Western Reserve chronicle. [volume] (Warren, Ohio) 1855-1921, 1868-12-02
THANKSGIVING SERMON
DELIVERED IN THE
METHODIST CHURCH
WARREN, OHIO,
NOV. &c, 1865,
BY
REV. E. H. YINGLING.

REV. z. H. YINGLING.
TEXT: Rev. IOs6. The Lord God omnIpo
| tent reigneth.
1t is not implied in Gods omnipo
tence that he does all things which he
is able to perform, but that he does
all things which his wisdom sees best
/ to be done. To reign, when applied tC
God, means that diffused presence
which operates through all things
controlling them according with the
harmony of his attributes.
| He reigns in the material world ex-
hibiting his power and wisdom in all
its arrangements. What we call the
laws of nature are but God, ever pres
ent and active. Those continuous
changes and endless varieties seen in
the budding spring, the loaded har-
vest, the fading autumn and the chill
ling winter, are but perpetuatS work
ings of an all prevailing GOd-head.
We speak of the earth, air and water,
with their chemical actions producing
all the beauty and utility that we see
around us; but God is the great chem
ist working unseen in his world wide
laboratory, reigning every where.
Even the untutored savage, with
nothing but the dim light of natural
religion. or confessed tradition, sees
him in the clouds, hears him in the
wind and reads his anger upon the
stormy heavens. And shall the
Christian, taught in the highest school
OF divine wisdom, close his eyes to the
teachings of the inspired volume
and binding himself to a philosophy
that shuts out God from everything
by science "falsely so called?" No.
We can go with the philosopher ev-
erywhere, in all his researches and ad-
mire as much as he does; but when
his system Of cause and effect becomes
atheistie; we must proclaim even in
reference to the material world, 1.-THE
Lord reigneth.n
The reign Of God is seen in the ami
NAL kingdom-God has put the fear Of
man in their instincts, so that the
lion will crouch at the brightness Of
his intellectual eye, and the giant ele-
phant yields his strength to his will
and all the inferior grades flee before
his presence.
In the creation God had a design
in the smallest insect that flies and in
the meanest reptile that crawls, in
ION Is 1lShCS. AA1AAAS NA1eal
lives; appointing to each, its own pc
culiar nature and instinct, and thus
rising in the scale of nature, giving q
perfection and utility in its great va
riety.
God reigns also in the affairs Of man.
Infidelity shuts out God here, and re-
fers everything to second causes, mere
" because we cannot trace His dOings,
or see the end from the beginning.
The Bible is full of the doctrine of
the text as it respects individuals.
Men laughed at Noah when for one
hundred and twenty years he was in
engaged in building an
ark that would. float, when God
brought the deluge upon the earth.
And as the sun shone out in its accus-
toned brightness, just before the sky
gathered black with the Almighty's
frown, they scornfullY said, "All
things remain as they were from the
beginning" But Noah believed God
rather than man, and the first funda-
mental principle of his religion was
the truth of the text, and while he was
in safety on the foam of the
shoreless sea with the lone family left
OF all his generation, how his heart
must have thrilled with the feeling
that he was in the hands Of that God
at whose mandate the fountains of the
great deep could be either opened or
closed.
When Joseph was sold to the Ish-
maelites as a slave, how his brethren
rejoiced over the success of their
scheme; but when famine ragged
in the land, and the same Joseph fed
them from Egyptian stOre-hOuses,
they saw the hand of God in the pre-
and promotion Of that en-
We'd boy.
But it is equally true of ma
tions as of individuals, and we have
only 10 look at history TO learn the
fact.
The Jews were permitted to occupy
their land until after the organization
Of the Christian Church. Then they
were dispersed by the Romans. And
what marks their history more par
is, their destruction was fore
told by the prophets long before it
came to pass. Their sinfulness was
foreseen and their overthrow deter
mined.
The mighty Roman Empire stood
until Christianity became the adopted
religion of one hundred and twenty
millions of people. And when they
the best gift that God ever
gave to man, the mistress Of universal
power was broken TO pieces, and the
scepter of the seven hills was palsied.
The Reformation by Martin Luther
was, under God, the origin of Ameri-
can freedom. When he was thrust
out of his seclusion with the Protest.
ant Bible in his hand, and the Holy
Ghost in his heart, his coming was
like the tread Of an earthquake. His
voice thundered out the doctrine of
justification by faith, and Europe
awoke from the slumber of a thousand
years.
When persecution became insuffer-
able the eyes of the Reformer We're
opened on a new land. God had sent
Columbus to discover this good coun-
try, where, among its hills, and on its
plains, they might worship God Ac-
cording to the dictates Of conscience.
and the freedom Of the Gospel.
And as colony after colony landed
on these shores, from Florida to Plym-
outh Rock they consecrated the hills
and valleys Of this great land, as a
temple in which God was to be wor-
shipped, and freedom proclaimed.
When French infidelity sought to
destroy the purity of the Christian re-
ligion among the colonies by spread !
ing its infidel teachings in every form
Of attack, God raised up the Wesleys a. !
the instruments ofa pure and souI-stir- |
ring piety that awakened the churches /
md aroused the populace OF the moth
n country to greater religious zeal. |
And as each successive cargo of oI,,I.