Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1893-02-23
AT THE TABERNACLE.
DR.. TALMAeE FINDS LESSONS IN THE
BIBLES MENTION OF SHELLS.

of66- - hENtiOtN Vt 0FtEIL0.
The Divine conehoIogy THE Pearl ri
Great Priee"-The Purple Of Ancient
Make The Route Of the IsraeIites
Gods Care For the Coral Insect.
BROOKLYN, Feb. l9.-In the tabernacle
this forenoon Rev. DIR. Talmage continued
his course Of sermons on God everywhere
His subject was the "Conehology of the Bi
BILE. or, God Among the Shells" the text
being taken from Exodus, 80th chapter
34th verse, And the Lord said unto Moses
Take unto thee sweet spices, stacte and
onycha"
You may not have noticed the shells OF
the Bible, although in this early part Of the
sacred book God calls you to consider and
employ them MS be called Moses to consider
and employ them. The onycha of my text
is shell found on the banks of the Red
sea, and Moses and his army must have
crushed many Of them under foot as they
crossed the bisected waters, onycha on the
beach and onycha in the unfolded bed OF
the deep. shall speak of this shell as a
OCthdhhot anu PheCbACdA ECNCldblOu Ol NIOQ,
and a. true as the first chapter of Genesis
and the last chapter of Revelation or every
thing between.
Not only is this shell, the onycha, found
at the Red sea, but in the waters of In.
tlia. It not only deleceates the eye with
its convolutions Of beauty, white and lus-
trous and serrated, but blesses the nostril
with pungent aroma This shellfish, &C.
customed to feed on spikenard, is redolent
with that odorous plant, redolent when
alive and redolent when dead Its shells
when burned bewitch the air with fra,
GRANGE.
In my text God commands Moses to mix
onycha with the perfumes of the altar in the
ancient tabernacle, and l propose to mix
some of its perfumes at the altar of Brooklyn
Tabernacle for, having spoken to you on the
Astronomy of the Bible; or, God Among
the Stars" the Chronology of the Bible;
or, God Among the Centuries;" the "Or-
anthology of the Bible; or, God Among the
Birds;" the "Mineralogy of the Bible; or,
God Among the Amethysts;" the "Ichthy-
ology Of the Bible; or, God Among the
Fishes" now come to speak of the "Con-
chology of the Bible; or, God Among the
Shells"
THE FASCINATION IN A SHE'LL.
1t is secret that you may keep for me,
for have never before told it to any one,
that in all the realms Of the natural world
there is nothing to me so fascinating, SO
completely absorbing, so full of suggestive
ness as a she'll WhatP More entertaining
than a bird, which can sing, when shell
cannot sing? Well, there you have made a
great mistake Pick up the onycha from
the banks of the Red sea or pick up bi-
valve from the beach of the Atlantic ocean
and listen, and you hear whole choir of
marine voices-bass, alto, soprano-in an
unknown tongue, but seeming to chant as
! put them to my ear, "The sea is his, and
he made it," others singing, ''Thy way, o
God, is in the sea-" others hymning, HE
ruleth the ras ing of the sea-"
What" says some one else, 'does the
shell impress you more than the starr" In
some respects, yes, because can handle the
shell and closely study the shell. while
cannot handle the star, and if study it
must study it at distance of millions and
millions of miles.
What" says some one else, ''are you
more impressed by the shell than the flow
err" Yes, for it has far greater varieties
and far greater richness of color, as could
show you in thousands of specimens, and
because the she'll does not fade as does the
rose leaf, but maintains its beauty century
after century, so that the onycha which the
hoof Of pharaoh's horse knocked aside in
the chase of the Israelitcs across the Red
sea may have kept its luster to this hour.
Yes, they are so particolored and many col
ored that you might pile them up until
you would have a wall with all the colors
Of the wall OF heaven, from the jasper at
the bottom to the amethyst at the top.
Oh, the shellsl The petrified foam of the
sea. Oh, the shellsl The hardened bubbles
of the Deep Oh, the shellsi which are the
diadems thrown by the ocean to the feet of
the continents How the shells are ribbed
grooved, cylindered, mottled, iridescentl
They were used as coin by some of the ma
tions. They were fastened in belts by 9th
ers and made in handles of wooden imple-
ments by still others. Mollusks not only
Of the sea, but mollusks of the land. Do
you know how much they have had to do
with the worlds history They saved the
church Of God from extinguishment. The
Israelites marched out of Egypt 2,0OO, 900
strong, besides fiocks and herds
The Bible says ''The people took their
dough before 1t was leavened, their knead.
ing troughs being bound up in the clothes
on their shoulders. They were thrust forth
out of Egypt and could not tarry; neither
had they prepared for themselves any vic
tuals." Just think of It'll Forty years in
the wilderness Infdelity triumphantly
asks, How could they live 40 years in the
wilderness without foodf You say mama
fell Oh, that was after long while. They
mama fell The fact is, they were chiefly
kept alive by the mollusks of the land or
shelled creatures. Mr.. Fronton and Mr.
Sicard took the same route from Egypt to-
ward Canaan that the Israelites took, and
they give this as their testimony:
FOOD IN THE DESERT.
Although the children of Israel must
have consisted of about 100000 souls,
with baggage and innumerable focks and
herds, they w"re not likely to experience
any Inconvenience in their march. Several
thousand persons might walk abreast with
the greatest ease in the very narrowest part
of the valley in which they first began to file
of. 1t soon afterward expands to above
three leagues in width. With respect to
forage, they would be at no loss. The
ground is covered with tamarisk, broom,
clover and saint foin, of>which latter es-
pecially camels are passionately fond, be-
sides almost every variety Of odoriferous
plant and herb proper for pasturage.
"The whole sides of the valley through