Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1893-02-23

| to think that God isa God of cold geometry
and iron laws and eternal apathy and en-
throned stoiclsm. MOI mol The shells,
with empowering emphasis, deny it.
| While law and order reign in the universe,
| you have but to see the lavishness of color
on the crustacea, all shades OF crimson from
faintest blush to blood of battlefield all
shades of blue, all shades of green, all
shades of all colors from deepest black to
whtest light, just called out on the shells
with no more order than II mother pre-
mcdtates or calculates how many kisses
| snd hugs she shall give her babe waking
tip 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, aud here is
a carol for the robin. and a psalm for man,
and a doXology fpr the seraphim, and n res
direction call for the archangcl" Aye, he
| showed himself God of sublime emotion
when he flung himself on this world i'll the
| ersOnality of Christ to save it without re-
| Iul to The tears il would take, or the blood
would exhaust, or the agonies it would
'.h out
When | see the Louvres, and the Luxcm-
"t9y~, and the Natcans of Divine paint
~ etrewn along the 5000 miles of coast,
! lat ! hear in n forest on a summer morn
| ~ musical academies and Dandels sOci-
rtlCs Of full orchcstras say God is II God
OF emotion, and if he observes mathemat-
| ic' 1t Is mathematics set to music, and his
figures are written not in white chalk on
blackboards but written by finger of sun
light on walls of jasmine and trumpet
creeper.
THE SWEETNESS OF RELIGION.
In my study of the conchology of the
Bible, this onycha of thc text also impresscs
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 onycha" Moses took
that shell of the onycha, put it over the
fire, and as it crumbled into ashes it cx-
hailed an Udor that hung in every curtain
and filled the ancient tabernacle, and its
sweet smoke escaped from the sacred pre-
CnCts and saturated the outside air
Perfume! That is what religion is. But
instead of that some make it u malodor.
They serve God IN Il rough and acerb way.
They box their child's ears because he does
not properly keep sunday, instead of max
ing Sunday so attractive the child could
not help but keep it. They make him learn
b. heart difficult chapter in the book O.
Exodus, with all the hard names because
be has been naughty How many disagree
able good people there arel No one doubts
their piety, and they will reach heaven, but
they will have to get fixed up before they
60 there, or they will make trouble by call
ngout to us; Keep off that grass' "What
do you mean by plucking that foweri"
SHOW your tickets"
Oh, how many Christian people need to
obey my text and take into their worship
and their behavior and their considerations
and prcshytorics and general assemblies
and conferences more onychal have some
times gone in IL very gala of spirit into the
presence of some dsagrecable Christians
and in five minutes felt wretchcd, and at
some other time have gone depressed into
the company of suaye and genial souls, and
in ii few moments felt exhilarant. v hat
was the difference? 1t was the difference
in what they burned in their censers The
one burned onycha; the other burned ASA
ietlda.
ANCIENT SKILL AND GODS DESIGNS.
In this Genealogical study of the Bible
also notice that the mollusks or shcllcd
animals furnish the purple that you see
richly darkening so many Scripture chap
tcrs. The purple stuff in the ancient taber-
uacle, the purple girdlc of the priests the
purple mantle of Roman emperors, the APP
parel of Dives in purple and fine lncn-aye,
the purple robe which in mockery was
thrown upon Christ-were colored 10y the
purple of the shells on the shores of the
Mediterranean. 1t was discovered by a
shepherds dog having stained his mouth
by breaking one of the shells, and the pur
pie aroused admiration.
Costly purple! Six pounds of the purple
liquor extracted from the shellhsnos were
used to prepare one pound of WOOL Purple
was also used on the pages of books. Bibles
pN-frh .g kG ptslII in ,lN .l
lum, which may still be found in some Of
the national libraries of Europe. plutarch
speaks of some purple which keptits beauty
for 100 years. But after awhile the purple
became easier to get, and that which had
been IA sign of imperial authority when
worn IN robes was adopted by many peo-
pie and 50 an emperor, jealous Of this ap-
preparation of the purple, made a law that
, any one except royalty wearing purple
should be put to death.
, Then, as if to punish the world for that
outrage of cXclusiveness, God obliteratrd
the color from the earth, az mucl rs to say,
IF all cannot have it, none shall have ii. '
, But, though God has deprived the race of
that shelltisi' which afforded the purple,
there are shells enough left to make us glad
, and worshptul. On, the enhancement of
hue and shape still left all up and down the
, lures of the sea have what roofs of euam-
eed porcelain! They dwell under what
pavilions, blue as the sky and fiery as n
sunset and mysterious as an aurora! And
am | not right in leading you for a few
moments through this mighty realm of
God SO neglected by human eye and human
tootstep?
IL is said that the harp and lutte were in
f vented from the fact that in Egypt the
Nile Overtlowed its banks, and when the
waters retreated tortoises were left by The
million on all the lands, and these tortoises
died, and soon nothing was left but the car
tiages and grStle of these creatures, which
frightened under the heat into musical
strings that when touched by the wind or
r the foot of man vbrated, making sweet
: sounds and so the world took the hint and
| fashioned the harp. And am not right in
. trying to make music out of the shells and
lifting them as a harp from which to thrum
, the jubiant praises of the Lord and the pa
thctlc strains of human coincidence?
= IL