The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-12-27

every other man who got into tight cor
ner. 60" says some one, why cannot
God develop me through prosperity In
stead Of through advers5ty?" l will an
swer your question by asking another.
Why does not God dye our northern and
temperate seas with coral? You say:
The water is not hot enough" Therei
IN answering my question, you have an
swered your own. Hot climate for rich
est specimens of coral; hot trouble for the
jewels of the soul The coral fishers go
ing out from Tore del Greece never
brought ashore such fine specimens as are
brought out of the scalding surges of mis-
fortune. | look down into the tropical
sea. and there is something that looks like
blood. and / say; Has there been
great battle down there?" Seeming blood
scattered all up and down the reefs. 1t
is the blood of the coral, and it makes me
think of those who come out of great
tribulation and have their robes washed
white in the blood Of the lamb. But these
gems Of earth are nothing to the gems of
heaven. mo mention shall be made of
coral"
Again, I take your hand and we walk
on through this garden of the sea and look
more particularly than we did at the
beauty of the coral. The poets have all
been fascinated with it, One of them
wrote:
There, with a broad and easy motion,
The fan coral sweep through the clear
deep sea,
And the yellow and scarlet tufts of the
ocean
Are bent like corn on the upland lea.
our specimen of coral is called the den
drophlia, because it is like tree; another
is called the astrara. because it is like
star; another is called the brain coral
because il is like the convoutions of the
human brain; another is called fan coral,
because il is like the instrument with
which you cool yourself on a hot day; an
other specimen is called the organ-pipe
coral because it resembles the king of
musical instruments. All the flowers and
all the shrubs in the gardens of the land
have their correspondencies in this garden
of the sea. Corallum! 1t is a synonym for
beauty. And yet there is no beauty in the
coral compared with our religion 1t gives
physiognOmic beauty. 1t does not change
the features; it does not give features with
which the person was nor originally en-
lowed but it sets behind the features of
the homeliest person a heaven that shines
clear through. So that often, on first ac-
quaintance, you said of a man: HE is the
homeliest person ever saw when, after
you came 10 understand him and his no.
bIlity of soul shining through his coun-
tenance, you said: He is the loveliest per-
son l ever saw" No one ever had a homely
Christian mother. Whatever the world
may have thought of her, there were two
who thought well-your father, who had
admired her for fifty years, and you, over
whom she bent with so many tender minis
trations. When you think of the angels of
God, and your mother among them she
them all. O, that our young peo-
pie could understand that there Is nothing
that SO much beauties the human coun-
tenance as the religion of Jesus Christ! 1t
makes everything beautiful. Trouble beau
tiful. Sickness beautiful Disappointment
beautiful Everything beautiful
Near my early home there was a place
called the Two Bridges" These bridges
leaped the two streams. Well, my friends.
the religion of Jesus Christ is two bridges.
1t bridges ell the past 1t arches and over
spans all the future. 1t makes the dying
pillow the landing place of angels fresh
from glory. 1t turns the sepulchre into a
May-tine orchard. II catches up the dying
into full orchestra. Corallum! And yet that
does not express the beauty: mo mention
shall be made of coral
take your hand again and walk a lit
tie further on in this garden of the sea.
and notice the durability of the work of
The coral Montgomery speaks of it, He
says; "F'rail were their forms, ephemeral
their lives, their masonry imperishable"
are insects so small they are in,
visible, and yet they built the Apprentices
and the planted for their own monument
The Cordllerasl 1t takes 1S7. coo of
them TO make one grain. Corals are
changing the navigation of the sea, say
ing to the commerce of the world: Take
this channel" take that channel"
"avoid the other channel" AnimaIcules
beating back the Atlantic and Pacific
seasi If the insects of the ocean have
built reef a thousand miles long, who
knows but that they may yet build a reef
5000 miles long, and thus, that by one
stone bridge Europe shall be united with
this continent on one side, and by another
stone bridge Asia will be united with this
continent on the other side; and the tour.
list of the world. without the turn of a
steamers wheel or the spread of a ships
sail, may go all around the world, and thus
be fulfilled the prophecy, There shall 1e
no more sea-"
But the durability of the coraPs work is
not at all to be compared with the dura-
bility of our work for God The coral is
going to crumble in the fires of the last
Gay. but our work for God will endure for
ever. No more discouraged man ever
lived than Beethoven, the great musical
composer. Numerically criticized by
brother artists and his music sometimes
rejected. Deaf for twenty-five years, and
forced on his way to Vienna to beg food
and lodging at very plain house by the
roadside. In the evening the family
opened musical instrument and played
and sang with great enthusiasm; and one
of the numbers they rendered was so emo
tional that tears ran down their cheeks,
while they sang and played. Beethoven,
sitting in the room, too deaf to hear the
singing, was curious to know what
was the music that so overpoU.
cred them, and when they got
through he reached up and took the
folio in his hand and found il was his own
music-Beethoven's Symphony in A-and
he cried out, Il wrote that" The house
hold sat and stood abashed to find that
their poor-lool<ing guest was the great
composer But he never left that house
alive fever seized him that night.
and no relief could be afforded. and
in a few days he died. But just before ex-
piring he took the hand of his nephew.
who had been sent for and had arrived,
saying: After all, Hummel, / must have
had some talent" Poor Beethovenl His
work still lives, and in the twentieth
century will be better appreciated than It
was i'm the nineteenth; and as long as
there is on earth an orchestra to play or
an oratorio to sing, Beethoven's nine
symphonies will be the enchantment of
nations. But you are not a composer.
and you say that there is nothing remark
able about you-only a mother trying TO