Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1907-06-06
Ca(rn,aQe
sermon
By Rev.
Frank De Witt Talnase, D. d.

matchieSs architectural skill, the pa
tience, industry and wisdom of the
spider material as we'll as n spiritual
lesson. The text is Proverbs XXX, %,
"Thc spider takcth hold with her
hands and is in kings palaces"
Have you ever been through any OF
the famous royal palaces Of Europe ?
Have you ever had guide take you
through Windsor castle where the Eng
fish king and queen live. or through
the Tuileries and Versailles, where the
French rulers have lived. or through
Peterhof. built by Peter the Great.
where the Russian crowned heads
lived, or through the Quirinal, where
the Italian rulers live, or through the
imperial palaces fanklng Inter den
Linden, whore the emperor Of Ger.
many and the members Of the Uohea-
zollern family live? These palaces are
something more than domiciles for
kings and queens and princes and prin-
cesses. Ther are treasures of art and
literature. They contain great art gal-
leries and museums. They are great
libraiiee, They nre flied with price
less historical relics. And they are
built In the midst of beautiful gardens.
where the tossing tumbling fountains
have myriad Of rainbows reflected
from their falling waters by day and
where the statues carved by the great
est Of sculp-ors and The most exquisite
of flowers are revealed to the guests
by the many lights by night which
make the midnight as light as the
midday.
King Solomon's palaces were the best
examples of architectural beauty of his
time Thus when Solomon was using
in my text the symbol of the king
palace he was practically saying: The
kings palace Is a treasure house
There come the greatest of architects
ana the most wonderful Of sculptors
to work the" skill in stone. Their,
come tie finest artists to paint their
pictures. There come the magiclaus
Of the loom 10 bring their offerings of
Damascene rugs and their most cx-
quisitc tapestries. There come the
most wonderful hort;cu!turists to Law
out their gardens. All that wealth and
beauty and human power can give is
to he found in the kings palaces"
One morning early King Solomon is
walking through the rooms of his pal
ace. Suddenly he stops and begins to
study something very carefully. 1t is
a spiders web. During the night the
spider has crawled into the house and
swung a suspension bridge and there
gone to work. Up and down he has
crawled. Hc lowered himself from the
ceiling and climbed up from the win
dow sills. He knotted his threat here
and spun his network there Then a
servant comes into the room and with
u broom he IS about to brush this
spiders web away leave it alone"
Solomon says. II never studied one
before. How marvellous is the work
manship Of this sllken web. Why, in
all the splendo"s of my palace there is
not greater wonder than this spider
web" Then King solomon takes out
his notebook and writes down tho
words of my text, The spider takcth
hold with her hands and is in kings
palaces" IF the Nisest of all men
could afford TO study the spider build
ing her web. surely We have n right
to make sermon upon the life's work
Of royal spider.
Royal Occupation.
In the first place, the spider has
royal occupation. She is threadnak-
er. weaver, a spinner. She has the
faculty of producing q thread inside
of her own body anu drawing it out.
the only living creature that has the
ability to construct with that thread
those wonderfully designed webs which
are seen III the houses and barns. on
the roads, in the grasses ana trees ey-
cry summer mornin; before the dews
have eyapora.ed under the rising sun.
The si!kworin may NO able to spin "A
cocoon, but tce spider does more than
that. The spider has the power to
stand upon the branch of a tree and
emit from her body a thread then as
this thread grows longer pnd longer
it Is carried backward and forward by
the winds until it touches another
branch, where it is anchored Then
the spider, having connected tho two
branches by this single thread, as an
architect bridges the sides of river
by cable strand, goes above that
strand and drops down and goes be-
low that strand and climbs up and
winds around and around and around