The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1883-06-30
TALMAGE's sREMON.



the thumb and two fingers. As you
would take blue ribbon and wind 1t
around your hand Eve or ten times, and
say the ribbon Is five or ten hand
breadthS in length, so Isaiah says God
measures the blue ribbon of the sk les.
HE meteth out the heavens with a
span." A balance, as you know, - a
beam suspended in the middle it'll
baskets of equal weight hanging to the
extremities. Vast hefts have been
weighed by such balances. But what
are all the balances of human manipu-
latiOn compared with what was sus-
pended when God put Mount Washing
ton and the Appenines and the Alps and
the Sierra NeVadas into the scalesp
You see the earth had to be ballasted
with mountains. There must not be too
much weight In Europe, or in Asia, or
In Africa, or in America, to interfere
with the worlds rotation, and so when
God makes the mountains he weighs
them in a balance. They have all been
weighed. He knows just how many tons,
how many pounds avOirdupOts, how
many ounces. how many grains, how
many milligrammea all the great
ranges of mountains across all the con-
tinents weighed at the start, and how
much they weigh now. Isaiah declares
1t. He hath weighed the mountains in
a scale and the hills in a balance.
What God to run against! What God
to defyl What a God to dishOnOr! What
God to disObey! Not one angel of the
long line of seraphs burning before the
throne dares with uncovered eye to look
upon Him. with twain he covered his
face"
One more seraphic posture in the text.
These celestials were not always to
stand still, and when they move they
must not move clumsily; there must be
grace and sOlemnity and grandeur in
the movement. with twain he did fly"
That means swiftness of motion, wide
ness Of range, correction and exhilara-
tiOn. Correction for the soul limping
to Gods service. We crawl where we
ought to fly to do his bidding. Exhila-'
ratiOn-Ouf souls are like the seraphim
in one respective have wings. What
is wing? Instrument of lOcOmOtiOn.
1t may not be just like the birds wing
or the seraph's wing, but wing 1t Is.
The Bible says: Thou shalt mount up
with wings as eagles" We are made
The Bible says so: Healing in His
WINGS" "In the shadow of thy wings"
I'm whose wings they are come to
trust" Thus our soul has wings, fold
ed wing now, perhaps, chained wing,
broken wing, wounded wing, Gagged
wing. | have it nOw-caged, with bars
of bone and curtains of flesh, and one
day to be set free. 1t is rustic of pin
ions when Seagrave, the poet, writes:
"Arise, my soul, and stretch thy WINGS"
and a rustic of piniOns when Alexander
Pope writes: 81 mount; fly. Oh, grave,
where is thy victOryP" dying chris
tian not long ago cried out: wings!
wings! wingsP' The air is full of them
coming and going, coming and going.
You have seen the duh, stupid chrysalid
become the butterfly, its old and slug
gish form left. and its brighter and
more alert form taken. My friends, we
are now in the chTysalid state. Death
will unfuTl the wings. What joy it
will be to get rid of this old clumsy
b0dyl Neither sea-gull, nor lark nor
albatrOss nor falcon nor condor pitch
ing from highest chain of the Andes has
such buoyance or majesty of stroke.
What Is the matter with that mountain
eagle yOndeT in its nest, its wing rag
ged-feathered, and half asleep and sick?
What Is the matterp Is it dying? No;
the OrnithOlOgist will tell you it is with
it the mOulting season. Its old plum
age is falling off and new plumage is
coming on. Not dying but moulting.
seemingly about to expire on what is
called his dying-bed. The world says
he is dying. 1 say it is the moulting
season for his soul, the body is falling
off, the celestial piniOns coming on.
MOulting out of WEAKNESS and struggle
and sin into glory and into God. AT the
transporting thought why don't
you shO z-p You sit shivering about
death and shrinking back from the jour
ney, and wish you could stay h.re and
find departure subject full of skele-
tons and the Varnish of collins, and pre-
fer lame foot to swift wings. o, people
of God let us stop playing the fool and
prepare ourselves for rapturOus flight.
Which way will you face as you stand
on the brink of this life; vast precipices
beneath and sapphire dOmes above? Will
you swOOp, or will you soar? Free
agents, will you fly downward or up
ward? Everything on the wing calls
thee to aspire. Holy Spirit on the wing.
Angel of the new covenant on the wing.
Golden opportunities on the wing. Time
on the wing flying away from us. Eter-
nifty on the wing flying toward us.
Wingsl wings! wings! Live so near to
Christ that when you are dead people
will not stand by your lifeless body sOlil-
What pity he had to go!
How aVerse he was to departure! What
an awful calamity But rather may
there be something in your still face
more marked than the vestiges of pain
to indicate that it was a happy exit, a
clearance from oppressive quarantine, a
cast off chrysalid, mOulting of the fad
ed and worthless, an ascent from mala-
rial valley to cool, shining mountain
tops, leading some on to say as he con-
the happiness of your death:
With twain he covered his feet, with
twain he covered his face, with twain
he did fly. Wingsl wingsl wingsl
Every cloud has a silver lining" it
is said, but the cOlOred clergyman who