WORLD’S ROCKS

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XVII, 9 December 1927, Page 9

WORLD’S ROCKS

HEARTHSTONE OF PEACE A REMARKABLE SYMBOL. NOVEL CHURCH FIREPLACE. A rock fireplace built of stones from many parts of th© world as a symbol of the desires of peace lovers that all nations may be represented around th© hearthstone is attracting attention to th© Methodist Episcopal Church at Fayette. lowa, United States. It was built by the pastor, the Rev. John D. Clinton, with the help of members of the church and former students of the Upper lowa University Methodist School at Fayette. In the fireplace are 369 rocks and minerals from every continent and most of the States of the Unitea States. The number 369 was chosen, explained the pastor, because the word “rock” occurs 105 times ip the Bible, and the word “stono” 264 times, making 369. th© exact rock and stone total of the Bible. The keystone of the fireplace Is a triangular piece weighing 651 b. found in th© Blue Slate Gulch near Fayette and named the Bissel rock in honour of the, long-time president ot Cpper lowa University. The mantel rocks are two long slabs from quarries at Postville. lowa. Stones washed by th© Atlantic and Pacific Oceans mingle with coral rock from Florida and cobbles from rhe Great Lakes. Lead, gold, and zinc ore - from American mines lie side Jiy side with onyx- from Mexico, a Detrilied elam from Lincolnshire, England, and stone tomahawk from South Dakota Iron from the Dardanelles, lava from Honolulu, granite from Vermont, a fossil from lowa, stones from the shores of Catalina and re

Sea of Galilee, from the Great Wall of China and the Philippines, from the Pyramids of Egypt and the isles of the South Seas combine to make up the fireplace. There are other things of curious interest about the Fayette church besides the fireplace. It is reputed to be the oldest pure Gothic piece of church architecture in active use west ot the Mississippi. Its first flooi- hewed recently out of the solid rock stratum on which the church was erected 50 .years ago, tells in terms ‘T architecture the history of the Reformation Beyond the Tyndale room is the Luther house, the only copy in America, as far as is known, of Martin Luther’s room at Wittenburg, the birthplace of Protestantism. Tlie light enters dimly through a window «. heavily-laden hexagon panes. The door is the old, curved t>p kind. In the centre is a rough table, a duplicate of the one on which Luther wrote his sermons. An old lantern no tlie wall and a rude bench complete the picture. From tlie Luther House the visitor goes into the Broad room, so called, the pastor explained, because in i.s stylo of Old Tudor England is meant to be symbolical of tlie broadening people did >n their thinking after Luther’s time. It is in this room that the fireplace has been built, tn the soft glow of its light groups gather in the evenings for religious and social fellowship. At one end bf the Broad room is the Franciscan corner. A high wooden door with long, black hinges and latchstring admits one. In the centre of the room, with its trowelmarked walls, stencilled with animal patterns, is an innovation in church school equipment—a sand table hidden under the floor. Lift up two doors in the floor and a pit with sand table, surounded by kindergarten benches, appears. Here the children play, and at the S'" school hour are taught to build Biblical stories in the sqnd. During the past summer the Rev. John D. Clinton has reached with th© Gospel many of the Sunday forenoon visitors to the church by preaching out of doors to them from a pulpit in a tree m the churchyard.