The Brookhaven leader., 1888-10-11
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
The Chariot OF the Lord Which
Rolls Upon the Clouds.
The wheels, Representing Justice and
Mercy, Ready to Turn on the In
slant In Response to the Cry
of this rcrturbed Soul.

text:
who makcih thc clouds His chariot-Psalms,
civ, q
Brutes are constructed so as to look
down. Those earthly creatures that hid .
wings, when 'ilcy rise from the cara /,
still look down, and the eagle searches
for mice in the grass, and the rsven for
carcassos In thu field. Man alone Is made
70 look up. To induce him to look up
God makes the skies a picture gallery, a
Dusseldorf, Il Louvre, a Luxembourg, a
Vatican that CC!ipscs all that German or
French or Italian art ever accomplished.
But God has failed so far to attract the
attention o. FLo-t OF us by the scenery OF
the sky. We 80 into raptures over aow-
ers in the soil, hut have little or no APP
probation II the morning glories" that
bloom on the wall of the sky at sunrise or
the dahlias in the clouds at sunset We
are in ecstaCies over a gobelin tapestry,
or a bridal vail of rare fabric, or q snow
bank OF exquisite curve, but see not at
all, or See without emotion, the bridal
walls of mist that cover the face of the
Catskills, or the swaying upholstery
around the couch Of the dying day, or the
snow-bauks of vapor piled up IN the
heavens.
MY text bids us lift our chin three or
-FOUR inches buu open lIe lNO ltItSCOpSS
which, under he forehead, are put on
swivel easily turned upward, and see that
the clouds are not merely unlnteresting
signs III wet or dry weather, but that they
are embroidered cauopies of shade; that
they are the Conservatives Of the sky;
that they are thrones Of pomp; that they
are crystalline bars; that they are paint
ings III water color; that they are the an
gels of the mist; that they are great ca
theIrals of light with broad aisles for
angelic feet to walk through and bow at
eltars of amber and alabaster; that they
are mothers of the dew; that they are
ladders for ascending and descending
glorios, Cotopaxis of betching flame.
Niagaras of color; that they are the
masterpieces Of the Lord God Almighty.
The clouds are a favorite Bible smile,
and tho sacred writers have made much
use of them.
After the deluge God hung on q cloud
In concentric bands the colors of the
spectrum, saying: 81 do not set may bow
IN the cloud" AS mountain is some
times entirely hidden by the vapors so,
says God, II have blotted out thick
cloud, thy trausgressions." David meas
ures the Divine goodness, and found it so
high he apostrophized: "Thy faithfulness
reached into the clouds" As sometimes
there are thousands of feeces of yapor
scurrying across the heavens, so, says
Isaiah, will be the converts in the milleD-
MUM las clouds and as doves"
AS in the wet season, no sooner does
the sky clear than there comes another
observation, so, says Solomon, one ache
or ailment of old folks has no more than
gone than another pain comes las clouds
return in the rain"
column Of illumiled cloud led the Is
raeltes across the wilderness. In the
Book of Job, Elihu, watching the clouds,
could not understand why they did not
fall, or why they did not all roll together,
the laws of evaporation and condensa-
ton then not being understood, and he
cried out: "Dost Thou know the balanc
ing of the cloudsp When read my text
1t suggests to me that the clouds are the
Creators equipage, and their whirling
the Cloud Is Tie Yb65efSsls 81 and the tongue OF
hicle, and the winds are the barmassed
steeds, and God is the royal eo~r 49,. 49,. i
driver who maketh the clouds His char :
lot"
To understand the Psalmist's me aning
In the text you must know that the chariot
OF old was sometimes a sculptured brill
lancy made out OF ivory, sometimes OF
oOAA1 oAlfClt anu lOllGu On TWO "u6tlh
which were fastened to the axle by stout
Plus, and the awful defeat of Rnonaus
by Pelops was caused by the fact that q
traitorous charioteer had inserted q
Inch pin of wax instead of a Inch PIN
OF iron. All of the SIX hundred chariots
OF Pharaoh lost their Inch pins in the
Red Sea, for the Bible says: THE Lord
took off their wheels"
Look at the long fash OF Solomon $
fourteen hundred chariots, and the thirty
thousand chariots of the Philistines. If
you have ever visited the buildings
where King or Queen keeps the coaches
OF state, as have, you know that Kings
and Queens have great varieties of turn
out. The keeper tells you:
This is the state carriage, and used
only on great occasions" This is the
coronation carriage, and in it the King
rode on the day he took the throne" "In
this the Queen went to open Parliament"
"This is the coach IN which the Gar and
the Sultan rode on the occasion of their
visit"
All costly and tesselated and enriched
and emblazoned are they. And when the
driver takes the reins of the ten white
horses in his hands, and amid mounted
troops and bands in full force sounding
the national air, the splendor starts and
rolls on under arches entwined with ban
ners, and amid the huZza Of hundreds of
thousands of spectators the scene is
memorable. But my text puts all such
occasions into insignificance, as it repre-
sents the King of the Universe coming to
the door of His palace, and the gilded
vapors OF the Heavens rolling up to His
feet, and He stepping in and taking the
reins of the galloping winds in His hand,
starts in triumphal ride under the arches
of sapphire and over the atmos pheric
highways of opal and chrysOlite, the
clouds His chariot
My hearers, do not think that God be-
Titles Himself when He takes such con-
veyance. Do you know that the clouds
are among the most Iwonderous and ma
jestic things in the whole universe? Do
you know that they are flying lakes and
rivers and oceans? God waved His hand
over them and said: "Come up higher ~
and they Obeyed the mandate. That
cloud, instead of being, as it seems, a
small gathering of vapOr few yards wide
and high, is really seven or eight miles
across, and is a mountain from i IS base to
its top, fifteen thousand feet, eighteen
thousand feet twenty thousand feet, and
cut through with ravines five thousand
feet deep. No. David did not make a
fragile or unworthy representation of God
in the text when he spoke of the clouds as
His chariot. But, as l suggested in the
case Of an earthly King, He has His morn
ing cloud chariot and His evening cloud
Chariot-the cloud chariot in which He