Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1883-02-12
Never Looked Upon the Sunrise.

we'll as Dy It's neaItntuiIaCtlOn. ASK tl0Se
who for twenty years have
Never Looked Upon the Sunrise.
Ask those who for half a century have
never seen the face of friend. Ask the
asylums with their victims of oph thalmia
Ask those whose eyes perished in the pow
der blast. Ask Bartineas whom Christ
soon restored to sight, and those born blind
who are to die blind. Earl of Bridgwster
in his last will and testament beoueathed
$4,000 for essays to be written ION the
power and wisdom and goodness OF God as
manifested in the creation" and Sir
Charles Bell. the British surgeon Just home
from the fields of Corunna and Waterloo,
where he had been lending aid and studying
the wonderful construction OF the human
body amid the amputating horrors of the
battle field, accepted the invitation to
write one Of these treatices, and took for
his subject, "The Hand" writing a book
on that one instrument which will last
while the world lasts.
This day, in my own imperfect way
have hinted at the splendors, the glories,
the mysteries, the divine revelations, the
apocalypses Of the human eye, but stag
ger back from the awful probabilities of
this physiological miracle which must
have
Taxed the Ingenuity OF God
to cry in your ears the text, "He that
formed the eye, shall he not SEEM" Shall
Herschel not know as much as his teIe.
scope? Shall Frauenhofer not know as
much as his spectroscope? Shall Swan
merdam not know as much as his micro
scope? Shall Dr. Hook not known as much
as his micrometer? Shall the thing made
know more than its maker? He that
planted the eye, shall he not see? Oh, the
recoil OF the question is tremendous. We
must be at the center of a vast circumfer.
ence OF observation. No privacy. On us
the eyes OF cherubim, eyes OF seraphim,
eyes of archangel, eyes OF God. We cannot
see the Inhabitants of other worlds, but
they may see US. II our optical instru-
ments fail to sCrutinize them that is no
proof that they have no optical instrument
strong enough TO scrutinize US. Because
the mole cannot see the eagle mid
sky is no reason to believe
that the eagle cannot see the mole mid.
grass. We only see the caverns on the
mountains of other worlds. but. they may
behold the towers OF our cities, the flash Of
our seas, the marching of our professions,
the white robes Of our weddings, and the
black scarfs Of oEr Obsequies. Yea, the
Gospel says and we know that from one
world at least they come on envoy 10 this.
Are they not all ministering spirits sent
forth to minister to those who shall be
heirs OF salvation? But human inspection
and angelic inspection, and stellar inspec.
tion, and solar inspection, and human in.
spection are tame compared with the
thoughts of divine inspection. Twenty
years ago you converted me, said a black
man to my aged father. How So" said
my father. "Oh, said the man, 'in your
prayer in the school house at Bound Brook
New Jersey, you used to say:
"Thou, God, Seest Me-"
Hear it: 1.-THE eyes Of the Lord are in
every place beholding the evil and the
good" His eye.lids try the children OF
men," "His eyes where is the flame OF
fire." 81 will goad them with mine eye" ,"
of power, SO full of love, so full of indigns-
tion, so full Of msrcy-how it peers through
the night How it outshines the day I!
How it glares on the wicked, How it
beams on the repenting soul. II the eye
of man is so indescribably wonderful, how
much more SO the great, searching and
overwhelming eye of God. What over
hanging brow omnipotent! All eternity
past and all eternity 10 come on that reu-
ma. These eyes with which we this mo.
ment look in each others faces, suggest it.
1t stands written twice on your face and
twice on mine, unless some casualty has
obiterated one or both of them. He that
formed the eye shall he not sce?' Yes.
He sees our sins to condemn them. our
sorrows to assuage them, our perpieSities
to disentangle them, our wants To sympa'
thize with them. II we fight him back il
is the eye of our eternal antagonist. Ii We
come to Him for pardon, it is the
Eye ofan Everlasting Friend.
You see in books and in manuscripts
very often star calling of attention 10 a
foot note of explanation. That star the
printers call an asterisk. So all the stars
of the night are asterisks calling your at.
tention TO God, the all-observing and good.
Yea, our every nerve is of divine hand
writing and our every muscle pulley
diyinely swung and our every bone IS
sculptured. with divine suggestion, and our
yerv eve is a revelation Of the divine eve
God before us aud God behind US and God
above us and God beneath us and GOD
within US. What a stupendous thing.
Let US give up all idea of hidden ini-
duity. A dramatic advocate OF Olden time
in the court room at night, knowing that
his client was innocent OF the murder
charged and that the witness on the stand
swearing the mans life away mad himself
committed the crime, lifted two lamps
from the table and rushed at the perjurer
and holding the light close TO his face
shouted, "Behold the murderer" Under
the glare the witness confessed the crime.
But under brighter light than that every
sin is committed, for il is under the burn
nE God opI fharo hiding il
HE that formed the eye, shall He not
see?" He is not blind giant stumbling
through heavens or monarch cropping for
the step of his chariot. DO you suffer
wrong? He sees it. Are you abused and
slandered? He sees it. Is there domestic
perturbation that the world knows nothing
Of? He sees il and the day Of rescue is not
far off. But" says some one my affairs
are
Too Small and InsigniGcant
for God TO discern them" Can you see the
point of pin, can you see a mote floating
in a sunbeam, can you see the eye OF q
needle? And has not He who gave you
that power equal capacity for seeing small
things? But" you say, ~ am so far OF
from God that He will not notice my az
fairs" Can you see world eighty million
miles away, and do you not think that God
has as prolonged vision? But" you say
There are particular phases OF nay life
that will escape divine attention" Does
not God gather all the glories and all the
shades of color in the rainbow, and can
He not appreciate the most delicate shade
of YOUR affairs Beside that your eye
which God so exquisitely fashioned and
hinged and rooted and through which have
marched so many of the glories OF life
time, will soon close in tie last slumber
Loving hands will smooth down the silkcr
fringes. 80 He giyeth His belov
ed sleep" A legend Of Siin,
Frodobert says that his mother was blind
and he sorely pitied her,and one day kissed
her eyes and they mirsculously saw every
thing. So the blind eyes OF the Christian
dead shall under the kiss of a resurrection
morning gloriously open. Yea, what day
that will be for those who stumbled theil
way through life led by hand OF friend O
felt their pathway with uncertain staff
their pilgrimage under perpetual obscura
tion or because of old age. Those tha
looked out OF the Windows be darkenei,
when at last eternal day breaks in. Wha