Herald and news. [volume] (West Randolph, Vt.) 1878-1943, 1893-10-19
BOTANY OF THE BIBLE.
Subject of Sermon by Rev. T.
Dewitt Talmage, D. D.
God in the Gardens of the sea-wonderful
Growth of Some OF the Water Plants
The Weeds Which Were Wrapped
About Jonahs Head.

practical Gospelization in The Gar
dens of the Sea-" The text selected
was Jonah 2:5 THE weeds wer,
wrapped about my head"
The botany of the Bible or Goo
among the flowers. is fascinating sub
ject. hold in my hand book. which
brought from Palestine, bound il
olive wood, and within it are pressed
flowers which have not only retained
their color but their aroma; flowers
from Bethlehem, flowers from Jerusa
lem, flowers from Gethsemane, flowers
from Mount of Olives, flowers from
Bethany, flowers from Sloan, flowers
from the Valley of Jehosaphat, red
anemones, and wild mignonette, but.
tercups, daisies, cyclamens, chamomile,
blue-bells, ferns, MOSES, grasses, and
a wealth of flora that keep me fasci.
mated by the hour, and every time
/ open it. it is new revelation. 1t is the
New Testament of the fields. But my
text leads us into another realm of the
botanical kingdom.
! Having spoken to you in course of
/ sermons about God everywhere; on the
\ @'SA oAtCAAAl Va lAlN i1Ablta VI AtOt AAAlOAE
the stars; the ornithology of the Bible,
or God among the birds; the ichthyol-
ogy of the Bible, or God among the
fishes; the mineralogy of the Bible, or
God among the amethysts; the conch-
| ology of the Bible, or God among the
shells; the chronology of the Bible, or
God among the centuries, ] speak now
to You about the botany of the Bible
or God in the gardens of the sea. Al
though | purposely take this morning
for consideration the least observed
and least appreciated of all the botani-
cal products of the world, we shall find
the contemplation very absorbing. In
all our theological seminaries, where
we make ministers, there ought to be
professors to give lessons in natural
history. Physical science ought to 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 a fresh
ening up it would be to our sermons to
press into them even a fragment of
Mediterranean sea weed. We should
have fewer sermons awfully dry If we
initiated our blessed Lord, and in our
discourses like Him, we would let
lily bloom, or crow fly, or a hen
brood her chickens, or "A crystal of salt
flash out the preservative qualities of
religion. The trouble is that in many
of our theological seminaries wen who
are SO dry themselves they never could
get people to come and hear them
preach, are now trying to teach young
men how to preach, and the student is
put between two great presses of dog
matte 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 gunwales of the
Mediterranean ship he sank many
fathoms down into tempestuous sea.
Both before and after the monster of
the deep swallowed him, he was en-
tangled in seaweed. The jungles of
the deep threw their cordage of vege-
tation around him. Some of this sea-
weed was anchored to the bottom of
the watery abysm and some of it was
afloat and swallowed by the great sea-
monster SO that. while the prophet
was at the bottom of the deep after he
was horribly imprisoned, and he could
eSclaim and did exelaim in the words
of my text: The weeds were wrapped
about my head. Jonah was the first
to record that there are growths upon
the bottom of the sea, as we'll as upon
land. The first picture ! ever owned
was handful of sea-weed pressed on
a page. and / called them THE Shorn
Locks of Neptune" These products of
the deep. whether brown or green: or
yellow or purple. or red or intershot of
many colors. are most fascinating |
They are distributed all over the !
depths, and from Arctic to Antarctic. |
That God thinks we'll of them | con-
clude from the fact that He has made |
six thousand species of them. Some |
times these water-plants are four hun
bred or seven hundred feet long, and |
they cable the sea. One specimen has |
a growth of fifteen hundred feet. On |
the northwest shore of our country is /
a 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 thiclest iungles of the
tropics are not more full of vegetation
than the depths of the sea. There are
forests down there and vast prairies all
abloom. and God walks there as he
walked in the Garden of Eden lin the
cool of the day" o, what entrance
nent. this sub-aqueous world o. the
God-given wonders of the sea weed Its
is palace of crystal. The
cradle that rocks it is the storm. Its
grave is sarcophagus of beryl and
sapphire. There IS no night down
there. There are creatures of God on
the bottom of the sea 50 constructed
that, strewn all along. they make a
ornament besprent with stars. con-
stellations and galaxies of imposing
.ustre. The seafeather is lamplight-
II. The gvmnotus is an electrician,