The Brookhaven leader. [volume] (Brookhaven, Miss.) 1883-1891, 1890-06-19
THE BOW OF PROMISE.
The Covenant of God with Man
and It's Lessons.
Sermon by Rev. T. Dewitt Talmage On
the Rainbow and Its Beauties
COntrasted with the UglI-
ness of Sin.

| L ne 1OllOWlng DISCOURSE was uellVefeu
by Rev. I. Dewitt Talmage in the
Brooklyn Academy of Music from the
| text:
There was a rainbow round the throne
| Revelations, iv, g.
AS, after a night of fearful tempest
at sea, one ship, more stanch than
another, rides on undamaged among the
fragments OF spars and hulks that float
| about, so old Noah's ark, at the close OF
the deluge, floats on over the wreck of
a dead world. Looking out of the
window of the ark you see the planks
| of houses, and the sheaves of wheat,
and the carcasses of cattle and the
| corpses of men. No tower is left to tell
the burial; no mourners to form in line
of procession; no ground in which to
bury the dead. Sinking line twenty
seven feet long, you just touch the tops
of the mountains Ghastliness and
| horror! The ark, instead of walking
the sea, like modern ship, in majesty
and beauty, tosses helplessly; no helm
| to guide; no sail to set; no shore to
steer for. Why protract the agony
of the good people in such craft,
when they might in one dash of the
wave have been put out of their misery?
But at yonder spot in the horizon we
see colors gathering in the sky; at just
the opposite points in the horizon other
colors are gathering. find that they
are tho two buttresses of an arched
bridge. The yellow, the red, the
orange, the blue, the indigo, the violet
are mingled, and by invisible hands the
whole structure is hung into the sky,
and the ark has triumphal arch to sail
under. An Angel of Light swings his
hand across the sky and in the seven
| prismatic colors he paints with pencil
on sunbeam the everlasting covenant
between God and every living creature.
| God lifted up that great arched bridge,
| and set it over His own head in the
! Heaven. John saw it, for he says:
There was a rainbow round about the
| throne"
! / notice that none but the people who
were in the ark saw the rainbow. 1t
casts its shadow clear down into the
water whore the people were buried,
and lighted up the dead faces with
strange radiance, but they could not see
| it. So only those who are at last found
| IN Christ, the Ark, will see overspan-
ming glories of the throne. Hence you
had better get into the ark! AS you
call your family out at the close of the
| shower to show them the sign in Heav-
en-, so / want you all at last to see the
grander rainbow round about the
throne. "Look there!" says Noah to
| his wife, sat that bow in the clouds;
and Shem and Japhet, look! look! the
green, the yellow, the red and the
| orange!' l should not wonder if some
of your own children in the good land
should after awhile cry out to you:
Look, fatherl look, mother! there is
rainbow round about the throner' You
had better get into the ark with all
your families, if you want to see it.
notice also that the chief glory of
God comes after the rain. No shower,
no rainbow; no trouble, no brightness
of Christian consolation. Weavers are
some times, by reason of their work,
dusty and rough in their apparel; and
so it is the coarse-clad tempest, whose
hand and foot swing the shuttle, that
weaves the rainbow. Many Christians
are dull and stupid, and useless be-
enough to wake them up. The bright
est scarf that Heaven makes is thrown
over the shoulders of the storm. You
can not make thorough Christian life
out of sunshine alone. There are some
very dark hues in the ribbon of the
rainbow; you must have in life the blue
as we'll as the orange. MingliDg all
the colors of the former makes a white
light; and it takes all the shades and
and sadnesses and vicissitudes of life
to mako the white luster of a poor
Christian character.
Your child asks you: Father, what
makes the rainbow" and you say: 'It
is the sunlight striking through the
rain-drops." Therefore wondered how
there could be a rainbow in Heaven,
since there are no storms there; but
then / conclude that that rainbow must
be formed by the striking of Heavens
sunlight through the falling tears of
earthly sorrow. When we see man
overwhelmed with trouble, and his
health goes, and his property goes, and
his friends go. l say: Now we shall
see the glory of God in this good mans
deliverance." AS at Niagara Falls l
saw, one day, ten rainbows spanning
the awful plunge of the cataract, so
over the abyss of the Christians trial
hover the rich-hued wings of all the
promises.
notice that the most beautiful things
of this world are to be preserved in
Heaven. When you see the last color
fade out from the rainbow of earth,
you need not feel sad, for you will see
the rainbow round about the throne.
That story about the world burning up
has given me many pang. When i
read that Paris was besieged / said:
''Now the pictures and statues in the
Louvre and Luxemberg will be de-
stroyed; all those faces of Rembrandt
and those bold dashes of Rubens, and
those enchantments of Raphael on
canvas, and those statues of Canova."
But is it not more melancholy thought
that ruin is to come upon this great
glory of the earth, in which the mount
aims are the chiseled sculptures, and
upon the sky, in which the trans
hguration" of sunrise and sunset is
hung with loops and tassels of fire?
was relieved when i found
that the pictures. had been re-
moved from the Louvre and
the Luxembourg, and ! am relieved now
when think that the best parts Of this
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