Peninsula enterprise. [volume] (Accomac, Va.) 1881-1965, 1907-06-08

winds the insect round and round until
he cannot move If he would. Then
when the insect Is utterly helpless she
gives her victim fatal poisonous bite
and slays 1t as quickly as the fang OF
rattlesnake can kill the 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
well. BY the myriads of protecting
spider webs l would teach you this les
SON"
But / was very much surprised as |
began to study this subject to learn
that the spider was susceptible to the
influence of love. For years and years
| had known that the spider was
cannibal. Just the same as the savage
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
ers 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 silkworms.
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 silkworm. NJ.
Bon of Languedoc manufactured artl-
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 be
to me the symbol Of ingratltude, feroc-
ity and hate. He was the symbol Of
all that was cruel and lOathsome aud
repulsive | thought God gave to the
spider his hideOus physiOgnOmy, his
rows Of cleaning eyes, his bloated
body trunks adherlng together by a
small connection, as were the two
bodies Of the Siamese twins; his many
jointed, dsproportionate legs, which
make 1t possible for him to travel in
any direction he would without turn
ing around; his poisons which are Sc
creted at the mandlbe tips and his
cannlbalstlc tendencies which compel
him to live hermit lfe because God
wanted every one to turn from the
spider in complete disgust. But after
I went on in my inyestigationssI i found
that even this low, vile, repulsiye form
of life as found in the spider is sus-
ceptible to the knfuence Of love.
An Ancient Tradition.
Anatloientt. tradition stateS that when
sSt. relix ot fSoiEii sssas 4aisz ,irssled
by the pagans who wished-to put him
to death he fed into a cave, and the
spiders took pity on him and covered
the entrance Of the cave with a per-
feet web. There he lived for six long
months, safely protected from his
would be destroyers. That is mere
legend. But history is full Of incl
dents where men have made pets out
of spiders. When PelissOn was con-
fined for many months in the Bastille,
the famous French prison, his only
companion was spider which he do
mesticated. When PeliSsOn played on
a musical instrument the spider would
come regularly to eat flies out Of his
hand. 1t was written by Staveley that
a certain Frenchman tanned over 500
different spiders, which would come to
him to be fed as lot of chickens VIII
run to the call of the farmers wife
when she Is about TO feed them.
Though the spiders seem to be canni-
balls. vet the natural love Of spider
for her young is very strong. 1t Is
like the love of the eagle for her
nestlings. She will fiercely 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
human life there lies somewhere In
the heart the germ seeds Of love. If
this crude form of love can only be
reached in the right way for God, II
can be developed into a true, pure,
spotless form of Christian life, even
as the love of a spider through the
| musical notes Of n Pelisson can make
! this repulsiye animal answer to the
calls Of love.
But there Is still a more wonderful
fact about these spiders than any
have as yet mentioned. 1t Is the
most wonderful symbol Of gospe
restoration which is to be found in th'
spider reproducing one of Its broker
limbs injured in battle. 1t Is the gos
pei symbol which says, Though a maj
has sinned seventy times seyen-aye
though he may have sinned seven hun
dred times seven hundred and ha
seemed to smash all his earthly gospe
usefulness foreyer-yet by the grace o
God that sinner may be spiritually re
created and do valiant service for th
Master before he dies"
A More Wonderful Fact
Now, a spider has marvellous powe
of recreation in many ways. Wonder
full is the spiders ability to fix brc
ken web. If Oh account of the rain
falling stone snaps some of the thread