Fisherman & farmer. [volume] (Edenton, N.C.) 1887-19??, 1893-10-13

| dro2raphers have made us maps ami CHARTS
| of the rivats end lakes an seas and shown
| Us Something Of the work Cf the eternal God
| In the water world.
| Thank God that the great Vitgiuian Lieu
| tenant Maury: lived to give rs 'fThe Physical
| Geography Of the Sea-" and that men Of
| genius have gone forth TO study the so-calle1
weeds that wrapped about Jouah'5 head and
| have found them to be coronals Of beauty,
| and when the tide recaded these scientists
| have walden down and picked up divinely
| pictured leaves Of the ocean tho naturaliSts,
| Pike and Hooper and Walters; FgtheriR :
| them from the beach of Long Island SOun t.
| and DR.. Blodgett preserving them from the
shores Of Key West. and Professors Emerson
| and Gray finding them along Boston harbor,
| and Professor Gibbs gathering them from
| Charleston hat0of, and for all the other
! tr'umphs of algoloGy; OF the science Of sea-
| weed.
Why conine ourselves to the old ar1 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 fron1 and cell and color and
movement and habit of oceanic vegetation
crying out GOOD d6di He made US. He
clothed us. He adorned US. He was the
God of our ancestors clear back to the first
sea growth, when G61 divided the waters
which were above the armament from the
waters which were under the armament and
shall be the God of our descandants clear
down to the day when the sea shall give u7
its dead: We have heard His command, and
we have o5eyed. 'Praise the Lord, dragons
and all deeps.'"
There is great comfort that rolls over
upon US from this study of the s0-called sea-
weed, and that is the demonstra rated doctrine
OF a particular providence. When ! find
that tha Lord provides in the sO-called sea-
weed the pasturage for the thronge1 marine
world. 50 that not a fin or scale in all that
csantc aquarium suffers need conclude He
will feed us, and if He suits the aga to the
animal life of the deep He will provide the
food for our physical and spiritual needs
And If He clothes the flowers Of the deep
with richness Of robe that looks bright as
fallen ranbows by day; and at night makes
the underworld look IS though the sea We're
on fire, surely He will clothe you, 80 ye of
little faith -
And what fills me with unspeaka5le de-
light is that this God of depths and heights.
of ocean and OF continent, may, through
Jesus Christ the divinely appointed means,
be yours and mine, to help, to cheer, to
pardon. to save, to fntpafadise. What
matters who in earth or hell Is against us if
He for us2 Umnipotence to defend us,
omnipresance to companion us and infinite
love to enfolj and uplit and enrapture us.
And when God does small things SC well,
seemingly taking as much care with the coil
of a seaweed as the outbranching of
Lebanon cedar; and with the color of O veg
etable growth which is hidden fathoms out
Of sight as He does with tho solferihd and
purple Of a summer sunset, we will be deter
mined to do well all we are called to do.
though no one gee 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
mospherc without fatigue l think we shall
peril, and that tho pictured and tessellated
sea floor VIII be as accessible as now is Othe
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 OH public days its cascades
and statuary and COnsetvatOfies for our en-
trance. lit doth not yet appear what We
shall be-" You cannot make me believe that
10 hath spread out all that garntture of
he deep merely for the polyps aud crustacea
% look at.
And if the uninteIligent creatures OF tho
Mediterranean and the Atlantic ocean He sur
rounds with such beautiful grasses of the
deep. what a heaven we may expect for our
upiftei and ransOned souls when we are
unclaimed OF the flesh aud ris3 70 realms
beatinc OF the fora of that ''s@a of glass
mingled with fire." have no powerto speak,
but I shall always he glad that when the
prophet of the text. flung over the gunWaleS
of the Mediterranean ship, descended into
the boiling sea, that which he supposed to be
weeds wrapped about his head were not
wee Is, but flowers.
Au1 am l not right in this glance at the
botany of the Bible in adding to Lukes mint,
anise aud cumin, ard Matthew's tares, and
Johns vine. and SolOmOn's cluster of cam
phira, AMI Jeremiah's balm, and Jobs bull
r sh. and Isaiah's terebinth. and Hosea's
thistle aud Ezekiel's cedar, and ''the hyssop
that sprngeth out of the wall" and the
rose of Sharon and lily of the valley" ami
The frankincense and myrrh and cassia
wdich the astrologers brought to the man
f,er at least one stalk Of the alaga Of the
AMI now make the marine doxoiogy o
David my p2roration, for it was written
about forty or fifty miles from the place
where the scene cE the text was enacted:
The sea is HIS and He made it, 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 He is our
God. and we are the people of His pasture.
Amen