The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1893-02-24


tacea, all singles 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 mother
premeditates or calculates how many
kisses and hugs she shall give her babe
waking up in the morning sunlight.
Yes, my God is an emotional God,
and he says. I'VE must have colors and
let the sun paint all of them on the scroll
of that shell, and we must have music,
and here is carol for the robin, and a
psalm for man, and doxology for the
seraphim, and a resurrection call for the
archangel." Aye, he showed himself a
God of sublime emotion when he flung
himself on this world in the personality
of Christ to save it, without regard 70
the tears it would take, or the blood il
would exhaust. or the agonies it would
crush out
When see the Louvres and the Lux
embourgs and the Vaticans Of Divine
painting strewn along the 5000 miles Of
coast, and hear In forest on q summer
morning musical academies and Han
del's societies of full orchestras, ! say
God is a God of emotion, and If he OBJ
serves mathematics 1t Is mathematics
set to music, and his figures are written
not in white chalk on blackboards, but
written by finger of sunlight on walls
of jasmine and trumpet creeper.
WE HAVE A CLEAN RELIGION.
In my study of the conchology of the
Bible this onycha of the text also i'm
presses 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 ony
char Moses took that shell Of the ony'
cha, put it over the fire, and as it crum-
bled into ashes it exhaled an odor that
hung in every curtain and filled the an.
Gent tabernacle. and its sweet smoke es
capped from tie sacred precincts and sat
urated the outside air.
Perfume! That is what religion is.
But instead of that some make it NAL
odor. They serve God in a rough and
acerb way They box their childs ears
because he does not properly keep Sun
day instead of making Sunday so attract
i've the child could not help but keep it,
They make HIM learn by heart difficult
chapter in the book Of Exodus, with all
the hard n.mes. because he has been
naughty. How many disagreeable good
people there arel No one doubts their
piety, and they will reach heaven, but
they will have to get fixed up before
they 20 there or they will make trouble
by calling out to us: keep off that
grassl" "What do you mean by pluck,
ing that flower" SHOW your ticketsr
Oh. how many Christian people need
to obey my text and take into their wor-
ship and their behavior and their conso-
Citations and presbyteries and general as
semblies and conferences more onycha
| have sometimes gone in very gala OF
spirit into the presence of some disagree
able Christians and in five minutes felt
wretched, and at some other time have
gone depressed into the company OF
suave and genial souls, and in a few mo-
ments | felt exhilarant What was the
difference? 1t was the difference in what
they burned on their censers. The one
burned onycha; the other burned ASA
fetida
THE ROYAL PURPLE.
In this genealogical study Of the BIZ
BILE | also notice that the mollusks or
shelled animals furnish the purple that
you see richly darkening SO many Scrip.
ture 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 mockery was thrown upon
Christ-were colored by the purple of the
shells on the shores of the Mediterra-
mean. 1t was discovered by shepherds
dog having stained his mouth by break
ing one of the shells, and the purple
aroused admiration.
Costly purplei Six pounds of the pur-
pie liquor extracted from the shellfishes
were used to prepare one pound of wool.
Purple was also used on the pages of
books Bibles and prayer books APP
peared in purple vellum, which may still
be found in some Of the national libraries
of Europe. Plutarch speaks of some pur-
pie which kept its beauty for 1870 years.
But after awhile the purple became
easier to get, and that which had been a
sign of imperial authority when worn in
robes was adopted by many people, and
SO an emperor, jealous of this appropria-
ton of the purple, made law that any
one except royalty wearing purple should
be put to death.
Then, as if to punish the world fol
that outrage of exclusiveness, God OBJ
liberated the color from the earth, az
much as to say, IF all cannot have it.
none shall have it." But though Goo
has deprived the race of that shellfsl
which afforded the purple there ant
shells enough left to make us glad and
worshipful. Oh, the enhancement o.
hue and shape still left all up and dow
the beaches of all the continentsl Thest
creatures of the sea have what roofs o
enameled porcelain! They dwell undel
what pavilions blue as the sky and fer
as sunset and mysterious as an aurora
And am not right in leading you for
few moments through this mighty realm
of God SO neglected by human eye ant
human footstep2
1t is said that the harp and lutte wer
invented from the fact that in Egyp
the Nile overfowed its banks, and whel
the waters retreated tortoises were lief
by the million on all the lands, and thes
tortoises died, and soon nothing was lief
but the cartilages and gristle of thes
creatures, which frightened under tn
heat into musical strings that whel
touched by the wind or foot of man vi
brated, making sweet sounds, and SO tn
world took the hint and fashioned IT,
harp, and am not right in trying t.
ma. music out of the shells and liftinl
them as harp, from which to thrun
the jubilant praises of the Lord and tn
pathetic strains of human coincidence?
THE PEARL OF GREAT PRICE.
But find the climax of this conchol
ogy of the Bible In the pearl, which ha
this distinction above all other gems
that it requires no human hand to brin
out its beauties. Job speaks Of 1t, an