The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1898-01-07
AMID THE CORAL REEFS.
Interesting Discourse on the sculp-
ture of the Deep.
Lessons Drawn From the woAderfuI Cfea-
tiens CT Minute Marine Inse6ts-u-
1astfation Of the I'm portahes
Of United Eff6rk


Witt Talmage teaches. by reference to
the wonderful work of the coral in
sects, the Importance of united and
persistent effort. The text is:
No mention shall be made of eeral-tdB
| xviii, IL
Why do you say that, inspired drama
tistP 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 miracle Of shape and transport
| Of color 10 those who have studied it,
is hot 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 ] examined a speci-
| men on the shelf first realized what
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 sc ehtranced 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 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 along 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 60 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 |
cles, their aisles, their pillars, their
curves, their cleavages, their reticula-
ton, their grOuping-families 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 animalcule3 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
fnitesimal but sublime masonry. At
the recession Of the tides you may in
some places see the top of their Alpine
while elsewhere nothing
but the deep-sea soundings from the
decks of the Challenger, the Porcu-
pine and the Lightning of the British
can announce them.
The ancient Gauls employed
The coral to adorn their helmets
and the hilts of swords. In many lands
t has been used as amulets. The Al
yerian reefs in one year QS73) had at
work amid the coral 81 vessels. with
}, $50 sailors, yielding in profit $3.50, 600. l
But the secular and worldly value of
he coral is nothing as compared with {
he moral and religious, as when, in {
ny text, Job employees it in COMPARE {
on. l do not know how anyone can s
examine a coral the size of the thumb 4;
lail without be thinking himself of God I
md worshipping Him, and feeling the -
opposite of the great infdel surgeon, |
occurring to the medical students in {
lie dissecting room upon a human eye {
which lie held in his hand, showing it's I
wonders of architecture and adapta- c
ion, when the idea of God flashed I
Ipon him so powerfully he cried out to /
he students. Gentlemen, there is a s
iod; but l hate Him" Picking up
oral, feel like crying out: There is q
God. and l adore Him." S
Nothing SO impresses me with the t
act that our God loves the beautiful. '
| q
ever comes TO human observation. e
unrises and sunsets He hangs up for L
atiOns to look at; He may green the 2
rass, and round the dew into pearl, t
nd set on fire autumnal foliage 20 a
lease mortal sight but those thou
ands of miles of coral achievement l b
hink He has had built for His own de- S
ght. In those galleries He alone can v
5alk. The music of those keys played t
n by the fingers of the wave He only n
an hear The snow of that white and o
he bloom of that crimson He alone T.
an see. Having garnitured this world Ii
D please the human race, and lifted o
lorious Heaven to please the angelic 5
l am glad that He has I
lanted these gardens of the deep to i
lease Himself. But here and there "
cd allows specimens of subma- s.
me glory to be brought up and o
IT before us for sublime contempla- h
on. While L speak, these great ma S
ons of zoophytes, meandrinas, and h
with tentacles for trowel, "
re building just such coral as we find h
l our text. The diamond may be o
lore rare, the crystal may be more o
parking, the chrysoprase may be S
lore ablaze, but the coral is the long, 5
eep, everlasting blush of the sea. Yet a
Ob, who UNDERSTOOD all kinds of pre- o
Gus stones, declares that the beauty b
nd value of the coral are nothing COM a
AIRED with our holy religion, and he is
icl1s up this coralline formation and h
,oks at it, and filings it aside with all S.
lie other beautiful thin gs he has ever Il
card OF, and cries out in ecstacy of s.
1miration for the superior qualities S
our religion: mo mention shall be Il
ade of coral. D