The Banner-Democrat. [volume] (Lake Providence, East Carroll Parish, La.) 1892-current, 1893-04-15
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
THE COSMOLOGY OF the Bible, OF
God Among the Shells"
The Mute Shells Of the Ocean. Like Al
Else Of His Handiwork, Declare
the Wondrous Power
OF God.


Rev. 7. Dewitt Talmage resumed his
series of sermons on God Everywhere
In the Brooklyn tabernacle, and deliv-
cred the following discourse on the
topic: God Among the Shells" taking
for his text:
And the Lord said unto Moses. Take unto
thee sweet spices stacle and nycha.-Exodus
XXX. "a.
You may not have noticed the shells
of the Bible, although in this early
part of the sacred book God calls you
to consider and employ them, as He
called Moses to consider and employ
them. The onycha of my text is a
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. shall speak
of this shell as beautiful and prac-
teal revelation of God, and as true as
the first chapter of Genesis and the last
chapter of Revelations, or everything
between. Not only is this shell, the
onycha, found at the Red sea, but
in the waters of India. 1t not only
DELEGATES the eye with its convolutions
of beauty, white and lustrous and Sc
rated, but blesses the nostril with q
pungent aroma. The shell-fish, accus-
tened to feed on spikenard, is redolent
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.
inands Moses to mix this onycha with
the perfumes of the altar in the an
cient tabernacle, and propose to mix
some of the perfumes at thecaltar of
Brooklyn tabernacle, for having spoken
to You on ''The Astronomy of the Bible,
or God Among the Stars;' 1.-The Chro-
nology of the Bible, or God Among the
Centuries; 1.-THE ORTHODOXY of the
Bible, or God Among the Birds;" 'sThe
Mineralogy of the Bible, or God Among
the Amethysts;'' 1.-THE Ichthyology OF
the Bible. or God Among the Fishes"
now come to speak of 1.-THE Conchology
of the Bible. or God Among the Shells. {"
1t is secret that you may keep for
me, for / have never before told it to
anyone that in all the realms of the
natural world there is nothing to me
SO fascinating. co completely absorbing
so full of suggestiveness as a shell.
What? More entertaining than bird,
which can sing, when a shell can not
sing? Well, there you have made a
great mistake. Pick up the onycha
from the banks of the Red sea, or pick
up bivalve from the beach of the At
lantic ocean, and listen, and youlhear
whole choir of marine voices-bass,
alto, soprano-ir an unknown tongue,
but seeming to chant, as put it to my
ear: ''The sea is His and He made it,"
others singing: "Thy way, oh, God, is
in the sea-" others hymning: HE
ruleth the raging of the sea-"
"What," says some one else,
does the shell impress you more
than the stsr?" In some respects,
yes, because can handle the shell and
closely study the shell, while can not
handle the star, and if study it, must
study it at distance of millions and
millions of miles. what" says some
one else, ''are you more impressed by
the shell thun the fower?" Yes, for it
has far greater varieties and far greater
richness of color, as / could show you in
thousands of specimens, and because
the shell docs not fade, as does the rose
leaf, but maintains it's beauty century
after century, SO that the onycha
which the hoof of Pharaoh's horse
knocked aside IN the chase OF the
Isrealites across the Red sea may have
kept its luster to this hour. Yes, they
are parti-colored and many colored that
you might pile them up until you have
a wall with all the colors of Heaven,
from the jasper at the bottom to the
amethyst at the top.
Oh. the shells! The petrified foam
of the sea. Oh, the shells! The hard
ened bubbles of the deep. Oh the
shells! which are the diadems thrown
by the ocean to the feet of the con-
tinents. How the shells are ribbed,
grooved. cylindered. notified, rides
cent. They were used as coin by some
of the nations They were fastened in
belts by others, and made in handles, of
wooden instruments by still others
Mollusks not only of the sea, molluslxs
of the land. Do'you know how much
they have had to do with the worlds
history? They saved the church of God
from extinguishment. The Israelites
marched out of Egypt two million
strong, besides focks and herds. The
Bible says 1.-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 prepared
for themselves any victuals." just
think of II! Forty years in the wilder
ness. Infidelity triumphantly asks,
how could they live forty years in the
without food? You say
mamma fell. Oh, that was after a long
while. They would have starved long
before the mamma fell. The fact is,
they were chiefly kept alive by the
mollusks of the land or shelled crea-
lures. Mr.. Fronton and Mr.. Sicard
took the same 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 two million of
souls. with baggage and innumerab1e
fiocks and herds, they were not likely
to experience any Inconvenience in
their march. Several thousand persons
might walk abreast will. the greatest
ease in the very narrowest part of the
valley in which they first began to file
off. 1t soon afterward expands to above