Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1893-10-06
REV. DR.. TALNAGE.
The Eminent Brooklyn Divine'S Sun.
day Sermon.
Subject: "The Gardens of the Sea-"

the Flowers " is q fascinating SUBJECT no!u
in my hand book which brought from
Palestine. bound in olive wood. and within
II are pressed flowers which have not only
retained thcir color, but their aroma. Flow
ers from Bethlehem. flowers from Jerusa"
lem. flowers from Gethsemane. flowers from
Mount OF Olives, flowers from Bethany, flow
ers from Sloan. flowers from the valley o. Je-
hoshaphat, red anemones and wild mlgno-
nette, buttercups, daisies, cyclamens, camo-
mile. blue0ells, ferns. MOSES, grasses anu q
wealth Of fora that keep me fascinated py
the hour, and every time open It Il ls a new
revelation. II is the New Testament OF the
fields. But my text leads us into another
realm OF the botanical kingdom.
Having spoken 10 you in a course OF SER
mons about GOD Everywhere on ''Ide
Astronomy Of the Bible; or. God Among rho
Stars !" "The Ornlthology OF the Bible or.
God Among the Birds :" THE Ichthyoloyy
OF the Bible; or. God Among the Fishes :;
1.-THE Mineralogy of the Bible ;or, God Among
the Amethvsts !" The COacholOgy OF tho
Bible; or, God Among the Shells :; 'Tae
Chronology OF the Bible or, God Among the
Centuries II speak now TO you about '.Ine
Botany Of the Bible; or, God in the Gardens
OF the Sea" Although purpOsely take this
morning for consideration the least observed
and least appreciated OF all the botanical
products OF the world. we shall find the con
temptation very absorbing.
In all our theological ssminaries where We
make ministers there ought TO be proiessors
10 give lessons in natural history. Physical
science ought 10 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 Scriptural world. What freshenng up
it would be to our sermons to press into
them even a fragment o. Mediterranean sea-
awiully dry il we initiated our blessed ord,
and in our discourse, like HIN, We would
let lily bloom, or a crow fly, or hen
brood her chickens, or crystal oil salt uash
out the preservatlve qualities Of religion.
The trouble is that in many Of our theo-
logical seminaries men who are so dry them
selves they never could get people TO come
AMI hear them preach are now trying 70
teach young men how to preach, and the
student is put between two great presses OF
dogmatie theology and squeezed until there
is no life left in him. Give the poor victim
at least one lesson on the botany OF the Bible.
That was an awful plunge that the recreant
prophet Jonah made when, dropped over the
gunvales OF the Mediterranean ship, he sank
many fathoms down into a tempestuous sea.
Both before and after iae monster OF the deep
swallowed him. he was entangled In seaTeed.
The iungles OF the deep threw their cordage
OF vegetation around him. Some ofthls sea-
weed was anchored 10 the bottom Of the
watery abysm. and some OF II was aiioSt ana
swallowed by the great sea monster, so that,
while the prophet was at the bottom OF the
deep alter he was horribly imprisoned he
could exclaim and did exclaim in the words
OF nv text, The weeds were wrapped about
my head"
Joanah was the first to record that there
are growths upon the bottom OF the sea as
well as upOn land. The first picture ever
owned was handful OF ssawceds pressed on
n page. AMI called them 1.-The saOrn lccks
OF Neptune" These products OF the deep,
whether brown or green or yellow or pur-
PIE or red or intershot OF many co'ors, are
most fascinating. They are distributed all
over the depths and from Arctic TO Antarctic.
That God thinks we'll OF them l conclude
from the fact that he has made 5000 species
Of them. Sometimes these water plants
are 400 or zoo feet long, aud they cable
the sea. One specimen has growth OF
1900 feet.
On the northwest shore OF our country Isl
seaweed with leaves thirty or forty feet long,
amid which the sea otter makes his home.
resting himself on the buOyancy OF the leaf
and stem. The thickest jungles OF the trOp-
les are not more full Of vegetation than the
depths OF the sea. There are forests down
walks there as he walked in the Garden OF
Eden lin the cool Of the day Oh. what
enhancement. this subaqueOus world Oh,
the God given wonders of the seaweed It's
birthplace is palace OF crystal The cradle
that rocks it is the storm. It's grave IS Sar-
eophagus Of beryl and sapphire. There is
no night down there.
There are creatures OF God on the bottom
OF the sea so constructed that strewn all
along. they make a armament besprent with
stars. consultations and galaxies Of impos-
ing luster. The sea ieatheris lamplignter.
The gymnotus is an electrician, and he IS
surchargcd with electricity and makes the
deep bright with the lightning OF the sea.
The gorgonia flashes like jewels. There are
sea anenones ablaze with light. There are
the starfsh ana the moonish. so called be-
causethey so powerfully suggest stellar and
lunar illumination.
Oh. these midnight lanterns OF the ocean
cayerns these professions OF flame over the
white floor OF the deep these illumlnations
three miles down under the sea these
gorceously upholstered castles Of the Al
mighty in the underworld The author OF
the text felt the pull Of the hidden vegetation
OF the Mediterranean. whether or not he ap-
preciated its beauty, as he cried out, 'Ine
weeds were wrapped about my head.
Let my subject cheer all those who had
friends who have been buried at sea or In
our great American lakes. Which oil us
brought up on the Atlantic coast has not had
kindred OF friend thus sepulchered? We mad
the useless horror of thinking that they were
denied proper resting place. Wesaid: ''Ob,
~ thew had lived 10 come ashore and had
then expired What an alienation OF our
trouble it would have been 10 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 more elaborate and adorned place than
We could have afforded them they were put
away for the las. slumber. Hear it, mothers
and fathers OF sailor boys whose ship went
down in our last August hurricane There
are no Greenwoods or Laurel Hills or Mount
Auburns so beautiful on the land as there are
banked and terraced and scoOped and hung
in the depths OF the sea. The bodies OF our
foundered and sunken friends are girdled
and canopied and housed with such glorieS
as attend no other Metropolis.
They were swamped ia liieboats, or they
struck on Goodwin sands or Deal beach OF
the Skerries, and were never heard Of, ordis'
appeared with the City Of Boston. orthe FiOlt
de Havre. or the Cymbria or were run down
in a fishing smack that put out from New
foundland. But dismiss your previous gloom
about the horrors Of ocean entOmbment.
When Sebastopol was besieget in the
Anglo-Freneh war, Prince Mentchikoi, CON
nanding the Russian navy, saw that tbs
only way to keep the English out of the har-
Dor was 10 sink all the Russian ships OF war
In the roadstead. and 30 100 vessels sank.
When. after the war was over, our American
engineer. Gowan, descended TO the depths
in = diving bell, il was an impressive spec
tar,e.
one hundred buried ships But II Is that
way nsariy all across the Atlantic Ocean.
Ships sunk not by cOmmani Of sdmirals,
but by the command Of cyclones
But thew al had sublime burial. and the sur.
roundings amid which they sleep the last
s.eep are more imposing than the Tai Mahai.
the mausolsum with walls incrustet with
precious stones and built 5y the great mOgul
of India over bis empress. Your departed
ones were buried in the gardens OF the sea,
fenced OF By hedges o. coralline.
The greatest obsequies ever known on the
land were those OF Moses. where no one but
Col was present. The sublime report OF that
entonbnent is in the book OF Deuteronomy,
which says that the Lord buried him, and oil
those who have gone down TO siumber IN the
deep the same may be said, ''rhe Lord buried
them As Christ was buried in a garden. 50
your shipwrecked friends AMI those wac
could not survive till they reached port were