The Banner-Democrat. [volume] (Lake Providence, East Carroll Parish, La.) 1892-current, 1893-04-15


one step without treading on them.''
Thank God for the wealth of mol.
lusks all up and down the earth.
whether feeding the Israelites on their
way to the land flowing with milk and
honey. or, as we are better acquainted
with the mollusks, when flung to the
beach of lake or sea. There are three
great families of them. If l should
ask you to name three of the great
royal families of the earth, perhaps you
would respond, the House of Stuant,
the House of Hapsburg, the House OF
Bourbon. but the three royal families
of mollusks are the univalve or shell
of one part, the bivalve, or shell OF
two parts, and the multivalve, or shell
in many parts, and see God in their
every hinge. in their every tooth.
in their every cartilage, in their
every ligament, in their every spiral
ridge, and in their every color, prism
on prism, and their adaptation of thin
shell for still ponds and thick coatings
for boisterous seas. They all dash
upon me the thought that providential
care of God. What is the use of all
this architecture of the shell, and why
is it pictured from the outside lip clear
down into its labyrinths of copstruc-
ton? Why the infinity of skill and
radiance in shell? What is the use
of the color and exquisite curve of a
thing SO significant as shell-fish?
Why, when the conchologist. by dredge
or rake fetches the crustaceous speci-
mems to the shore, does he find at his
feet whole Alhambras and Colloseums
and Parthenons and crystal palaces of
beauty in miniature. and these bring to
light only an infinitesilnal part of the
opulence in the great subaqueons
world. Linnnus counted two thousand
five hundred species of shells, but con-
chology had then only begun itsachieve-
ments. While exploring the bed of the
Atlantic ocean in preparation for lay
ing the cable, shelled animals were
brought up from depths of one thou
sand nine hundred fathoms- When
lifting the telegraph wire from the
Mediterranean and Red seas shellcd
creatures were brought up from depths
of two thousand fathoms. The English
admiralty, exploring in behalf Of
science, found mollusks at depth of
two thousand four hundred aud thirty
five fathoms, or fourteen thousand two
hundred and ten feet deep. What a
realm awful for vastness!
As the shell is the only house and
wardrobe of insignificant animals of
the deep, why all that wonder and
beauty of construction? Gods care for
them is the only reason. And if God
provide so munificently for them, will
He not see that you have wardrobe and
shelter? Wardrobe and shelter for a
periwinkle; SHAH there not be ward
robe and shelter for man? Would
God give coat of mail for the defense
of nautilus and leave you no defense
against the storm? Does He build a
stone house for creature that lasts a
season and leave without home soul
that takes hold on centuries andaeons?
Hugh Miller found 1.-THE Footprints of
the Creator in the Old Red Sandstone. :"
and hear the harmonies of God in the
tinlxle of the sea shells when the tide
comes in. The same Christ who drew
a lesson Of presidential care from the
fact that God clothes the grass of the
field instructs me to draw the same les
son from the shells
But while You get this pointed lesson
of providential care from the shelled
creatures of the deep, notice in their
that God helps them to
help themselves. This house of stone
in which they live is not dropped on
them and is not built around them.
The material for it exudes from their
colorcd fluid from the pores of their
own neck. 1t is a most interesting
thing to see these crustacean ami
mails fashisn their own homes
ont of carbonate of lime and
And all of this is
lesson to those who are watt
ing for others to build their fortunes
when they ought to go to work and.
like the mollusks, build their own for
tunes out of their own brain. out of
their own sweat, out of their own in
dustries. Not mollusk on all the
beaches of all the seas would have a
house of shell if it had not itself built
one. Do not wait for others to shelter
you or prosper you. All the crustaceous
creatures of the earth, from every fake
Of their covering and from every ridge
Of their tiny castles on Atlantic and Pa
cific and Mediterranean coasts, say:
Help Yourself while God helps you to
help yourself" Those people who are
waiting for their father or rich old un-
Gle to die and leave them fortune arc
as silly as mollusk would be to wait
for some other mollusk to drop on it q
she'll equipment. 1t would kill the
molluslx. as in most cases it destroys
man. Not one person out of hun.
dred ever was strong enough to stand
q large estate by inheritance dropped
on him in chunk. Have great ex-
pectations from only two persons-God
and yourself. Let the onycha Of my
text become your preceptor.
But the more / examine the shells,
the more am impressed that God is
God of emotion. Many scott at emo
ton, and seem to think that God is
God of cold geometry and iron laws
and eternal apathy and enthroned
stoicisln. No. No. The shells with
emphasis deny it. While
law and order reign in the universe,
you have but to see the lavishness of
color on the crustacea, all shades of
crimson from faintest blush to blood
Of battlefield, all shades of blue.
all shades of green, all shades of all