The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1893-10-18
REV. DIR. TALMAGE.
yHE BROOKLYN DIvINE'S SUM-
DAY SERMON.
Subject: ssThe Gardens Of the Sea-

Subject: ssThe Gardens Of the Sea-
/rr.r "7ae needs ,oers slapped about m,
2aecd"-Jonah IL, S.
r s'The Botany Of the Bible; or. God Among
the Flowers" Is fascinating subject. I hold
in my hand book which brought from
Palestine, bound in olive wood. and within
Eit are pressed flowers which have not only
retained their color, but their aroma. Flow
iers from Bethlehem, flowers from Jerusa-
lem, flowers from Gethsemane. flowers from
Mount of Olives, flowers from Bethany, How
ers from Sloan, flowers from the valley OF Je-
hcshsphat, red anemones and wild mlgno-
nstte, buttercups, daisies, cyclamens, camo-
mile, bluebells, ferns. moses, grasses and q
wealth OF fora that keep me fascinated by
the hour, and every time open it 1t is a new
revelation. It is the New Testament OF the
felds. But my text leads US into another
realm Of the botanical kingdom.
! Having spoken to you in course OF ser
mons about "God Everywhere ON The
Astronomy of the Bible; or, God Among the
Stars )" s'The Ornitholoey Of the Bible; or,
. God Among the Birds y 1.-THE Ichthyology
of the Bible; or. God Among the Fishes y
..sThe Mineralogy Of the Bible ;or,. God Among
the Amethysts !" ssThe Conchology of the
Bible; or, God Among the Shells !" ''The
Chronology OF the Bible; or, God Among the
Centuries"-I speak now to you about 'ihe
Botany of the Bible; or. God in the Gardens
OF the Sea-" Although purposely take tnls
morning for consideration the least observed
and least appreciated of all the botanical
products OF the world we shall IND the con-
temptation very absorbing.
In all our theological seminsries where we
make ministers there ought to be professors
20 give lessons in natural history. Physical
sciencs ought to be taught side by side with
revelation. It Is the same God who inspires
the page OF the natural world as the page OF
The Scriptural world. What freshening up
Il would be to our sermons to press into
them even fragment OF Mediterranean sea-
weed We should have fewer sermons
awfully dry If We initiated our blessed Lord,
and in our discourse, like Him, we Woulo
let q lily bloom, or crow fly, or a hen
brood her chickens, or crystal OF salt dasn
out the preservative qualities OF religion.
The trouble Is that in many OF our theo-
logical seminaries men who are. so dry them
selves they never could get people to come
and hear them preach are now trying to
teach young men how to preach, anu 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 BtDie.
That was an awful plunge that the recreant
prophet Jonah made when, dropped over the
eunwales Of the Mediterranean ship, he sank
many fathoms down into tempestuous sea.
Both before and after the monster or the deep
swallowed him, he was entangled in seaweed.
The iungles Of the deep threw their cordage
Of vegetation around him. Some otthls sea-
weed was anchored to the bottom OF the
Watery abysm, and some of 1t was af1oat and
swallowed by the great sea monster, 80 that,
white the prophet was at the bottom OF the
deep after he was horribly imprisoned ne
could exclaim and did exclaim in the words
OF my text, ''The weeds were wrapped about
my head"
Joanah 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 seaweeds pressed on
a page, and called them "the shorn locks
OF Neptune" These products OF tho deep,
whether bnpwn or green or yellow or pur-
pie 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 I conclude
from the fact that he has made 6Ooo species
of them. Sometimes these water plants
are 400 or 700 feet long, and they cable
the sea. One specimen has growth OF
1900 feet.
i On the northwest shore of our country isa
beaweed 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 troP-
los are not more full OF vegetation than the
nepths 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 Sin the cool OF the day. on. what
enhancement, this subaqueous world! On,
the God given wonders Of the seaweed! Its
birthplace is palace OF crystal. The cradle
That rocks it Is the storm. Its grave IS asar-
eophagus OF beryl and sapphire. There ls
ho night down there. e.
There are creatures OF God on the bottom
of the SEQ so constructed that, streWn all
along, they make armament besprent with
stars, consultations aad galaxies OF 1mpos-
Inc luster. The sea featheris lamplghter.
The eymnotus Is an electrician, and he is
surcfarged with electricity and makes the
deep bright with the lightning OF the sea.
The gorgonia flashes like jewels. There are
sea anemones ablaze with light. There are
{he stsrHsh and the moonfish, so called be-
pausethey 30 powerfully suggest stellar and
lunar illumination.
Oh, these midnight lanterns OF the ocean
caverns these professions Of flame over the
white floor OF the deep these lluminations
fhree miles down under the sea these
porgeously upholstered castles OF the AL
mighty in the underworld! The author OF
the text felt the pull OF tho hidden vegetation
OF the Mediterranean, whether or not ne ap-
preclated its beauty, as he cried out, "The
weeds were wrapped about my head"
: Let my subject cheer all those who had
friends who have been buried at sea or In
our great American lakes. Which OF US
brought up on the Atlantic coast has not had
kindred or friend thus sepulchered? Wehad
The useless horror OF thinking that they were
denied proper resting place. Wesatd: ION,
II they had lived to come ashore and mad
then expired What an alleviation OF our
trouble it would have been to put them in
some beautiful family plot, where we could
have planted flowers and trees over them.
Why, God did better for them than We could
have. done for. them. They were let down
Into beautiful gardens. before they had
reached the bottom they had garlands about
their brow.
In more elaborate and adorned place than
we could have afforded them they were put
away for the last slumber. Hear It, mothers
and fathers OF sailor boys whose ship went
down In our last August hurricane There
are no Greenwoods or Laurel Hills or Mount
Auburns so beautiful on the land as there are
banked and terraced and scooped and hung
in the depths OF tho sea. The bodies OF our
koundered and sunken friends are girdled
and canopied and housed with such glories
as attend no other Metropolis.
They were swsmped In lifeboats, or they
struck on Goodwin sands or Deal beach or
the Skerries, and were never heard OF, or dis
appeared with the City OF Boston, or the Vile
tde Havre, or the Cymbria or were run down
In a fishing smack that put out from New
Ifoundland. But dismiss your previous gloom
about the horrors OF ocean entombment.
When Sebastopol was besleged In the
ANGLO French war, Prince Mentchikof, COM
mandinp the Russian navy, saw that the