Connecticut western news., 1893-02-23
BIBLE CONCHOLOGY.
DR. TALMAGE CONTINUES HIS SER
 MONS ON GOD IN NATURE.


 DR. TALMAGE CONTINUES HIS SER
 MONS ON GOD IN NATURE.
 Sweet Spices. Stacte and Onycha"-Won-
 derful Force and Variety of the Bibles
 Imagery From Nature-How the Divine
 uare h shown In the Oceans Shells.
 BRooKLYN, Feb. 19.-In the Tabernacle this forenoon Rev. Dr. Talmage contin- ued his course of sermons on God every where. His subject was the "Conchology of the Bible; or, God Among the Shells,' 2 the text being taken from Exodus, 80th chapter, 84th verse, "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 con- Gder and employ them as he called Moses to consider and employ them. The onycha of my text is 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, onycha 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, and as true as the first chapter of Genesis and the last chapter of Revelation or everything between.
 Not only is this shell, the sonycha, found at the Red Sea, but in the waters of India. It not only delectates the eye with its convolutions of beauty, white and lustrous and serrated, but blesses the nostril with pungent aroma. This AsIlfsh, accustomed to feed on spike plant-redolent when alive and redolent when dead. Its shells when burned be- witch the air with fragrance.
 In my text God commands Moses to mix this onchya with the perfumes of the altar in the ancient tabernacle, and propose to mix some of its perfumes at the altar of Brooklyn Tabernacle, for, having spoken to you on the Astronomy of the Bible; or, God Among the Stars;" the Chronology of the Bible; or, God Among the Centuries" the "Ornithology of the Bible; or, God Among the Birds; the "Mineralogy of the Bible; or, God Among the Amethysts;" the "Ichthyolo- gy of the Bible; or, God Among the Fishes," I now come to speak of the "Conchology of the Bible; or, God Among the Shells"
 RICHES OF THE OCEAN.
 It is . secret that you may keep for ma. for have never before told it to any one, that in all the realms of the natural world there is nothing to me SO fascinat ing, so completely absorbing, so full of suggestiveness, as a shell. What? More entertaining than bird, which can sing, when 8 shell cannot sing? We'll, there you have made great mistake. Pick up the onycha from the banks of the Red sea or pick up bivalve from the beach of the Atlantic ocean and listen, and you hear 8 whole choir of marine voices bass, alto,a soprano-in an unknown tongue, but seeming to chant, as put them to my ear, 'The sea is his, and he made it," others singing, "Thy way, O God, is in the sea-" others hymning, "He ruleth the raging of the sea-"
 'sWhat," says some one else, "does the Ahell impress you more than the star?' In some respects, yes, because can han de the shell and closely study the shell, while I cannot handle the star, and if I study it must study it at distance of millions and millions of miles.
 "What," says some one else, "are you more impressed by the shell than the Aower2" Yes. for it has far greater va rieties and far greater richness of color, az could show you in thousands of specimens, and because the shell does not fade, as does the rose leaf, but maintains it's beauty century after century, so that the onycha which the hoof of pharaoh's, horse knocked aside in the chase of the Israelites across the Red sea may have kept it's luster to this hour. Yes, they are SO particolored and many colored that you might pile them up until you would have 8 wall wi tn all the colors of the wall of heaven, from the jasper at the bottom to the amethyst at the top.
 Oh, the shellsl The petrified foam of the seq. Oh, the shellsl The hardened bubbles of the deep. Oh, the shells, ocean to the feet of the continents. How the shells are ribbed, grooved, cylin- dered, mottled, iridescentl They were used as coin by some of the nations. They were fastened in belts by others, and made in handles of wooden imple- ments by still others. Mollusks 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 Israeltes marched out of Egypt 2,O0O, GOO strong, besides focks and herds. The Bible says ''the people took their dough before it was leavened, their heading 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 themselves any Nctuals." Just think of itl Forty years in the wilderness. In- fidelity triumphantly asks, How could they live 40 years in the wilderness with out food? You say mamma fell. Oh, that was after long while. They would have starved 30 tinaes before the mama fell. The fact is, they were chiefly kept alive by the mollusks of the land or shelled creatures. MT. Fronton and MT. Sicard took the same route from Egypt toward Canaan that the Israelites took, and they give this as their testimony:
 IsRAELs ROUTE TO CANAAN
 Although the children of Israel must have consisted of about 2,000 900 souls, with baggage and innumerable flocks and herds, they were not likely to ex- perience 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. It soon afterward expands to above three leagues in width. With respect to forage they would be at no loss. The ground is GOV cred with tamarisk, broom, clover and saint foin, of which latter especially camels are passionately fond, besides al-