The Globe-republican. [volume] (Dodge City, Kan.) 1889-1910, 1893-03-10

self on this world In the personality of
Christ tn save it, without regard to the
tears 1t would take. or the blood 10
would exhaust, or the agOnies it would
crush out
! When see the Louvres and the Lux
embOrgs and the Vaticans Of Divine
painting strewn along the 5000 miles Of
coast, and hear in forest on summer
morning musical academies and Han
ders societies Of full orchestras, say
God Is God Of emotion, and II He OBJ
| serves mathematics it is mathematics
| set to music, aud His figures are written
not in white chalk or lackboards. but
written by finger of sunlight on walls
OF jasmine and trumpet creeper.
The Royal Purple.
| In my study Of the conchology of the
Bible notice that the moilusks or
Shelled animals furnish the purple that
you see richly darkening so many Scrip
| ture chapters. The purple stuff in the
ancient tabernacle, the purple girdle Of
tho priests, the purple mantel of Roman
Emperors, the apparel Of Dives in pur-
pie and fine linen-aye, the purple robe
which in mOckery was thrown upon
Christ-were colored bv the purple OF
the shells on the shores of the Mediter-
ranean. 1t was discovered by a shep.
herds dog having stained his mouth by
breaking one of the sheels. and the pnr-
pie aroused admiration.
Costly purple. Six pounds Of the pur-
pie liquid extracted from the sheltishes
were used to prepare one pound of wool.
Purple was also used on the pages of
books. Bibles and prayer books ap-
peared in purple vellum, which may
still be found in some of the national
libraries of Europe. Plntarch speaks Of
some purple which keeps its beauty for
$50 years. But after awhile the purple
became easier to get, and that which
had been sign Of rimperial authority
when worn in robes was adopted by
many people, ard SO an Emperor, jeal-
Gus Of this appropriation of the purple.
made law that any one except royalty
wearing purple should be put to death.
Then. as if to punish the world for
that outrage of exclusiveness. God OBJ
liberated the color from the earth, as
much as to say, III all cannot have it,
none shall have it." But though God
has deprived the race of that shellfish
which afforded the purple there are
shells enough left to make us glad and
wOrshipful. Oh. the enhancement Of
hue and shape still left all up and down
the beaches Of all the continents! These
creatures of the sea have what roofs Of
enameled porcelain! They dwell under
what paviliOns blue as the sky and fiery
as sunset and mysterious as an aurora.
And am not right in leading you for q
few moments through this mighty realm
of God so neglected by human eye and
human fOOtstep?
1t is said that the harp and lutte were
invented from the fact that in Egypt
the Nile overlooked its banks, and when
the waters retreated tOrtOiSes were left
by the million on all the laid, and these
tOrtOises died, and soon nothing was left
but the cartilages and gristle of these
creatures, which frightened under the
heat into musical strings that when
tOuc he'd by the wind or foot of man vi
br ated, making sweet sounds. and SO the
orld took tie hint and fashioned the
harp, ard am l not right in trying to
make music out OF the shells and lifting
them as a harp, from which to thrum
the jnbilant praises of the Lord and the
pathetic strains of human coincidence?
The Pearl of Great Price.
But l find the climax Of this cOnchol-
Ogy of the Bible in the pearl, which has
this distinction above all other gems
that 1t requires no human hand to bring
out its beauties. Job speaks Of it, and
its sheen is in Christs sermon, and the
Bible, which opens with the Onycha Of
my text closes with the pearl. OF such
value is this cruStaceOuS product / do
not wonder that for the exclusive right
OF fishing for it on the shores of Ceylon
man paid to the English Government
5000, 600 for one season.
So exquisite is the pearl do not Won
der that Pliny thought it was made out
OF drop of dew, the creature rising to
the surface to take 1t and the chemistry
of nature turning the liquid into solid.
You will see why the Bible makes so
much Of the pearl in its similitudes il
you know how much It costs to get it.
Boats with divers sail out from the
island of Ceylon. ten divers to each boat.
Thirteen men guide and manage the
boat Down into the dangerous depths,
amid sharks that swirl around them,
plunge the divers, while 60, 900 people
gaze On. After three or four
minutes absence from the air the diver
ascends, nine-tenths strangrlated and
blood rushing from ears and nostrils.
and tiinging his pearlv treasure on the
sand falls into Inconsistencies.
Oh, it is an awful exposure and strain
and peril to fish for pearls, and yet they
do so. and is it not a wonder that to get
that which the Bible calls the pearl Of
great price. worth more than all other
pearls put together. there should be so
little anxiety, so little struggle, so little
Would God that We were
all as wise as the merchantmen Christ
who, when he had found
one pearl Of q price, went and sold
all that he had bought it."
Blu: what thri me with suggestive
ness is the material out of which all
pearls are made. They are fashioned
from the wound Of the shellfish. The
oxidation from that wound is fixed and
hardened and enlarged into q pearl The
ruptured vessels Of the water animal
fashioned the germ that now adorns
finger or earring or sword hilt or kings
:rOwn.
So out Of the wounds Of earth will
.ome the pearls of Heaven. Out Of the
wound of conviction the pearl of pardon.
Out of the wound Of bereavement the
pearl Of sOlace. Out of the wound Of loss
The pearl OF gain. Out Of the deep