Highland recorder. (Monterey, Highland County, Va.) 1877-1972, 1893-03-10

Rel Seas. shelled creatures were brought
up from depths of 1000 fathoms. The Eng
lish admiralty exploring in behalf Of
science found molusks at depth Of 243j
fathons, or 1 2l0 feetd deep. What realm
awful for vastnessl
As the shell is only the house and 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 II Col provide 50 munih.
Gently for them, will He not see that you
have wardrobe and shelteri Wardrobe and
shelter for periwinklel Shall there not be
wardrobe and shelter for manS Would
TOD give coat OF mail for the defense Of a
nautilus and leave you no defense against
The Storm Does He build a stone house for
a creature that lasts season and leave with.
out home soul that takes hold on centuries
and cons?
Hugh Miller found 'the Footprints Of the
Creator ia the old rel sandstone" and
hear the harmonies OF God in the tinkle OF
the sea shells when the tides come in. The
same Christ who drew lesson Of providen-
tial care from the fact that God clothes with
grass the field instruct5 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 very
dark time at least once. A conjunction Of
circumstances will threa ten bankruptcy and
bomelessness and starva ton. 1t may be that
these words will meet the ear or will meet
the eye of those who are in such state o.
fore6oding. Gene, then, aud see how God
gives an ivory palace to water animal that
you could cover with a ten-cent piece and
clothes in armor against all attack coral
no bigger than a snowflake. do not think
that God will take better care Of a bivalve
than of one of His own children.
rake to your feet with the gospel rake
the most thorough evidences OF Gods care
tor His creatures. l pile around you great
mounds of shells that they may teach you
a most comforting theology. Oh, ye of little
faith, walk among these arbors OF coraline
and look at these bouquets OF shell, ft to be-
handed a queen on her coronation day, and
yee these fallen rainbows OF color, and ex.
anime these lilies in stone, these primroses
in stone, these heliotropss in stone, these
cowslips In stone, these geraniums in stone,
these japonicas in stone.
Dye who have your telescopes ready look
ing cut on clear nights, trying to see what
Is Transporting in Mars, Jupiter and Mercury,
know that witain a few hours walk OF ride
Of where you now are there are whole
worlds that you might explore, but of which
you are unconscious, AMI among the most
beautiful and suggestive of these worlds is
the genealogical world. Take this lesson of
= provldential care. How does that old
byma go?
We may, like ships, by tempeets be tossed
On perilous deep. out cannot be lost.
Though satan enrages the wind aud the tide
ine promise assures US the Lord will provide.
But while you get this pointed lesson of
providentlal care from the shelled creatures
Of the deep, notice in 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 exudes from their
own bodies and is adorned with colored
fluid from the pores Of their own neck. 1t
Is most interesting thing to sea these crus-
tacean animals fashion their own homes out
of carbonate OF lime and membrane
And all of this is a mighty lesson to those
who are waiting for others to build their
fortunes when they ought to go to work
and, like the mollusks, build their own
fortunes out of taer own brain, out of their
own sweat, out of their own industries.
Not molusk on all the beaches of all the
seas would have house. Of shell if 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 aud from every
ridge of their tiny castles on Atlantic and
Pacific and Mediterranean coasts say,
'Help yourself, while God helps you to help
| yourself"
Those people who are waitin, for their
) father or rich old uncle to die and leave them
p fortune are as silly as moilusk would be
to wait for some other inollusk to drop on
| it shell equipment. It would kill the mol.
lusk az in most cases it destroys man. Not
one person out of hundred ever was strong
enough to stand large estate by inherit
ance dropped on him In chunk. Have
great expectations from only two persons
God and yourself. Let the onycha OF my
text become your preceptor.
But the more examine the shells the
more am impressed t1at God is God OF
emotion. Many scott at emotion and seem
to think that God is God OF cold geometry
and iron laws and eternal apathy and en-
throned stocism. Mol Mol The shells with
oyerpowering emphasis deny it. While law
and order reign in the universe, you have
but to see the lavishneSs of color on the
crustacea. 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 called out on the
shells with no more order than mother
premeditates or calculates how many kisses
and hugs she snail give ner pape WAKING up
in the morning sunlight.
Yes. nv God is an emotional God, and He
saws. 1--WE must have colors and let the sun
naint all Of them on the scroll Of that shell,
and we must have music, and here is carol
for the robin, and psalm for man, and
doxology for the seraphin, and a resurrec
tion call for the archaugel" Aye, He
showed Himself God Of sublime emotion
when He flung Himself on this world in the
personality of Christ to save It, without re-
gard TO the tears it would take, or the blood
It would exhaust or the agoniss it would
crush out.
When / see the Louvres and the Luxem.
bourgs and the Vatlcans OF Divine painting
strewn along the 5000 miles Of coast, and
hear in forest on a summer morning mus.
zeal academies and Handel societies Of full
orchestras, say God is God of emotion,
and if He observes mathematics It'll matns.
mates set to music. and His figures are WRIT
ten not in white chalk on blacxboards, but
written by a finger of sunlight on walls OF
jasmine and trumpet creeper.
In my study of the conchology OF the Bible
this onycha of the text also impresses me
with the fact that religion is perfumed.
What else could God have meant when he
said to Moses, "Take unto thee sweet spices,
stacte and onycha" Moses took that shell
of the onycha, put it over the ire ana as IL
crumbled into ashes it exhaled an odor that
hung in every cnrtain and filed the ancient
tabernacle. and its sweet smoke escaped
from the sacred precincts and saturated the
outside air.
Perfumel That Is what religion is. But
instead of that some make it malodor.
They serve God in rough and acerb way
They box their child's ears because he does
not properly keep Sunday instead of making