Capital journal. (Salem, Or.) 1893-1895, 1893-10-07
GARDENS OF THE SEA.
REV. DR.. TALMAGE ON THE BOTANY
OF THE BIBLE.

BROOKLYN, Oct. lin his sermon this
forenoon in the Brooklyn Tabernacle, as
in many other discourses, Rev. T. De
Witt Talmage took his hearers and read
ers through an untried region of thought
and found a subject for most practical
gospelization in 'The Gardens of the
Sea-" The text selected was Jonah ii,
5, THE weeds were wrapped about my
head"
"The Botany of the Bible; or, God
Among the Flowers" is fascinating sub
iect. hold in my hands book which
brought from Palestine, bound in olive
wood, and within it are pressed flowers
which have not only retained their color,
butstheir aroma. Flowers from Bethle-
hem, flowers from Jerusalem, flowers
from Gethsemane, flowers from Mount
of Olives, flowers from Bethany, flowers
from Sloan, flowers from the valley of
Jehoshaphat, red anemones and wild
mignonette, buttercups, daisies, cycla-
mems, camomile, bluebells, ferns, moss
es, grasses and wealth of fora that
keep me fascinated by the hour and
every time l open it it is new revela-
ton. 1t is the New Testament of the
fields. But my text leads us into an.
other realm of the botanical kingdom.
Having spoken to you in a course of
sermons about "God Everywhere"
"The Astronomy of the Bible; or, God
Among the Stars" "The Ornithology of
the Bible; or, God Among the Birds"
1.-THE Ichthyology of the Bible; or, God
Among the Fishes' 1.-The Mineralogy
of the Bible; or, God Among the Anne
thysts;" "The Conchology of the Bible;
or, God Among the Shells" "rhe Chro-
nology of the Bible; or, God Among the
Centuries"-I speak now to you about
1.-The Botany of the Bible; or, God In
the Gardens of the Sea-" Although l
purposely take this morning for consid-
Grafton the least observed and least ap-
preciated of all the botanical products OF
the world, we shall find the contempla-
ton very absorbing.
In all our theological seminaries where
we make ministers there ought to be
professors to give lessons in natural his
tory. Physical science oughtto be taught
side by side with revelation, 1t is the
same God who inspires the page of the
natural world as the page of the Scrip
tural world. What d freshening up il
would be to our sermons to press into
them even fragment of Mediterranean
seaweed! We should have fewer ser
mons awfully dry if we initiated oul
blessed Lord, and in our discourse, llk'
him, we would let a lily bloom, or croV
fiy, or a hen brood her chickens, or
crystal of salt flash out the preservatlv
qualities Of religion.
The trouble is that in many OF ou
theological seminaries men who are
dry themselves they never could ge
people to come and hear them preac
are now trying to teach young men nov
to preach, and the student isput betwee
two great presses of dogmatic theolog
and squeezed until there is no life lei
in him. Give the poor victim at leas
one lesson on the botany of the Bible.
WONDERS OF THE DEEP.
That was an awful plunge that the re-
reant prophet Jonah made whel
dropped over the gunwales of the Med
terranean ship, he sank many fathon
down into tempestuous sea. Both D
fore and after the monster of the dee
swallowed him, he was entangled In Sc
weed. The jungles of the deep thre
their cordage of vegetation around MI
Some of this seaweed was anchored
the bottom of the watery abysm, al
some of it was afoat and swallowed
the great sea monstersso that, whlle u
prophet was st the bottom OF the de,
after he was horribly imprisoned
could exclaim and did exclalm III q
words of my text, 1.-The weeds we
wrapped about my head.
Jonah was the first TO record that the
are growths upon the bottom OF the s
as we'll as upos land The first pictu
ever owned was handful OF sea"ee
pressed on page, and / called the
s'the shorn locks of Neptune" Inc
products of the deep, whether brown
green or yellow or purple or red OF mt
shot of many colOrs, are most fasclh
ing. They are distributed all over
denths and from Arctic to Antarcl
That God thinks well of them l conclu
from the fact that he has made o.
snecies of them. Sometimes these wa
plants are 400 or 700 feet long, and II
cable the sea. One specimen has
growth of / 800 feet.
On the northwest shore of our count
is a seaweed with leaves 80 or 40 +
long. amid which the sea otter NAL
his home, resting himself on the bu'
% ancy of the leaf and stem. The thick
iungles of the tropics are not more
Of vegetation than the depths OF the s.
There are forests down there and VI
nrairies all abloom, and God walks th'
as he walked in the Garden OF Eden
tbe cool of the day" Oh, what entran
ment. this subaqueous worldl On
God giyen wonders Of the seaweedl
birthplace is palace of crystal l
cradle that rocks it is the storm:
oraye is a sarcophagus of beryl ana .
1bire. There is no night down there'
There are creatures of God on the
tom of the sea so constructed that sure
all along, they make a armament
sprent with stars, consultations