The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1893-10-18

shores of Key West, and Professors Emerson
and Gray finding them along Boston harbor,
and Professor Gibbs gathering them from
Charleston harbor, and for all the other
triumphs OF algology, or the science OF sea-
weed.
Why conflne ourselves to the old and hack
neyed illustrations OF the wonder workings
OF God, when there are at least five great
seas full OF illustrations as yet not marshaled,
every root and frond and cell and color and
movement and habit Of oceanic vegetation
crying out "God God! He made US. He
clothed u.s. He adorned us. He was the
God of our ancestors clear back to the first
sea growth, when God divided the waters
which were above the armament from the
waters which were under the flrmamset and
shall be the God OF our descendants clear
down to the day when the seq shall give up
It's dead. We have heard His command. and
we have obeyed, PRAISE the Lord, dragons
and all deeps.'"
There is great comfort that rolls over
upon US from this study Of the so-called sea-
weed, and that is the demonstrated doctrine
OF particular providence. When I find
that the Lord provides in the so-called sea-
weed the pasturage for the thronged marine
world. so that not q f1n or scale In all that
oceanic aquarium suffers need, conclude He
will feed us, and II He suits the alga to the
animal life of the deep he will provide the
food for our physical and spiritual needs.
And II he clothes the flowers OF the deep
with richness OF robe that looks bright as
fallen rainbows by day, and at night makes
the underworld look as though the sea were
on fire, surely He will clothe you, 20 ye of
little faith p
And what fills me with unspeakable de-
light Is that this God OF depths and heights,
of ocean and Of continent, may, through
Jesus Christ, the divlnely appointed means,
be yours and mine, to help, to cheer, to
pardon, to save, to imparadise; What
matters who In earth or hell Is against us II
He is for us2 Omnipotence to defend Us,
omnipresence to companion US and infinite
love to entold and uplift and enrapture us.
And when God does small things 80 we'll,
seemingly taking as much care with the coil
Of seaweed as the outbranohing Of a
Lebanon cedar, and with the color OF veg
etable growth which Is hidden fathoms out
OF sight as He does with the solferino and
purple of summer sunset, we will be deter
mined to do we'll all we arc called to do,
though no one see or appreciate US. Mighty
God! Roll in upon our admiration and holy
appreciation more of the wonders Of this
submarine world. My Joy Is that after We
are quit Of all earthly hindrances we may
come back to this world and explore what
we cannot now fully investigate.
If we shall have power to soar into the at-
mospheric without fatigue think VIC shall
have power to dive into the aqueous without
peril. and that the pictured and tessellated
sea floor will be as accessible as now Is tothe
traveller the floor Of the Alhambra, and all
the gardens of the deep will then swing
open to us their gates as now to the tourist
Cnatsworth opens on public days Its cascades
and statuary and conservatories for our en-
trance. "1t doth not yet appear what we
shall be-" You cannot make me believe that
God hath spread out all that garniture OF
the deep merely for the polyps and crustacea
to look at.
And il the unintelligent creatures of the
Mediterranean and the Atlantic ocean He sur
rounds with such beautiful grasses OF the
deep, what a heaven We may expect for our
uplffted and ransomed souls whenwe are
unclaimed Of the flesh and rise to realms
beatific! OF the fora Of that ''sea OF glass
mingled with fire." have no power to speak,
but 7 shall always be glad that, when the
prophet OF the text, flung over tho gunwales
Of the Mediterranean ship, descended into
the boiling sea, that which he supposed to be
weeds wrapped about his head were not
weeds, but flowers.
And am I not right in this glance OF the
botany Of the Bible In adding to Lukes mint,
antse and crmin, ard Matthews tares, and
Johns vine, and Solomons cluster OF cam
phire, and Jeremiah's balm, and Jobs bull
rush, and Isaiah's terebinth, and Hosea's
thistle, and Ezekiel's cedar, and "the hyssop
that springsth out Of the wall" and the
aross Of Sharon and lily Of the valley" and
the frankincense and myrrh and cGssla
which the astrolosers brought to the man
ger at least one stalk OF the alaga OF the
Mediterranean.
And now 7 make the marine doxology o
novid my nprorati0n f0r II wag wrfttan
about forty or fifty miles from the place
where the scene of the text was enactedi
1.-THE sea Is His, and He made 1t, and His
hands formed the dry land. Oh, come, let
us worship and bow down let us kneel be-
fore the Lord, our Maker. For BE is our
God, and we are the people Of His pasture"
Amen.