The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1893-10-13
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
Gods Wonderful Works In the
Gardens Of the Sea-
Jon7h's "Weeds- Were Glorious Flowers
The Forests OF the Ocean-The Burial
Places OF Those who Are
Lost at Sea-

Rev. T. Dewitt Talmage took for the
subject of a recent sermon: 'The Gar
dens of the Sea- basing it on the text
The weeds were wrapped about my head
Jonah fl. S.
The botany of the Bible, or God
among the flowers, is fascinating sub
ject- ] hold in my hand book, which
] brought from Palestine, bound In
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 Jehoshaphat, but
tercups, daisies, cyclamens, chamo-
mile, blue bells, ferns, MOSES, grasses
and a wealth of flora that keep me fas-
cinated by the hour. and every time
open it is a 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 a course of
sermons about God everywhere-on the
astronomy of the Bible, or God among
the stars; the ORTHODOXY of the Bible,
or God among the birds; the ichthy-
ology of the Bible, or God among the
fishes; the mineralogy of the Bible, or
God among the amethysts; the con-
chology 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 botan-
ical 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
freshening up it would be to our SER
mons to press into them even a frag-
ment 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 crys-
tai of salt flash out the preventative
qualities of religion. The trouble is
that in many of our theological semi
naries men 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 dogmatic 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 Medi-
terranen ship, he sank many fathoms
down into a tempestuous sea- Both
before and after the monster of the
deep swallowed him, he was entangled
in seaweed. The jungles of the deep
threw their cordage of vegetation
around him. Some of this seaweed
was anchored to the bottom of the
watery abysm and some of it was afioat
and swallowed by the great sea mon
ster, so that, while the prophet was at
the bottom of the deep after he was
horribly imprisoned, and he could ex-
claim and did exclaim in the words of
my text: 1.-The weeds were wrapped
about my head" Jonah was the first
to record that there are growths
upon the bottom of the sea, as
well as upon land. The first pic
ture / ever owned was a handful
of seaweed pressed on a page, and
called them 1.-THE Shorn Locks of Nep-
tune" These products of the deep,
whether brown or green or yellow or
pulple or red or intershot of many col
ors, are most fascinating. They are
distributed all over the depths and
from Arctic TO Antarctic. That God
thinks well of them / conclude from
the fact that He has made six thousand
species of them. Sometimes these
wa ter-plants are four hundred to seven
hundred feet long, and they cable the
sea- One specimen has a growth of
fifteen hundred feet. On the north
west shore of our country is 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 tropics are not more
full of vegetation than the depths of
the sea. There are forests down
there and vast prairies all
abloom, and Cod walks there as
He walked in the Garden of Eden sin
the cool of the day." Oh, what en-
this sub-aqueous world
Oh, the God-given wonders of the sea-
weedl Its birthplace is palace of
crystal The cradle that rocks it is
the STORM Its grave is sarcophagus
of beryl and sapphirel There is no
night down there. There are creatures
of God on the bottom of the sea so con-
structed that, strewn along, they make
a armament besprent with stars, con-
stellations and galaxies of imposing
luster. The sea-feather is lamp
lighter. The gymnotus is an cleo
trician, and he is surcharged with cleo
tricity and makes the deep bright
with the lightning of the sea. The
gorgona flashes like jewels There are
sea anemones ablaze with light There
Is the star fish and the moon fish, so
called because they so powerfully sug-
yest stellar and lunar illumination.
Oh? these midnight lanterns of the
pecan caverns; these professions of
aame over the white floor of the deep;
these Examinations three miles down
under the sea; these gorgeously up
holstered castles of the Almighty in |
the under world. The author of the |
text felt the pull of the hidden vegeta- |
t;0r, ~ +ha Madifarrn naap whether ov !