Democratic messenger., 1893-10-07

world, The author of the text felt the
pull of the hidden vegetation of She
Mediterranean, whether or not he ap-
prcciatcd its beauty, rs he cried ont,
The weeds were wrapped about my
head"
Let my subject cheer all those who
had friends who have been buried Mt sea
or in our great American lakes. Which
of MS brought up on the Atlantic coast
has not had kindred or friend thus sep.
ulchered? We had the useless horror OF
thinking that they were denied proper
resting place. We said: "Oh. if they had
lived TO come ashore and had then ex.
pired! What an alienation of our trouble
it would have been TO put them in some
beautiful family plot, where we could
have planted flowers and trees over
them." Why. God did better for them
than we could have done for them. They
were let down into beautiful gardens.
Before they had reached the bottom they
had garlands about their brow.
In moro elaborate and adorned place
than we could have afforded them they
were put away for the last slumber
Hear it. mothers and fathers of sailor
BOYS whose ship went down in our last
August hurricane! There are no Greeh.
woods or Laurel Hills or Mount Auburns
so beautiful on the land rs there arc
banked and terraced and scoopcd and
hung in the depths of the sea. The bod
les of our foundcred and sunken friends
are gir,lled and canopied and housed
with such glorics rs attend no other
Metropolis.
They were swamped in lifeboats. OF
they struck on Goodwin sands or Deal
beach or the Skerries. and were never
heard of. or disappeared with the City OF
Boston. or the Vile de Havre. or the
Cymbria or were run down in a fishing
smack that put out from Newfoundland.
But dismiss your previous gloom about
the horrors of ocean entombmcnt.
THE MISTAKES OF JONAH.
When Sevastopol was besieged in the
Anglo Frcrch war, Prince Mentchikof,
commanding the Russian navy. saw that
the only way TO keep the English ont of
the harbcr was TO sink all of the Russian
ships of war i'll the roadstead, and SO 100
vessels sank. When, after the war was
over. our American engineer. Gowan. de.
scended to the depths III n diving bell, il
was an impressive spectacle.
One hundred buried ships. But it is
that way nearly all across the Atlantic
ocean. Ships sunk not by command Of
almirals. bat ly the command of cy'
clones. But they all had sublime
burial, and the surroundings amid
which they sleep the last sleep are more
irnposin. than the Tai Mahal. the mai.
soleum with walls incrusted with pre-
cious stones and built by the great mo.
gul of India over his empress. Your
departed ones were buried in the gar,
dcns Of the sea, fenced off by hedges Of
corallinc.
The greatest obsequies ever known on
the land were those of Moses, where no
ore but God was present. The sublime
report of that entombment is i'll the
book of Deuteronomy. which says that
the Lord buried him. and of those who
have gone down TO slumber in the deep
the same may he said, The Lord buried
them" As Christ was buried i'll Il gar.
den. so your shipwrecked friends and
those who could not survive till they
reached port were put down amid iri.
descence-''1n the midst of the garden
there was sepulcher."
1t has always been n mystery what was
the particular mode by which George G..
Cookman. the pulpit orator of the Meth
odist church and the chaplain of the
American congress. left this life after
embarkinS for England on the steamship
President. March II. 1871. The ship
never arrived in port. No one ever
signaled her. and on both sides of the
ocean it has fo- 30 years been questioned
what became of her But this know
about Cookman-that whether it was
iceberg or confiagration midsca or col
lision he had more garlands on his ocean
tomb than if. expiring on land, each cf
his million friends had put n bouquet
on his caslet In the midst of tho garden
was his scpulchcr.
But that brings me to notice the mis-.
nomer in this Jonahitic expression of
the text. The prophet not only made a
mistake by trying to go to Tarshish
when God told him TO go TO Nineveh,
but he made mistake when he styled
as weeds these growths that cnwrapped
him on the day he sank. A weed is
something that is useless. 1t is some
thing you throw ont from the garden.
II is something that chokes the wheat.
1t is something to he grubbed ont from
among the cotton. 1t is something un-
slightly to the eye. 1t is an invader of
the vegetable or floral world.
But this growth that sprang up from
the depth of the Mediterranean or
fioated on its surface was among the
most beautiful things that God ever
makes. 1t was water plant known as
the red colored alga and no weed at all.
1t comes from the loom of infinite
beauty. 1t is planted by heavenly love.
Il is the star of sunken armament. II
is lamp which the Lord kindlcd. 1t is
cord bv which to bind whole shcaves
of practical suggestion. 1t is Il poem all
whose can;cs are rung by divine good.
ness Yet we all make the mistake that
Jonah made in regard to it and call it n
weed
THE weeds were wrapped about my
head" .ih. that is the trouble on the
land rs ON the sea! We call those weeds
that are flowers. Pitched up ON tho
beach Of society are children without
home. without opportunity for anything
but sin, seemingly without Col. They
are washed mp helpless. They are called
ragamuiiins. They are spoken of rs the
rakings of the world. They are waits.
They are street arabs. They are fio;sam
and ietsam of the social sea. They are
something 10 be left alone. or something
to be trod on. or something to give NJ
to decay. Nothing but weeds. They
are up the rickcty stairs of that garret.
They are down in the cellar of that tene'
mc:It sous-. They swelicr in summers
when they see not one blade of green
grass. and shvcr in winters that allow
them not one warm coat or shawl OF
shoe.
Such the city missionary found i'll one