Ezekiel 27:16

Coral

Coral. Ezekiel 27:16.

Here is December, the last month of the year, and it brings us to the last stone in our imaginary talisman. What do you think I have chosen as the last jewel? Why, the very first gem that a child wears one that I expect most of you knew by sight before you knew it by name I mean the coral. It used to be the fashion to give babies a bit of coral to bite on, so that it might help their teeth to cut the gum, and one of the nicest presents for a baby girl is supposed to be a string of coral beads.

Well, I can't tell if you have any corals of your own, but, if not, very likely one of your little friends has a string, and at any rate you know corals when you see them. Do you know their story too? It is a sea story. And as wonderful as any fairy tale.

Long, long ago people used to be very puzzled about coral. They thought it was a flower of the sea, but how it came to be so hard they could not tell. The fishermen who brought it up in their nets from the bottom of the ocean said that was easily explained. The coral was soft so long as it was under water, but the moment it reached the air it turned hard as a rock.

But there was one man who was not satisfied with that explanation, so he hired a diver to go down and examine the coral at the bottom of the sea. The diver came up and reported that the coral was every bit as hard there as it was above water. When the good man heard this he was so anxious to see if it were true that he actually went down himself to prove it.

Nowadays, thanks to him and all the other wise folk who have studied the subject, we know that the coral is not a flower. It is the skeleton of a little sea animal called a polyp. When it is born this little animal is like a soft pear-shaped piece of jelly. But it doesn't remain long like that.

It fastens on to some object on the floor of the ocean a stone, a bottle, a bit of wrecked ship, or even a cannon ball. Then it begins to grow and harden and spread itself. It draws out of the water the carbonate of lime the stuff of which the oyster makes the pearl and from the carbonate it grows its bones or frame. It first spreads into a dome shape like an orange cut in half, then it shoots out one little horn after another, till there is a perfect rosette of horns or branches growing from the dome, or foot, as it is called.

But there are corals of other shapes besides the rosette. There are some which look like huge sponges, only you had better not try to wash your face with them! There are others which are fan-shaped, and still others which grow like a set of organ pipes. Some have long branches like the branches of a tree, others still are not unlike a large cauliflower. And you should just see the colors! green, white, red, pink, yellow, and black. They make the bed of the ocean look like a gorgeous garden.

Those of you who are fond of stories about pirates, and the South Seas, and treasure trove, have often read of coral islands. Well, these coral islands have all been built by the industrious little coral polyps. Though they are so tiny, they have built a reef 1000 miles in extent along the north-east coast of Australia.

The red and pink gem coral does not come from the South Seas. It is found in the Mediterranean, chiefly off the coasts of Sicily and Corsica. It is taken to Italy and cut and polished there. Some of it is made into round beads, some into oval beads, some of it is left like tiny branches. The larger pieces are cut into cameos for rings or brooches, and the largest pieces of all are made into ornaments, such as umbrella handles. One very unusual ornament is made more often than any other. It is a coral hand. The Italians and the Spaniards and many other races believe that if they wear this little coral hand it will act as a charm to keep away evil. They say that a coral talisman will ward off what they call “the evil eye.”

That reminds me of the story of an old lady who lived in London during the air raids. She was talking to an officer home from the front who had seen how a bomb could pass through storey after storey of a building, and then blow it sky high. The officer asked her if she was nervous. “Not in the least!” she replied. “You see I am quite safe. I have put a tarpaulin awning over my house.”

The coral has as much power to protect anyone from evil as that tarpaulin awning had to protect the poor old lady's house from bombs.

But, boys and girls, those who believe in things like coral charms are right in this. We do need something to protect us against evil. We need a talisman very badly on our way through this world. We shall meet evil time and again, and as we grow older we shall have many a grim fight with it. What is going to help us? No coral hand, no lucky black cat, no woolly mascot will aid us in that struggle. There is only one talisman that will be of any use, and that is Christ in the heart. If we wear that talisman, no evil can befall us. Christ will help us in every battle against what is wrong.

We have had many messages from the different jewels throughout the year, but no message is more important than the message of the coral. “Wear the only true talisman.” If we do that, all the virtues that the other jewels spoke of will come easily to us. (The texts of the sermons in this series are Genesis 2:12; Job 28:19; Proverbs 3:15; Jeremiah 17:1; Ezekiel 1:26; Ezekiel 27:16 (2), Ezekiel 28:13; Matthew 13:45; Revelation 21:19-20 (2).)