Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1907-06-06


and Stays 1t as quickly as the fang of
q rattlesnake can kill tho trembling
rabbit Thus God places the protect
Ing spider web over the crops and the
trees. Thus God expects man to place
his protecting webs over the home
and the church and the schoolhouse
and society at large. There are great
multitudes OF satanic destrOyers ready
to pounce upon them. God says Man,
You must guard these treasure houses
OF virtue and purity and truth You
must guard them. You must not only
bow the knee and worship me, but you
must also fight my satanic foes as
we'll BY the myriads Of protecting
spider webs / would teach you this les-
son"
But / was very much surprised ms !
began to study this subject to learn
that the spider was susceptible to tho
influence of love. For years and years
l had known that the spider was a
cannibal. Just the same MS the sava re
tribes of the African Kongo would 90
forth and battle against the neighbor-
ing tribes and then come home with
rejoicing and kill and eat their prison
crs captured in war, so spiders will not
only eat spiders of other families. but
they will also eat their own brothers
and sisters and fathers and mothers.
That is the reason spider silk cannot
be developed and made marketable
like the threads of the slkworms.
Many years ago the Royal academy
OF France tried to develop the spider
silk industry. The silk thread with
which the spider surrounds her eggs
is of beautiful color. almost as strong
as that made by the slkworm. NJ.
Bon Of Languedoc manufactured srti-
cles of wearing apparel out of the
spiders web But the industry had to
be abandoned because the spiders
would destroy one another until every
one Of them except the biggest and
the strongest of them had been slain in
their cells. Thus the spider used to he
to me the symbol of ingratitude, feroc-
ity and hate. lie was the symbol of
all that was cruel and loathsome and
repulsve. I thought God gave to the
spider his hideous physiognomy. bis
rows Of cleaning eyes. his bloated
body trunks adhering together by
small connection, as We're the two
bodies of the STA mesc twins; his many
jonted, disproportionate legs. which
make ii possible for him to travel in
any direction he would without turn
ing around; his poisons which are Sc
creted at the mandible tips and his
cannibaliStic tendencies which compel
him to live a hermit life. because God
wanted every one to turn from the
spider in complete disgust But after
went on in my ilvestiga tons I found
that even this low, vile, repulsive form
of life as found in the spider is sus-
ceptiblc to the influence of love.
An Ancient Tradition.
An ancient tradition states that when
st. Felix of Nolan was being pursued
by the paganS VINO wished to put him
to death be fed into cave. and the
spiders took pity on him and covered
the entrance of the cave with per-
feet web. There he lived for six long
months. safely protected from his
would be destroyers. That is q mere
legend. But history is full Of Incl.
dents where men have made pets out
of spiders. When Poisson was con
fined FOR many months in the Bastille.
the famous French prison. his only
companion was spider which he do
mesticatcd. When Poisson played on
a musical instrument the spider would
come regularly to cat files out Of his
hand. 1t was written by Staveley that
q certain Frenchman tanned over 500
different spiders. which would come to
him to he fed as lot Of chickens will
run 70 the call of the farmers wife
when she is about to feed them.
Though the spiders seem TO be canni-
balls, yet the natural love Of a spider
for her young is very strong. Ii is
like the love of the eagle for her
nostings. She will hercely battle for
her eggs before they are Matched.
When the eggs are hatched. she will
allow the young spiders to climb upon
her back, and she will carry them for
long distances. thus by the lesson Of
the spider we can assert that even in
the most depraved and ferocious and
cruel and bitter and sinful forms of
humaA life there lies somewhere III
the heart the germ seeds of love. If
this crude form of love can only be
reached in the right way for God, it
can be developed into true, pure. |
spotless form of Christian life, even
as the love OF u spider through the
musical notes of Poisson can make |
this repulsive animal answer to the
calls Of love.
But there Is still more wonderful
fact about these spiders than any I !
have as yet mentioned. 1t is the
most wonderful symbol Of gospel |
restoration which Is to be found in the |
spider reproducing one Of its broken |
limbs injured in battle. 1t is the Cos
pei symbol which says, Though a man
has sinned seventy times seven--aye,
hough he may have sinned seven hun
lred times seven hundred and has |
seemed to smash all his earthly gospel |
lsefulness fOrever-yet by the grace of |
Tod that sinner may be spiritually re-
'reated and do valiant service for the
Master before he dies"
A More Wonderful Fact.
Now, spider has marvellous power