The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1898-02-03
SCULPTURE OF THE DEEP.
Rev. DR.. Talmage Talks About
God Amid the Coral Reefs.
The Wonderful Masonry of the Minute
Marine Insects-Lpssons From tho
Coral-GOd's Love of the
Beautiful.

No mention shall be made of coraL-Job
xviii, IL.
Why do you say that, inspired drama
list? When you wanted to set forth
The superior value of our religion, you
tossed aside the onyx, which is used
for making exquisite canoes, and the
sapphire, sky-blue, and topaz OF rhom.
bic prism, and the ruby Of frozen blood,
| and here you say that the coral, which
is a miracle of shape and transport
of color to those who have studied it,
is not worthy of mention in comparison
with our holy religion. mo mention
shall be made of coral" At st. Johns
| bury, VT, in a museum built by the
chief citizen, as l examined a speci-
men on the shelf, first realized what
a holy of holes God can build and
has built in the temple of one piece OF
coral. l do not wonder that Ernst
Heckel, the great scientist, 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
that he might know more of the coral,
the beauty of which he indicates can
not even be guessed by those who have
only seen it above water, and after the
polyps, which are its sculptors and
! architects, have died and the chief
glories of these submarine flowers
have expired. Job. in my text, did not
mean to deprecate this divine sculp-
ture in the coral reefs aloug the sea
coasts. No one can afford to depre-
ciate these white palaces of the deep.
built under 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 castles,
and the coral battlements go on and
up. l charge you that you will please
God and please yourself if you will go
| into the minute examination of the
corals-their foundations, their pima
Giles, their aisles, their pillars, their
curves, their cleavages, their reticula-
ton, their grouping-families of them,
towns of them. cities of them.
and continents OF them. Indeed,
you can not appreciate the meaning of
my text unless you know something of
the coral. Labyrinthian, stellar, CO.
lumnar. floral, denied like shields from
battle. spotted like leopards, embroi-
dered like lace, hung like upholstery
twilight and auroras and sun
bursts of beauty! From deep
crimson to milk-white are its
colors. You may find this work of God
through the animalculea eighty faith
oms 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 Pacific ocean. Now they
lift barriers around the continent. In
dian ocean, Red sea and coast of Fan
zibar have specimens of their in
finitesimal but sublime masonry. At
the recession Of the tides you may in
some places see the top of their Alpine
elevations, while elsewhere nothing
but the deep-sea soundings from the
decks of the Challenger, the Porcu-
pine and the Lightning of the British
expedition can announce them.
The ancient Gauls employed
the coral to adorn their helmet Is
and the hilts of swords. In many lands
it has been used as amulets. The Al
gerian reefs in one year uS73) had at
work amid the coral 3l1 vessels. with
3, 15G sailors, yielding in profit sos 900.
But the secular and worldly value of
the coral is nothing as compared with
the moral and religious, as when, in
my text, Job employees it in compari-
son. do not know how anyone can
examine a coral the size of the thumb
nail without bethinking himself of God
and worshipping Him, and feeling the
opposite of the great infidel surgeon,
occurring to the medical students in
the dissecting room upon human eye
which he held in his hand, showing its
wonders of architecture and adapta.
ton. when the idea of God flashed
upon him so powerfully he cried out to
the students. 'NGentlemen. there is a
God; but l hate Him" Picking up a
coral, feel like crying out: There is
God. and 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 fol-
nations to look at; He may green the
grass, and round the dew into pearl
and set on fire autumnal foliage tc
please mortal sight, but those thou
sands Of miles of coral achievement
think He has had built for His own de-
light. In those galleries He alone car
walk. The music of those keys played
on by the fingers of the wave He only
can heal. The snow Of that white and
the bloom of that crimson He alone
can see. Having garnitured this world
to please the human race, and lifted 8
glorious Heaven to please the angelic
intelligences, l am glad that He ha.
planted these gardens Of the deep t.
please Himself. But here and there
God allows specimens of subma
rine glory to be brought up and
set before US for sublime contempla
ton. While l speak, these great ma
tions of zoophytes, meandrinas, ant
| madrepOreS with tentacles for trOwel