The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1897-06-23

Sermon On the Calamity II SsTa".eo'
Eating Fruit That Does Not Belong
to Us.
4 new Interpretation OF the calanlity IL
paradise is given By Dr.. Talnage N ms ser
mon Of last Sunday which IS laden with Hrac'
teal lessons The tex; IS Genesis III o
.sAnd when the woman saw that the tree was
good for food and that 1t was peasant 10 the
ewes. and a sree 10 be desired 10 make one
wise, she took Of the fruit thereof, anu dlj
eat. and give also unto her husband with
her, and he did eat.
1t is the first Saturday afternoon in the
worlds existence. Ever since sunrise Adam
has been watching the brilliant pageantry
Of wings and scales and clouds. In his first
lessons in zoology and ornithology and ich-
thyology he has noticed that the robins hy
the air in twos and that the fish swim the
water IN twos and that the lions walk the
fields in twos and in the warm redo.ence OF
that Saturday afternoon he falls oil into
slumber, and as if by allegory TO teach all
ages that the greatest Of all earthly blessings
is sound sleep, this paradisaical somnolence
ends with the discovery on the part OF Adam
of corresponding intelligence just landed
OF new planet. Ofthe mother OF all the
living speak-Eve, the first, the :airest and
the best.
make me 8 garden. | inlay the paths
with mountain moss. and border them with
pearls from Ceylon and diamonds from COL
conda. Here and there are fountains ,osS-
ing in the sunlight and ponds that ripple
under the padding Of the swans. gather
me lilies from the Amazon and orange groves
from the tropics and tana-;nds from GoTaz
There are woo6bine and honeySuck-e climb
ing over the wall and starred spanlels
sprawling themselves on the grass. Invite
amid these trees the larks and the brown
thrushes, and the robins. and al the bright
est birds of heaven, and they STIR the air
with infinite chirp and carol. And yet the
place IS desert filed with darkness and
death as compared with the residence Of fhe
woman of the text, the subject of my story
Never since have such skies looked down
through such leaves into such waters New
er has river wave had such curve and sheen
and bank as adorned the Pison, the Havilah,
Gihou, and the Hiddekel, even the pebbles
being bdelliun and. onyx stones. What
fruits, with no curcuro TO sting the rind.
What flowers, with no slug to gnaw the root
What atmosphere, with no frost TO chill and
with no heat to consume. Bright colors
tangled in the grass. Perfume in the air.
Music in the sky. Great scenes Of gladness
and love and joy.
Right there under bower Of leaf and
vine and shrub occurred the first marriage.
Adam took the hand Of this immaculate
daughter of God and pronounced the cere-
mony when he said, Bone of my bone and
flesh of my flesh" A forbidden tree stood
in the midst of that exquisite park. Eve,
sauntering out one day alone, looks up at the
tree and sees the beautiful fruit and wonders
If it Is sweet and wonders ifit is sour AID
standing there says: 81 think will just put
my hand upon the fruit. 1t will do no dam
age to the tree. will rot take the fruit TO
eat, but WILL just take it down to examine
it, She examined the fruit. She said, q
do not think there can be any harm in my
just breaking the rind of it." She put the
fruit to her teeth, she tasted, she allowed
Adam slso to taste the fruit, the door Of the
world opened and the monster sin entered.
Let the heavens gather blackness, and the
winds sigh on the bosom Of the hills, and
cavern, and desert, and earth and sky join
in one long, deep, hell recding howl, ''Ihe
world is lost,'
Beasts that before were harmless and full
of play put forth claw and sting and tooth
and tusk. Birds whet their beak for prey.
Clouds troop in the sky. Sharp thorns
shoot up through the soft grass; blasting on
the leaves. All the chords Of that great
harmony are snapped. Upon the brightest
home this world ever saw our first parents
turned their backs and led forth on q path Of
sorrow the brokenhearted myriads Of g
ruined race.
Do you not see in the first place the
danger Of a poorly regulated inquisitiVe-
ness? She wanted to know how the fruit
tasted. She found out, but 5000 years
have deplored that unhealthful curiosity.
Healthful curiosity has done great deal for
letters, for art, for science and for religion.
1t has gone down into the depths of the earth
with the geologist and seen the first chapter
of ,Genesis written. in the book Of nature,
illustrated with engraving cc rock, and It
stood with the antiquarian while he blew
the trumpet of resurrection over buried Her
cuianeum and Pompeii, until from their
sepulcher there came up shaft and terrace
and amphitheater. Healthful curiosity has
enlarged the telescope vision of the astrono-
mer until worlds hidden in the distant heay-
ems have trooped forth and have Joined the
choir praising the Lord. Planet weighed
against planet and widest comet lassooed
with replendent law. Healthful curiosity
hss gone down and found the tracks Of the
eternal God in the polypi and the sta-fsh
under the sea and the majesty Of the great
Jehovah encanped under the gorgeous cur
tains Of the dahlia. 1t has studied the spots
on the sun, and the Iarya in beech leaf,
and the light under hredys wing, and the
terrible eye glance Of condor pitching from
Chimborazo. 1t has studied the myriads of
snimalcula that make up the phosphore-
scence in ships wake, and the mighty
maze Of suns and spheres and consultations
and galaxies that blaze on in the march of
God. Healthful curiosity has stood by the
inventor until forces that were hidden for
ages came to wheels, and levers and shafts
and shuttles-forces that fly the air, or swim
the sea, or cleave the mountain until the
earth jars and roars and rings and crackles
and booms with strange mechanism, and
ships with nostrils Of hot steam and yokes OF
fire draw the continents together.
say nothing against healthful curiosity
May it have other Leyden jars, and other
electric batteries, and other voltaic piles and
other magnifying glasses, with which to storm
the barred castles Of the natural world until
1t shall surrender its last secret. We thank
God for the geological curiosity ofProfessor
Hitchcock, and the mechanical curiosity Of
Liebig, and the geological curiosity ofCuvier,
and the inventive curiosity Of Edison but
we must admit that unheathful and irregular
inquisitiveness has rushed thousands and
tens of thousands into ruin.
Eve just tasted the fruit. She was Curl
Gus to find out how it tasted. and that curl
osity blasted her and blasted all nations So
there are clergynen in this day, inspired by
unhealthful ioquisitiyeness, who have tried
to look through the keyhole Of Gods mys-
teries that were barred and bolted from all
human inspection-and they have wrenched
their Ekole moral ,,atl,ra n1,t Of lin. h. -.