The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1884-04-07
THE SERMON.
The differences To Be Drawn from the Life OF
BezaleeI, the Inspired Mechanic.


Exodus, chapter xxxv-yerses 80 to 81. And Moses
said unto the children of Israel See, the Lord hath
JAILED by name Bezaleel the of Uri the son of
dur, of the tribe of Judah, and He hath filed him
with the spirit of God in wisdom and in understand
tng, and in knowledge, and in all manner of work,
lnanship to devise cunning works to work in gold and
In silver and in brass and in the cutting of stones to
set them and in carving of wood to make all manner
Of cunning work"
have chosen as a subject the history of this
humble mechanic because though brief, it adj
mits of long inference, This Bezaleel of the
6ribe of Judah was not a poet prophet nor a
priest, but workingman-a carpenter and
joiner, a gold and silversmith He could carve
wood or he could cut diamonds. He
could make any manner Of cunning
work Of the engraver or of the en-
broiderer, in blue and in purple and in scarlet
He genius had the use of his fingers and
had the use of his eyes. The point of notice
the emphatic thing is this: that the spirit of God
was in him TO devise and to do handiwork That
Is, he filed with wisdom that he might carve
wood and mold brass.
We say of such man he has gift. Moses
tells us who gave it. The inference is that his
fellow-craftsmen have been, and are, divinely su
perintended equipped of God, inspired. His
history is foundation for saying that God is in
art-art coarse and fine-arts of use and beauty
Moses says God was in art at one time, and in
FER that He is Id art at all times. will now go
on to strengthen, as best l can, the inference
drawn.
If we classify our thoughts they will be found
in three divisions. Some we have gained from
others These we remember lay them aside
by themselves. Some we have labored for,
and they ours by mental effort-bought
by our labor They smell of midnight OIL
set them aside. There still remain thoughts
which cannot be accounted for-thoughts that
come like flash. They are not children of the
mind, born in weakness to be slowly reared to
strength. They come not from long meditation,
being brooded over while the lamp burned low
They are unlimited visitors. Sitting at ease in
the door of tent at the close of day they came
across the plain If we judge these thoughts by
their quality we shall see that, as the angels
came to Abraham, SO our best thoughts come to
us down from above.
You say thought strikes you, and thereby
express the sense that tits from without 1t is not
a child needing reflection to bring it 1t needs
no holding 1t is well grown, weldefned and
vivid as is the sun. must believe that great
deal of our wisdom is sent to US The door opens
from without, and in the guest walks. 1t is
self-conceit to call it our child. If we tnlnk so,
and tell the neighbors So we deceive ourselves
and them.
Consider how many apples fell seen by how
many eyes, before the fall of that famous one
which enlightened Newton as to the law Of
gravitation. What is an illustration of a law
good for unless the teacher stands by to apply it?
How long the rivers and the seas rolled be-
fore the steam engine? How many times was
the lid of a hot teakettle lifted in vaing The
parable always being spoken, but nobody
likened it to anything until the interpreter came
The pupils sat stupid and looked out of eyes
that saw not
Jacob loved his Rachel as much as Robert
Hargrave did his Jenny, but he invented no
spinning Rachel that the yarn for a coat of
many colors might be quickly drawn out In
vention waits Gods time. The children will al
ways wonder at the dullness of the fathers
They ought not to wonder. The children will
aot have any more wisdom than they need to
use. God gives not to mans Importantly, but
always to mans need.
When the family is become large and the
home narrow, Columbus is born. Whence came
the impulse that sent him across an unknown
sea to an unknown shorel The labor of man ac-
counts for the voyage, but whence came the
faith to set sail! Columbus must beg seven
years for ships and a crew, but before all this
there must have been something to set him
a-begging. If the impulse which thus hurries
him to widen the world is not the pressure of
the finger of God. what is it,
1 think that Columbus must have OWNED the
riddle God said of him as of Cyrus, For this
cause have raised thee up" Think of the
steadfast faith that in the long voyage from
morning to evening looked right on to the west
for the world that must be- A faith that stood
lonely amid the mutiny of all the crew. No one
in the wide world believed with
him. except one woman. "One faith
against the flesh of all mankind" He had laid
his hand to the plow, his keel turned a straight
furrow, he did not look back. Think of the
stress upon him in that last day, when he had
promised if land was not found he would turn
back 1t was one day, but it was time enough.
1t was due time; it was the day God had set
Not only we can not account for Columbus,
Galileo and Watt and the host of civilizers,
sailors and soldiers, priests and poets, by whom
the world has been widened and cleared, and
lifted up, but they can not account for them
selves. Livingstone, in the Dark Continent, feels
himself held to his errand by power not his