The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1893-02-20
GOD AMONG THE SHELLS.
TALMAGR PRBACHES ON THE
SHELLS OF THE BIBLE.

Beauty ana CONSTRUCTION.
BROOKLYN, Feb. l0.-In the tabernacls
this forenoon Rev. DIR. Talmsge continued
his course Of sermons on God Every.
whore" his subject was: 1.-THE ConchoIs
ogy Of the Bible, or God Among the Shells"
the text being taken from Exodus xxx, 34t
"And the Lord said unto Moses, take unto
thee sweet spices, stacte and onycha."
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 be called Moses 20 consider
and employ them. The onyoha of my texu
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, oDycha on the beach
and onYcha in the unfolded bed Of the deep.
/ shall speak OF this shell as a beautiful and
practical revelation of God, aud as true as
the first chapter of Genesis and the last
chapter Of Revelation OF everything be-
tween. Not only is this shell, the onycha,
found at the Red sea, but In the waters Of
India. 1t not only delectates the eye
with Its convolutions OF beauty, white
and lustrous and seTiated bus
besses the nostril with a pungent
aroma. This shell fish, accustomed to feed
on spikenard, is redolent with that odorous
when dead. Its shells, when burnt. bewitch
the air with fragrance. In my text God
commands Moses TO mix this onycba with
the perfumes Of the altar In the ancient
tabernacle. and propose to mix some Of It's
perfumes at the altar OF Brooklyn Taber-
naole, for having spoken to you on the AS
tronomy of the Bible or God among the
SarE, the Chronology of the Bible or God
among the Centuries. the Orni biology OF the
Bible or God among the Birds. the Mineral
ogy OF the Bible or God among she Ame-
thysts. the Ichthyology OF the Bible or God
among the Fishes, | now come TO speak Of
the Conchology Of the Bible or God among
the Shells
1t is a secret thvt you may keep for me.
for have never before told it 90 any one,
that In all the realms Of the natural world,
there is nothing 20 me so fascinating, so
completely absorbing, so full of suggest
iveness, as a she'll. WHAT More enter
taing than bird, which can sing, when a
shell cannot sinE4 Well, there you have
made great mistake, Pick up the onyeha
from the banks Of the Red Sea or pick up
blYalve from the beach OF the Atlantic
ocean, and listen, and you bear whole
choir Of marine voices-bass alto, soprano,
In an unknown tongue, but seeming to
chant, 0s / put them 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 or the sea.n "What,"
says some one else "does the shell impress
you more' than the stars In some respects
yes, because can handle the shell and closely
study the shell. while l cannot handle the
star, and IL l study it, must study It at q
distance Of millions and millions of miles.
What" says some one else, ''are you more
impressed by the shell than the fiowerp
Yes, for it has fer greater varieties and far
greater richness OF color, as / could show
n thnnaanna ~ an ~ ~.
cause the shell does not pale. as does the
rose leaf, but maintains it beauty century
after century, So that the onycha which the
hOof of Pharaoh's horse knocked aside la
the chase OF the Israelites across the Red
sea may have kept its luster to this hour.
Yes. they are 90 parti-colored and many
coored that you might pile them up until
you would have a wall with all the oolors OF
the wall OF heaven, from the jasper at the
bottom, to the amethyst at the top.
., the shells The petrified foam of the
sea. o, the shells The hardened bubbles
Of the deep. o, the shells which are the
diadems thrown by the ocean TO the feet Of
grooved, cylindered, mottled, irtdescent
They were used as coin by some of the ma
tons. They we're fastened In belts by
others, and made in handles Of wooden inns
plements by still others. MolluskB not only
OF the sea but mollusks 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 hooks and herds. The
Bible says "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 them
AL wysak Ia Ts.ae .s.Es - IA
Forty years in the wilderness. Infdelity
triumphantly asks. how could they live
forty years In the wilderness without foodi
You say mama fell. o, that was after q
long while. They would have starved long
before the mama fell. The fact is they
we're chiefly kept alive by the mollusks Of
the land or shelled creatures Mr.. Fronton
and Mr. Sicard took the same route from
Egypt toward Canaan that the Israalites
took, and they give this as their testimony:
Although the children OF Israel must
have consisted or about two million Of souls.
with baggage ana innumerable focks and
herds, they were not likely to experience
any inconvenience in their march. Several
thousand persons might walk abreast with
the greatest ease in the very narrowest part
of the valley IN which they first began to file
off. 1t soon afterward expands 20 above
three leagues in width. With respect TO
forage, they would be at no loss. The
ground Is covered with tamarlck, broom,
clover and Saint Foin, of which latter es-
peclallY camels are pessionately
fond, besides almost every va
rIety Of odoriferous plant and
herb proper for pasturage. The whole sides
OF the valley through which the children Of
Israel marched are still tufted with brush-
wood, which doubtless afforded food for
their beasts, together With many drier sorts
for lighting fire, on which the Israeites
could, with the greatest ease, bake the
dough they brought with them on small
iron plates which form a constant append-
age to the baggage of an oriental travaler.
Lastly, the herbage underneath these trees
and shrubs Is completely covered with snails
of q prodigious size and of the best sort, and
however uninviting such a repast might
appear to us they are here esteemed a great
delicacy. They are so plentiful in this val
ley that 1t may be literally said that it is
difficult to take one step without treading
on them.n
So the shelled creatures saved the host Of
Israelites on the march 10 the promised
land, and the attack OF infidelity at this
point is defeated by the facts, as infdellty
is always defeated by facts since it is
founded on ignorance. In writing and
printing, our Interrogation point has at the
bottom mark like period and over it a
flourish like the swing of a teamster's whip,
and we put this Interrogation poiut at the
end of question; but in the Spanish lan-
guage, the Interrogation point is twice