The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-12-27
GOD AMID THE CORAL REEFS.
TALMAGE ON THE SCULPTURE OF
THE DEEP.


RhizapOds--COnstr of n Sim
gle Grain Requires the Efforts OF
1s7,OOO,0OO OF Them.
Washington, Dec. 26.-ThiS picturesque
discourse of DR.. Talmage leads his hear
ers and readers through unwouted regions
of contemplation, and is full of practical
Gospel Text: Job isis: mo mention shall
be made of coral"
why do you say that, inspired dramatist?
When y9u wanted to set forth the super
Tor value of our religion. you tossed aside
the onyx, which is used for making eXquis-
lite canoes, and the sapphire, sky-blue, and
topaz of rnombic prism. and the ruby of
frozen blood, and here you say that the
coral. which is a miracle of shape and a
transport of color to those who have stud
led it, is not worthy of mention in COM
parison with our holy religion. mo mem
ton shall be made of coral" At Saint
Johnsbury, VT. in a museum built by the
chief citizen, as ] examined a specimen on
she shelf, / first realized what a holy Of
holes God can build and has built in the
temple of one piece of coral. do not Won
der that Ernst Heckel the great scien-
fist, while in Ceylon, was so entranced
with the specimens which some Cingalese
divers had brought up for his inspection
that he himself plunged into the sea, and
went clear under the waves at the risk of
his life, again, and again and again, that
he might know more of the coral, the beau
ty of which he indicates cannot even be
-
above water, and after the polyps, which
are it's sculptors and architects, have died
and the chief glories of these submarine
flowers have expired. Job, in my text, did
not mean to depreciate this divine sculp-
ture in the coral reefs along the sea-
coasts No one can afford to depreciate
these white palaces of the deep, built I'M
der Gods direction. He never changes his
plans for the building of the islands and
shores; and for uncounted thousands of
years the coral gardens. and the coral cas-
ties, and the coral battlements go on and
up 1 charge you that you will please God
and please yourself if you will go into the
minute examination of the corals-their
foundations, their pinnacles, their aisles,
their pillars, their curves, their cleavages,
their reticuation. their grouping-families
of them towns of them, cities of them, and
continents of them. Indeed, you cannot ap-
preciate the meaning of my text unless
you know something of the coral. Labyrin-
THAN, stellar, columnar, floral, dented like
shields from battle, spotted like leopards,
embroidered like lace, hung like uphol-
stery-twight and auroras and sunbursts
of beauty From deep crimson to milk
white are its colors. You may find this
work Of God through the animacules eigh-
ty fathoms down, or amid the breakers
where the sea dashes the widest and beats
the mightiest, and bellows the loudest
These sea creatures are ever busy. Now
they build islands in the center of the Pa
oific ocean. Now they lift barriers around
the continent, Indian olcan. Red sea, and
coast of Zanzibar have Decimens of their
infiinitesimal but sublime masonry AT the
recession Of the tides you may in some
places see the top of their Alpine eleva-
tons, while elsewhere nothing but the deep
sea soundings from the decks Of the Chal-
lenger, the Porcupine, and the Lightning
of the British expedition can announce
them. The ancient Gauls employed the
coral to adorn their helmets and the hits |
of swords. In many lands it has been used |
as amulets. The Algerian reefs in one year |
QS73) had at work amid the coral 81 YES |
sells, with $3.50 sailors, yielding in profit
$565,O0O. But the secular and worldly value |
of the coral is nothing as compared with !
tAlS anu ItuSiOuS, as Wnen, IN NV |
text, Job employs it in comparison. | do |
not know how any one can examine CO. |
raj the size of the thumb-nail without be- |
thinking himself of God and worshiping |
him, and feeling the opposite of the great |
infidel surgeon, lecturing to the medical |
students in the dissecting room upon q
human eye which he held in his hand |
showing its wonders of architecture and |
adaptation when the idea of God flashed |
upon him so powerfully he cried out to the
Gentlemen, there is a God; but
! hate him" Picking up coral / feel like |
crying out: There is a Cod and l adore
him."
Nothing so impresses me with the fact
that our God loves the beautiful. The
most beautiful coral of the world never
comes TO human observation. Sunrises
and sunsets he hangs up for nations to
look at; ne may green the grass, and
round the dew into pearl and set on fire
autumnal foliage to please mortal sight,
but those thousands of miles of coral
achievement l think ne has had built for
his own delight. In those galleries he
alone can walk. The music of those keys,
played on by the fingers of the wave, he
only can hear. The snow of that white
and the bloom of that crimson he alone
5an see. Having garnitured this world
10 please the human race, and lifted a
glorious heaven to please the angelic an
lSlhSehSSS, am Sdiu lndI ne mas planted
these gardens of the deep TO please him
self. But here and there God allows
specimens of submarine glory to be brought
up and set before us for sublime contem-
plation. While speak, these great nations
OF zoophytes, meandrinas, and madrepores
with tentacles for trowel, are building Just
such coral as we find in our text The
may be more rare, the crystal
may be more sparkling, the chrysoprase
may be more ablaze. but the coral is the
long, deep, everlasting blush OF the sea-
Yet Job, who understood all kinds of prec-
ious stones, declares that the beauty and
value of the coral are nothing compared
with our holy religion, and he picks up
this coralline formation and looks at it,
and filings it aside with all the other beau
tiful things he has ever heard Of, and
cries out in ecstacy of admiration for the
superior qualities of our religion: mo men
ton shall be made. of coral"
Take my hand and we will walk through
the bower of the sea, while / show you
that even exquisite coral bs not worthy of
being compared with the richer jewels of
Christian soul The first thing that
strikes me in looking at the coral is its
1ong-continued accumulation. II is not
turned up like Cotopaxi, but is an out
butting and an outbranching of ages. In
Polynesia there are reefs hundreds of
feet deep and one thousand miles long.