The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1893-03-03

how many Christian people need to
obey my text and take into their wor-
ship and their behavior and their con-
! sociations and presbyteries and general
/ assemblies and conferences more
/ onycha-
In this genealogical study of the
/ Bible, | also notice that the mollusks
or shelled animals furnish the purple
that you see richly darkening so many
scripture chapters. The purple stuff
in the ancient tabernacle, the purple
/ girdle of the priests, the purple mantle
of Roman emperors, the apparel of
! Dives in purple and fine linen. aye, the
/ purple robe which, in mOckerv, was
! thrown upon Christ, were colored by
| the purple of the shells on the shores
of the Mediterranean. Purple was
also used on the pages of books Bibles
and prayer books appeared in purple
vellum, which may still be found in
some of the national libraries of
! Europe. Plutarch speaks of some
purple which kept its beauty for
100 years. But, after while,
| the purple sbecomes easier to get, and
!
authority when worn in robes, was
adopted by many people, and SO an en-
peror. Jealous of this appropriation OF
the purple, made a law that any one
except royalty wearing purple should
| he put to death. Then, as il TO punish
! the world for that outrage of exclusive
ness, God obliterated the color from
the earth, as much as to say: ''If all
cannot have it. none shall have it.
| But, though God has deprived the race
| of that shell-lish which afforded the
purple, there are shells enough left to
make US glad and worshipfuj. Oh,
the enhancement of hue and shape still
left all up and down the beaches of all
/ the continents.
But | find the climax of this conehol-
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 sermon, and the
Bible, which opens with the onycha of
my text. closes with tine pearl. OF such
value is this crustaceOus product,
| do not wonder that, for the exclusive
right of fishing for it on the shores
of Ceylon. a man paid to the En-
glish government 100000 for the sea-
son. So exquisite is the pearl | do not
wonder that Pliny thought it was made
out of a drop of dew, the creature rising
to the surface to take it, and the chem
istry of nature turning the liquid into
solid. You will see why the Bible
makes so much of the pearl in its SIM
ilitudes 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 O,00J people
anxiousiy 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 finging his peariy treasure on the
sand, falls into unconsciOusnass. Oh,
il is an awful strain and exposure 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 the
other pearls put together, there should
be so little anxiety, SO little struggle,
so little enthusiasm. Would God that
we were all rs wise as the merchant
man Christ recommended, ''whO, when
he had found one pearl of great price,
went and sold ali that he had and
bought it.
But what thrills me with suggestive
ness is the material out of which all
pearls are made. They are fashioned
from the wound OF the shell-fsh. The
emulation from that wound is fixed and
hardened and enlarged into a pearl.
The ruptured vessels of the water ami
NAL fas hioned 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 be-
reavement 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 4 SIviour's life and Saw
tours death, the rich, the radiant. the
everlasting pearl of heavenly gladness.
''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. IL you
suffer with Christ on earth, you will
reign with him in glory. The tears of
earth are the crystals of Heaven. ''Ev-
cry several gate was one pearl"