The weekly intelligencer. [volume] (Lexington, Mo.) 1891-1901, 1897-06-19

IN kAM that the lions walk
" HANH the fields in twos,
REV. TALMAeE. and in the warm
redolence of that Saturday afternoon
he falls off into slumber; and as if by
~allegory to teach all ages that the
greatest of earthly blessings is sound
sleep, this paradisaical somnolence
ends with the discovery on the part of
Adam of a corresponding intelligence
just landed on a new planet. OF the
mother of all h living L speak-Eve,
the first, the ~fairest, and the best.
l make me a garden. / inlay the
paths with mountain moss, and l 4 or-
der them with pearls from Ceylon and
diamonds from Golconda- Here and
there are fountains tossing in the sun
light and ponds that ripple under the
padding of h swans. 1 gather me
lilies from the Amazon, and orange
groves from the tropics, and tama-
rinds from Goyaz- There are wood
bine and h~oneysuckle climbing over
the wall, and starred spaniels sprawl
ing themselves on the grass. 1 invite
amid these trees the larks, and the
brown thrushes, and the robbins, and
all the brightest birds of Heaven, and
they stir the air with infinite chirp
~ LIN JSO VIC AdS "a q 1So
ert filed with darkness and death as
compared with the residence of the
woman Of the text, the subject of my
story. Never since have such skies
looked down through such leaves into
such waters! Never has river wave
had such curve and sheen and bank as
adorned the Pison, the Havilah, the
Gihon, and the Hiddekel, even the peb-
bles being bdellium and onyx stone!
What fruits, with no c~urculio to sting
the rind! What flowers, with no slug
to gnaw h rootl What atmosphere,
with no frost to chill and with no heat
to consumed! Bright colors tangled in
the grass. Perfume in the air. Music
in the sky. Great scene of gladness
and love and joy.
Right there under a bower of leaf
and vine and shrub occurred the first
marriage. Adam took the hand of this
immaculate daughter of God and pro-
nounced the ceremony when he said:
"Bone of my bone, and flesh of my
flesh" A forbidden tree stood up in
the midst of that exquisite park. Eve
sauntering out alone one day looks up
at the fruit, and wonders if it is sweet,
and wonders If it is sour, and standing
there, says: 81 think 1 will just put
my hand upon the fruit; it viii do no
damage to the tree; l will not take the
fruit to eat, but 1 will just take 1t
down to examine it." She examined
the fruit. She said: 81 do not think
there can be any harm in my breaking
the rind of it," She put the fruit to
her teeth, she tasted, she allowed
Adam to taste the fruit, the door of
the world opened. and the Monster sin
entered. Let the heavens gather
blackness, let the winds sigh on the
bosom of the hills, and cavern, and
desert, and earth, and sky join in one
long, deep, hell-rending ~howl-"The
world is lost!'
Beasts that before were harmless
and full of play put forth claw, and
sting, and tooth, and tusk. Birds whet
their beaks for prey. Clouds troop in
the sky. Sharp thorns shoot up
through the short grass. Hastings on
the leaves. All the chords of that
great harmony are snapped. Upon the
brightest home this world aver saw
our first parents turned their backs
and led forth on a path of sorrow and
the broken-hearted myriads of a ruined
race.
Do you not see, in the first place, the
danger OF a poorly regulated inquisi-
tiveness? She wanted to know how
the fruit tasted. She found out, but
5000 years have deplored that UNI
healthful curiosity. Healthful curios-
ity has done a 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 seer
the first chapter of Genesis written in
L. A-~1r - aAr.- ll.1ak.akn ruffh an
craving on rock, and it stood with the
antiquarian while he blew h trumpet
OF resurrection over buried H~erculane-
Uni and Pompii, until from their sep
ulcher there came up shaft and terrace
osity has enlarged the telescope
vision of the astronomer until
worlds hidden in the distant
heavens have trooped forth and have
Joined the choir praising the Lord.
Planet weighed against planet aud
widest comet lassooed with resplend.
emit law. H%ealthful curiosity has gone
down and found the tracks of the
eternal God in the polypi and h star
fish under the sea M the majesty of
the great Jehovah encamped under the
curtains of the dahlia- 1t
has studied the spots on the sun, and
the larva on q beech leaf, and the light
under a frefy's wing, and h terrible
eye-glance of q condor pitching from
G~himborazo. 1t has studied the
myriads of animalculae that make up
the phosphorescence of a ships wake,
and the mighty maze of suns, and
spheres, and CONSULTATIONS, and gaIax-
les 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, n
ships with postrils of hot steam and
Jokes of fire, draw the continents to-
gether.
l say nothing against heaithful Curl
osity. May it have other Leyden jars.
and other electric batteries, and other
yoltaic piles, and other magnifying
glasses, with which to storm the
barred castles of the natural world IN
til IL shall surrender It's last secret.
We thank God for the geological Curl
osity of Prof. Hitchcock, and the me-
chanicaI curiosity of Liebig, and the
geological curiosity of Cuvier, and the
inventive curiosity of Edison; but we
must admit that unhealthful and ir"
regular inquisitiveness has rushed
thousands and tens of thousands into
ruin.
Eve just tasted the fruit. She was
curious to find out how it tasted, and
that curiosity blasted her and blasted
all nations. So there are clergyman
in this day inspired by unhealthful in
q~uisitiVeness who have tried to look
through the keyhole of Gods mystic
ries-mysteries that were barred and
bolted from all human inspection, and
they have wrenched their whole moral
nature out of joint by trying to pluck
fruit from branches beyond their
reach, or have come out on limbs of
the tree from which thew have tumbled