the hint and
fashioned the harp; and am L 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 condolence?0
But find the climax of this conchol-
ogy of the Bible in the Pearl, which
has this distinction above all other
gems that it requires no human hand
to bring out its beauties. Job speaks
of it and its sheen is in Christ's SER
mon, and the Bible, which opens with
the onycha of my text, closes with the
Pearl. OF such value is this crustace-
GUS product, do not wonder that, for
the exclusive right of fishing for it on
the shores of Ceylon, man paid to the
English government $780, 900 for one
season. So exquisite is the Pearl, do
not wonder that Pliny thought it was
made out of n drop of dew, the creature
rising TO the surface 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 swirl around them, plunge the
divers, while 10000 people anxiously
gaze 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,
1T is an awful expo sure and strain and
peril TO fish for pearls, and yet they
do so, and is it not 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, when he had found one pearl of
great price, went and sold all that he
had and bought t.
But what thrills me with suggestive
ness is the material of which all pearls
are made. They are fashioned from
the wound of the shell-ish. The ex-
udation from that wound is fixed and
hardened and enlarged into a pearl.
The ruptured vessels of the water an
imal fashioned the gem that now
adorns finger or earring or sword
hilt or Kings crown. So, out OF
the wounds of earth will come
the pearls of heaven. Out of the
wound of conviction the pearl of
pardon Out of the wound of bereave-
ment the pearl of solace. Out OF the
wound of loss the pearl of gain. Out
of the deep wound of the grave the
pearl of resurrection JOY. Out of the
wounds of Saviors life and a
Savior's death. the rich, the radiant,
the everlasting pearl of heavenly glad
ness. "And the twelve gates were
twelve pearls" Take the consolation,
all We who have been hurt, whether
hurt in body, or hurt in mind, or hurt
in soul. Get your troubles sanctified.
If you suffer with Christ on earth, you
will reign with HIM in glory. The
tears of earth are the crystals OF
heaven. Every several gate was one
of pearl"