News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1893-02-23
THE RoyAr. FAMILIES or NAT11Rr

1 or the great royal tamlIleS OF the earth,
/ perhaps you would respond, the house
of Stuart, the house of -Hapsburg, the
! house of Bourbon, but the three royal
| families of mollusks are the univalve, or
shell in one part; the bivalve, or shell of
/ two parts. and the multivalYe, or shell
in many parts, and see God in their ev-
cry hinge, in their every tooth, in their
every cartilage, in their every igament,
in their every spiral ridge, and in their
every color, prism on prism, and their
| adaptation of thin shell for still ponds
and thick coatings for boisterous seas.
They all dash upon me the thought of the
providential care of God.
What is the use of all this architecture
of the shell, and why is it pictured from
the outside lip clear down into its laby
rinths of construction? Why the infnitv
of skill and radiance in shell? What is
the use of the color and exquisite curve
of thing so insignificant as a shellfsh?
Why, when the conchologist by dredge
or rake fetches the crustaceous speci-
mems to the shore. does he find at his feet
whole alhambras and coliseums and
parthenons and crystal palaces of beauty
in miniature, and these bring to light
only an infnitesimal part of the opu-
lence in the great subaqueous world
Linn8us counted $500 species of Shells
but conchology had then only begun its
achievements.
While exploring the bed of the Allan
tic ocean in preparation for laying the
cable shelled animals were brought up
from depths of 1900 fathoms. When
lifting the telegraph wire from the Med
iterranean and Red seas. shelled crea-
lures were brought up from depths Of
1000 fathoms. The English admiralty,
exploring in behalf of science, found
mollusks at a depth of 2.435 fathoms, or
1910 feet deep. What a 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 if God provide so
munifcently for them, will he not see
that you have wardrobe and shelter?
Wardrobe and shelter for periwinkle!
Shall there not be wardrobe and shelter
for man? Would God give coat of
mail for the defense of nautilus and
leave you no defense against the storm?
Does he build a stone house for a crea-
ture that lasts a season and leave with
out home soul that takes hold on CEN
turies and cons?
Hugh Miller found 1.-The Footprints
of the Creator in the old red sand
stone" 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 providential care from
the fact that God clothes with grass
the field lnstructs me to draw the same
lesson from the shells.
THE CORAL INSECT TEACHES FAITH.
In almost every mans life, however
well born and prosperous for years, and
in almost every woman's life, there comes
very dark time, at least once. A con-
junction of circumstances will threaten
bankruptcy and homelessness 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 of foreboding
Come. then, and see how God gives an
ivory palace to a water animal that you
could cover with a 10-cent piece and
clothes in ar1nor against all attack a
coral no bigger than a snowflake. do
not think that God will take better care
of bivalve than of one of his own chill
dren
| rake to your feet with the gospel
rake the most thorough evidences of
Gods care for his creatures. Ipile around
you great mounds of shells that they
may teach you most comforting theol-
ogy Oh, We of little faith, walk among
these arbors of coraline and look at these
bouquets of shell fit to be handed
queen on her coronation day. and see
these fallen rainbows of color, and ex-
anime these lilies in stone, these prin-
roses in stone, these heliotropes in stone.
these cowslips in stone, these geraniums |
in stone, these japonicas in stone.
o We who have your telescopes ready |
looking out on clear nights, trying to see |
what is transporting in Mars, Jupiter and |
Mercury, know that within few hours |
walk or ride of where you now are there |
are whole worlds that you might explore,
but of which you are unconscious, and |
among the most beautiful and suggest |
i've of these worlds is the genealogical (
world. Take this lesson of a providen-
tial care. How does that old hymn go?
We may, like ships, by tempest be tossed
On perilous deeps, but cannot be lost.
though satan enrages the wind and the tide,
he promise assures US the Lord will provide.
GODS CARE AND MANS FREEDOM.
But while you get this pointed lesson
Of providential 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 a colored fluid from the |
pores of their own neck. 1t is a most |
thing to see these crustacean
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 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 a |
house of shell if it had not itself built |
one. Do not wait for others to shelter |
you or prosper you. All the crustaceous |
creatures of the earth from every flake |
of their covering and from every ridge |
of their tiny castles on Atlantic and Pa |
cific and Mediterranean coasts say, "'Help |
yourself, while God 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 a mollusk
would be to wait for some other mollusk |
to drop on it shell equipment. 1t would |
kill the mollusk as in most cases it de- |
stroys a man. Not one person ont of |
hundred ever was strong enough to stand |
a large estate by inheritance dropped on
him in chunk. Have great expecta-
tons from only two persons-God and |
yourself. Let the onycha of my text be-
come your preceptor.
But the more examine the shells the
more am impressed that God is a God
of emotion. Many scott at emotion and
seem to think that God is a God of cold
geometry and iron laws and eternal
apathy and enthroned stoicism. No! |
Mol The shells with overpowering en-
phasis deny it. While law and order
reign in the universe, you have but to
see the lavishness of color on the crus-
tacea, all shades of crimson from faint.
est blush to blood of battlefield, all
shades of blue, 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 q mother