Milford chronicle., 1888-10-05

Himself When He Takes Chariot as
Conference.-The Storm Cloud.
BRooKLYS, Sept. SO.-The hymn sung at
the opening Of the services in the Brooklyn
Tabernacle this morning was:
Welcome, sweet day Of rest,
That saw the Lord arise.
After expounding appropriate passages Of
Scripture, the Rev. 7. De Witt Talmage, ID.
D., took the text, Psalm civ, 8: WHO maketh
the clouds his chariot" DR.. Talmage said;
Brutes are constructed so as to look down
Those earthly creatures that have wings
when they rise from the earth still look
down. and the eagle searches for mice In the
grass and the raven for carcasses in the field
Man alone is made TO look up. To induce
him to look up God makes the sky picture
gallery, a Dusseldorf, a Lovre, a Luxem-
bourg, a Vatican that eelipses all that Ger
man or French OF Italian art ever accom-
plished. But God has failed 50 far to attract
the attention Of most of US by the scenery Of
the sky. Wego into raptures over flowers
IN the soil, but have little or no appreciation
q 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 gobelin tapestry or a bridal veil OF
rare fabric, or q snowbank OF exquisite
curve. but see not at all, or see without emo
ton, the bridal wells Of mist that cover the
face Of the Catskills, or the swaying uphol-
stery around the couch Of the dying day, on
the snowbanks Of vapor piled up in the
heavens.
Ny text bids us lift our chin three or fous
inches and open the two telescopes whici
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 cano-
pies of shade, that they are the conservatories
OF the sky, that they are thrones Of pomps
that they are crystalline bars, that they are
paintings in water color, that they arc the
angels Of the mist that they are great cathes
drals Of light with broad aisleS for angelic
feet to walk through and bow at affairs OF
amber and alabaster that they are the moth
ers Of the dew, that they are ladders for as
cending and descending glories, Cotopaxis Of
| belching fame, Niagaras of color, that they
are the masterpieces of the Lord God Al
mighty. The clouds are a favorite Bible
simile and the sacred writer's have
made much use of them. After tho
deluge God hung on clond in concentric
bands the colors of the spectrum, saying u
I do set my bow in the clouds" AS a noun
tain is sometimes entirely hidden by the
! vapors, so, says God, II have blotted out as
a thick cloud thy transgressions" David
measures the divine goodness and found it so
high he apostrophized; 'Thy faithfulness
reacheth unto the clouds" AS sometimes
/ there are thousands of feeces of vapors sour
rying 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 obscuration, so, says Solomon, one
ache or ailment Of old folks has no more
than gone than another pain comes l'as
clouds return In the RAIN A column Of
illumined cloud led the Israelites 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 evapora-
4 ton and condensation then not being under
/ stood, and he cries out: "Dost thou know
the balancing Of the cloudsr' When read
my text it suggests to me that the clouds are
/ the Creators equipage, and their whirling
! masses are the wheels, and the tongue Of the
| cloud is the pole Of the. celestial vehicle and
/ the winds are the harneSsed steeds, and God
| Is the royal occupant and driver ''who
maketh the clouds his chariot"
To understand the palmists meaning in the
/ text YOU must know that the chariot of old
was sometimes sculptured brilliancy mad9
out of ivory, sometimes Of solid silver, and
rollen on two wheels which were fastened to
the axle by stout pins, and the awful defeat
/ of Oenomaus by Pelops was caused by the
/ fact that traitorous 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: "The Lord took of their
wheels" Look at the long fash of Solomon's
| 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 turnout 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 czar and
4 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 banners, and
amid the huzza of hundreds of thousands Of
spectators the scene is memorable. But my
| text puts all such occasions into insignif-
cance, as it represents the King Of tho Uni
verse coming to the door Of his palace and
| the gilded vapors Of the heavens rolling up
/ to his feet, an, 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 atmospheric highways
| of opal and chrysohte the clouds his chariot
My hearers, do not think that God belittles
/ himself when he takes such conveyance. Do
you know that the clouds are among the
/ most wondrous and majestic things in the
whole universel Do you know that they are
/ flying lakes and rivers and oceansl God
waved his hand over them and said, Come
up higherr and they obeyed the mandate.
| That cloud, instead of being, as it seems, a
small gathering Of vapors few yards wide
and high, is really seven or eight miles
across, and is a mountain, from its
base to its top 1900 feet, 5000
/ feet. 10000 feet and cut through with
ravines 5000 feet deep No, David did
not make fragile or unworthy representa-
tion of God in the text when he spoke of the
clouds as his chariot But as 1 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 r-de
down to Sinai to open tho law, and tie eiold
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 out In his morning chariot
at this season, about o'clock, he puts golden
coronets Oh the dome Of cities, and silvcrs
the rivers, and out Of the dew makes q dia-
mond ring for the finger of every grass
blade, and bids good cheer to invalids who in
the night said: "Wouid God it were morn
ing" From this morning cloud chariot he
distributes light-light fer the earth and
Heht for the heavens, light for the land
and light for the sea, great bars Of It,
great wreathes Of It, world fun OF
| it Hail him in worship as every morning
be drives out IN his chariot Of mora
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