The free press. (Poplarville, Miss.) 1890-19??, 1893-03-02

/ What is the use OF all this architecture o.
I the shell. and way is it pictured from the
| outside Ito clear down into its labvrlnths OF
| constructions Why the inhnitv o. skill and
| radiance in a shell? What is the use OF the
| color and exquisite curve Of thing so in
| significant "a shellishf Why, when the
! ccnchologist By dre1ge or rake fetchas the
| crustaceous specimens to the shore, does he
| FIND at his feet whole alhambras and COLI
/ seuns and parthenons and crystal palaces OF
| beauty in miniature and these bring tolight
| only an infinitesma part of the opuleucs in
I the great subaqueons world. Lennmu'
/ counted 900 species of shells but conchology
| hai then only begun its achievements.
While exooring the bed Of the Atlantic
Ocean in preparation for laying the cable
shellel animals were brought up from
DEPTHS OF 1900 fathoms. When lifting the
telegraph wire from the Mediterranean and
Rel Seas, shelled creatures were brought
up from depths o. 2000 fathoms. The Eng
/ lsh admiralty, exploring in behalf of
science, found moilus:s at depth of 243J
fathoms, or 4,2i0 feet deep. What realm
, awful for vastness!
As the shell is only the house and the
wardrobe OF insignificant animals OF the
deep, why all that wonder and beauty of
construction. Cots care for them is the
only reason. And if God provide 50 munifi-
Gently for them, will He not SEE that you
have wardrobe aud sheltar2 Wardrobe and
shelter for a eriHin1let Shall there not be
wardrobe and shelter for a man? Would
God give a coat OF mail for the defense OF
nautilus and leave You no defense against
the storm? Does He build stone house for
q creature that lasts a season and leave with
out home soul that takes hold on centuries
and cons
Hugh Miller found the Footprints of the
Creator in the Old rel sandstone" and |
hear the harmOnies OF God in the tlnkle OF
4,,. ef,oIt- +ha riIas n The
same Christ who drew lesson of providen-
tial cara from the fact that God clothes with
grass the field instruc6s me 10 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 woman's life, there comes very
dark time at least once. A conjunction OF
circumstances will threaten bankruptcy and
homelessness and starvation. 1t may be that
these words will meet the ear or will meet
the eye OF those VINO are in such a state of
foreboting. Come, then, aud see how God
gives an ivory pllace to water animal that
you could cover with 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
FOR His creatures. pile aroun you great
mounds Of shells that they may teach you
a most comforting theology. Ga, ye 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 primroses
in stone, these heliotropes in stone, these
cowslips in stone, these geraniums in stone,
these japonicas in stone.
o ye who have your telescopes ready look
80, 1I.o
is transpirng in Mars, jupiter and Mercury,
know that wtlin few hours walk or ride
of where you now ara there are whole
worlds that you mi INT explore, but of which
you are unconscious, AMI among the most
beautiful and suggestive OF these worlds is
the concholo kical world. Take this lesson of
providential care. How does that old
hymn 90?
We may, like ships, by tempes.s be tossed
ON perllous deeps Dut cannot be lost
Inongn satan eurages the wind aud the tide,
Inc promise assures us the Lord wal provide.
But while you get this poiDtei lesson OF
providential care from the shelle1 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 AMI Is not built around
tnen. The material for it exuies from their
own bodies and is adorned vita colored
mum AlO4ll liiS JOI VI tliglE own uGCA. IL
is most interesting thing to see these crus-
Uacean 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 otnerS to build their
fortunes wuen Jney ougnt to 90 to worG
anc, ike the mollusks, build their own
fortunes out OF their own brain, out of their
own sweat, OUT of their own industries.
Not a mollusg on all the beaches of all the
seas would have a mouse OF shell If it had
not itself built one. Do OF wait for others
to shelter you or prosper you. All the
crusJaceous creatures OF the earth from
every fake OF their covering and from every
ridge OF their tiny castles on Atlantic aud
Pacific and Mediterranean coasts say,
Help yourself, while Col helps you to help
yourself"
Those people who are waitn; for their
father or rich old uncle TO die anIleave them
a fortune are as silly as monusk would he
to wait for some other inOluSl to drop on
it a shell equipment. IL would kill the mol.
lus6 as in most cases it destroys a man. Not
one person out OF hundred ever was strong
enough to stand large estate by Inherit
ance dropped on him in a chunk. Have
great expectations from only two persons
Got ami yourself. Let the onycha of my
text become your precaptor.
But tine more | examine the shells the
more / am impressed that Col IS a God of
emotion. Many scott at emotion and seem
to thinl that God is a Col Of cold geometry
and IRON laws anu eternal apathy and en-
tDr ns1 stoicism. No! No! The shells with
overpowering emphasis deny it. While law
ana order reign in the universe, you have
but 10 see the layishness of color on the
csustacea, ali shades Of crimson from faint
est blush 10 blood Of battlefield, all shades
OF green, all shades OF all colors from deepest
black to wAitest light just callel out on the
shells with nc more order than a mother
premeditates or calculates how many kisses
ANA mugs she shall give her babe waking up
in the morning sunlight
Yes, my God is an emotional God, and He
SAYS. 1--WE must nave colors and let the sun
paint all OF them on the scroll of that shell,
and we must nave music, an here is a caro
tor the robin, aud a psalm tor man, ami
doxoogy for the seraphim. AMI resu.rec-
ton call for the archanga." Aye He
showed Himself Col OF sublime emotion
when He flung Himself on this world in the
personality Of Christ to save it, wltaoIt re-
gard to the tears It would take, or the blood
it would exhaust, or the agonies it would
crush cur.
When l see the Louvres ami the Luxem-
bourgs and the Vaticans of Divine painting
srrewn along the 5000 miles of coast, and /
hear in forest on a summer morning mus
ical academies and Handel societies of full
orchestras, | say God is a God OF emotion,
l1a p = Ia