The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1888-10-18
TALMAGE'S SERMON,
Tho Weekly Disoourses Of the Great
BROOKLYN Preacher.
Suhicc;, "Thc Clouds HIS
ChuriOt."



Those earthly creatures that have wing
when they rise from tho earth still looi
down, and the eagle searches for mice in tn,
grass and the raven for carcasses in the field
Man alone Is made to look up. To Undue,
him to LOOK up God makes the sky picture
gallery, Dusseldorf, Louvre, a Luxem
bourg, Vatican that eclipses all that Ger
,pan, or French, or Italian art ever accom-
plished But God has failed so far to attrac,
the attention Of most OF us by the scenery Of
the sky, We 60 into raptures flower over,
an the soil, but have little or no appreciation
of the morning glories" that bloom ON the
wall of the sky at sunrise or the dahlas in
over gobelin tapestry or bridal veil OF
rare fabric, or snowhank of exquiste curve,
but see not at all or see without emotion,
the bridal veil OF mist that covers the face oil
the CatSkills, or the swaying upholstery
around the couch of the dying day, or the
snowbanks of vapor piled up in the heavens.
My text bids us lift our chin three or four
inches and open the two teescop which
under the forehead are put on swivel easily
turned upward, and see that the clouds are
not merely uninteresting signs OF wet or dry
weather, but that they are embroidered
canopies of shade, that they are the con.
servatories of the sky, that they are thrones
of pomp, that they are crystalline bars. that
they are paintings in water color, that they
are the angels of the mist, that they are
great cathearals of light with broad aisles
for angelic feet to walk through and bow at
nltars OF amber and alabaster, that
they are tbs mothers of the dew,
that they are ladders for ascending
and descending glories, Cotopaxis OF
are the masterpieces of the Lord God AL.
mighty. The Clouds are favorite Bible
simile and the sacred writers have made
much use of them. After the deluge God
hung on cloud in concentric bands the
coiors of the spectrum, saying: 81 do set my
bow in the clouds" As mountain is some.
times entirely hidden by vapors, so, says
God, 81 have blotted out as a thick cloud
thy transgressions." David measured the
divine goodness and found il so high he
apostrophizei: THY faithfulness reaches unto
the clouds. As sometimes there are thou.
sands of teeces of varor scurrying across the
heavens SO, says Isaiah, will be the converts
in the millennium, ''as clouds and as doves"
As in the wet season no sooner
does, the sky clear than there comes
another observation, so, says Solomon
ono ache or ailment of old folks has no more
than gone than another pain comes ''as
clouds return in the rain" A column of
illumined cloud led the lsraelites across the
wilderness. In the book of job, Elihu, watch
ing tho clouds, could not understand why
they did not fall or why they did not all roll
together, the laws of evaporation and con-
depsation then not being understood, and he
cries out; ''nost thou know the balancing of
the condsi" When read my text it sug.
gests TO me that the clouds are the Creators
equipage, and their whirling masses are the
wheels, and the tongue of the cloul is the
pole q the celestial vehicle, and the winds
are the harnessed steads, and God is the
ROYAL OCCUPANT and driver who maketh
the clouds His chariot"
To understand the psalmists meaning in
the text you must know that the chariot OF
old was sometimes n sculptured brilliancy
made out of ivory, sometimes of solid silver,
and rolled on two wheels which were
fastened to the axle by stout pins. and the
awful defeat of OemomauS by Pelops was
caused by the fact that tratorous charioteer
had inserted Inch pin of wax instead of
Inch pin of iron. All of the six hundred
chariots of Pharaoh lost their Inch pins in
the Red Sea, for the Bible says: 1.-The Lord
took off their wheels" Look at the long
flash of Solomons fourteen hundred charo's $,
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
turnout The keeper tells YOU: ''Ths is the
state carriage. and used only on great
occasions" "This is the coronation
carriage, and in it the king rode
Queen went to open Parliament" ''rhis is
the coach in which the Gar and the Sultan
rode on the occasion of their visit" All
costly and tesselated and enriched and en-
blazoned 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 spendor
starts and rolls on under arches entwined
with banners, and amid the huzza of hun,
dreds OF thousands of spectators the scene is
memorable. But my text puts all such oc-
casions into insgniiicance, as it represents
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 stop
ping in and taking the reins of the galloping
winds in His hand starts in triumphal ride
under the arches of sapphire, and over the
atmospheric highways Of opal and chrysolite,
the clouds His chariot.
NY hearers, do not think that God BELT
ties Himself when he takes such conveyance.
Do you know that the clouds are among the
most wondrous and ma iestic things in the
whole universal 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 oheyed the mandate
That cloud instead of being. as it seems, q
small gathering Of vapor few yards wide
and high is really seven or eight miles across,
aud is a mountain, from its base to its top,
through with ravnes $3.50 feet deep. No,
David did not make fragile or unworthy
representation of Gol in the text when he
spoke of the clouds as His chariot But RS
suggested in the case of an earthly king He
has His morning cloud chariot and evening
cloud chariot-the cloud chariot in which
He rode down to Sinai to oDen the law, and
the cloud chariot in which he rode down to
Tabor to honor the gospel, and the cloud
chariot in which He will come to Judgment.
When He rides ont in His morning chariot
at tbs season, about six O'Clock, he puts COL
den coronets on the dome of cities, and sill.
vers the rivers, and out Of the dew makes n
diamond ring, for the finger of every grass
blade, and bids good cheer to invaids who in
the night said: "Would God it were morn.
ing" From this morning cloud chariot He
distributes light, light for the earth and light
Tor the heavens. light for the land AMI light
Tor the sea. great bars of it, great wreathes
OF 1t, great columns Of it. world full of it,
Hail Him in worship as every morning He
and cry with David:
My voice shalt Thou hear in the morning:
in the morning will direct my prayer unto
Thee and look up" rejoice in these Scrip
ture CALCULATIONS: Joy cometh in the morn
ing" my soul waiteth for Thee more than
they that watch for the morning" "If take
the wing of the morning. The eyelds of
Is she that looketh forth as the morning. ~
"His going forth is prepared as the morn.
ing, "As the morning spread on the mount
thou shouldst visit him every
What "a mighty thing the Kine
His chariot when He throws III
las his evening cloud chariot.
aa|. of the saffron and the gold ant
1854. nd the orange and the vermiliol
flame of the sunset. That is tn
the splendors that have marched
o day, having ended the process
s,o.., down the torches and set tn,
heavens on fire. That is the only hour of tn,
day when the atmosphere is clear enough Il
let us sea the wall of the heavenly city with
its twelve manner of precious Stones from
foundation of Jasper to middle STRAIT,
of sardius and on up to the co
ping of amethyst At that hour with
out any of Elisha's supernatural visor
we see horses of fire and chariots of fire ant
banners Of fire and ships of fire and cities o
fire, seas Of fire, and it seems as if the las
conilagration had begun and there is worlt
on fire. When God makes these clouds Hi
chariot let US all kneei Another day past
what have we done with it, Another day
dead and this is its gorgeous catafa'que
Nov is the time for what David called tn,
''evening sacrifice" or Daniel called tn,
'evening obation" OH OH what chario
made out of evening cloud Have yol
hung over the taffrail on the ocear
and seen this cloudy yabicIa roll ova