The Russellville Democrat., 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 tho Perturbed Soul.

Brooklyn Tabernacle Rev. I. DeW1tt
Talmage preached from the following
text:
Who maketh the clouds His chariot-Psalms
CIV, 8.
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
20 look up. To induce him to look up
God makes the skies picture gallery.
Dusseldorf, Louvre, a Luxembourg,
Vatican that eclipses all that German or
French or Italian art ever accomplished.
But God has failed so far to attract the
attention OF most of us by the scenery OF
the sky. We go into raptures over fow-
ers in the soil, but have little or no APP
probation OF 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 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-bsnks of vspor piled up in the
heavens.
MY text bids us lift our chin three or
four inches and open the two telescopes
which, under the forehead, are put on
swivel easily turned upward, and see that
the clouds are not merely undressing
signs OF 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 in water color; that they are the an
gels of the mist; that they are great ca
thedrals of light with broad aisles for
angelic feet to walk through and bow at
affairs of amber and alabaster; that they
are mothers Of the dew; that they are
ladders for ascending and descending
glories, Cotopaxis of belching fame.
Niagaras Of color; that they are the
masterpieces OF the Lord God Almighty.
The clouds are favorite Bible smile,
and the sacred writer's have made much
use of them.
After the deluge God hung on cloud
in concentric bands the colors of the
spectrum, saying: 81 do not set may bow
in the cloud" AS a mountain is some-
times entirely hidden by the vapors so,
says God, II have blotted out thick
cloud, thy transgressions." 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 feeoes of vapor
scurrying across the heavens, so, says
Isaiah. will be the converts in the millen-
mum "as 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
mona than apatber main cnrnaa tag clauds
return in the rain.o
A column of illumi ned cloud led the Is
raelites 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 oondensa-
ton then not being understood, and he
cried out: "Dost Thou know the balance
ing of the clouds2" When read my text
ii 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 ve-
hicle, and the winds are the harnessed
steeds, and God is the royal occupant and
driver ''who maketh the clouds His char
lot"
To understand the Psalmist's meaning
AN the text you must know that the chariot
y VI Olu was sOuttlIibS
lancy made out of ivory, sometimes of
solid silver, and rolled on two wheels
which were fastened to the axle by stout
Plus and the awful defeat of Enonaus
by Pelops was caused by the fact that
traitorous charioteer had inserted
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: 1.-THE Lord
took off their wheels"
Look at the long fash of Solomon's
fourteen hundred chariots, and the thirty
thousand chariots of the Philistines. II
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 1t the King
rode on the day he took the throne" "In
this the Queen went to open Parliament"
s'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 insignihcance, as 1t 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 atmospheric
highways Of opal and chrysolite, the
clouds His chariot.
Ny 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 lwonderous and ma
jestic things in the whole universel Do
you know that they are flying lakes and
rivers and oceausi God waved His hand
over them and said: Come up higherin
and they obeyed the mandate. That
cloud, instead OF being, as it seems, a
small gathering of vapor a few ards wide
and high is really seven or eight miles
across, and is amountain from 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 u
fragile or unworthy representation of God
in the text when he spoke of the clouds as
His chariot But, IS l suggested in the
case Of an earthly King, He has His morn
ing cloud chariot and His evening cloud
ohariot-the cloud chariot ia which He
rode down to Sinai to open 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 out in HIS morning char
lot at this season, about o O'Clock, he
puts golden oorOnets on the dome of