The Dalles daily chronicle. [volume] (The Dalles, Or.) 1890-1948, 1891-07-25

Gne WOnoerfui aAnogcry al 1ne nooh ot
Job-How the study of 1t Has Made
weak Men into ID6dels-Nexer Wade
Into n Mystery over Tour Head,
BRooKLYh, Ju'sa.-Dr. Talmage's ser
mon today is on kind of gospel-in which
few people believe. The weather is com
naon object of complaint and fault finding.
but DR.. Talmage finds a gospel in it, which
today he tproclaims from the text. .Hath
the rain a fatherg'' job xxxviii, %.
This Book of Job has been the subject of
unbounded theological wrangle.- Men have
made it the ring in which to display their
ecclesiastical pugilism. Some say that the
Book of job is true history; Others. that
IL Is an allegory;s Others, that it is an epic
poem; others, that it is a drama. Some
say that Job lived eighteen hundred years
before Christ, others say that he never
lived at all. Some say that the author of
this book was job: others, David; others.
Solomon The discussion has landed some
in blank infidelity- Now, have no trouble
with the Books of job or, Revelation-the
two most mysterious books in the Bible
because of a rule / adopted some years ago
wade down into a Scripture passage as
long as, can touch bottom, and when i
cannot then I wade out. / used to wade in
until it was over my head and then 1 got
drowned. | study passage ofsScripture
50, long as It is Il acomfortian and help to my
soul, but when it becomes a perplexity and
n spiritual upturning Il quit. In other
words. we ought to wade in up to our
heart. but never wade in until it is over
our head. No man should ever expect to
swim across this great ocean of divine
truth. l go down into that ocean as go
down into the Atlantic ocean at East
Hampton, Long Island, justsfar enough to
bathe; then l come out. ] never had any
- 4 n. - = = 4. 4
could strike my way clear over to Liver
pool.
GODS MYSTERIOUS GOVERNMENT. 2
~, L suppose. you understand your family
Renealogy, You know something about
your parents, your grandparents. your
great grandparents. Perhaps you know
where they were born, or where they died
Have you ever studied the parentage of
the shower, Hath not the rain a, ,father?"
This question is not asked by a poetaster
er q scientist. but by the head of the uni
verse; To humble and to saysAJob God.
asks him fourteen questions: About the
worlds architecture, about, the srefraction
Of the suns rays, about the tides. about the
snow crystal, about the lightnings, and
then he arraigns him with the interroga-
tion of the text, Hath the rain a fatheri"
With the scientific wonders of the rain
have nothing to do. A minister gets
the 6rst three years, andif he has piety
enough he gets through with it in. the first
three months. A sermon has come to me
TO mean one w, rd of four letters, .'helpP'
You all know that the rain is not an or
phan. You know it is not cast out of the
gates of heaven a founding. You would
answer the question of my text in the af-
6rmative-
Safely housed .dnringthe storm, You hear
4 ho roir hoo fkax nd1xr
and you find it searching all the erevices
OF the window sill. 1t first comes down in
solitary drops, pattering the dust, and then
- it deluges the fields and. angers- the noun
tain torrents, and makes the traveller i'm
lplore shelter. You know that the rain is
mot an accident of the worlds economy.
You know il was born of the cloud You
know it was rocked in the cradle of the
wind. You know it was sung to sleep by
the storm. You know that it flying evan
gel from heaven to earth You know it is
the gospel of the weather You know that
God is it's father.
a.. If this lbe true. then how wicked is our
murmuring about climatic changer The
first eleven Sabbaths after l entered the
ministry it stormed. Through the week
it was clear weather, but on the Sabhaths
the old country meeting house looked
like Noah's ark before it landed. A few
drenched people sat before a drenched pas
tor; but most Of the farmers stayed at
home and thanked God that what was bad
j, for the church was good for the crops.
committed a good deal of sin in those days
in denouncing the weather. Ministers oi
the Gospel sometimes fret about stormy
Sabbaths,o OF hot Sabbaths, or, Indictment
SAbbaths. They forget the fact that the
same God who ordained the Sabbath and
sent forth his ministers to announce sal
walton also ordained the weather Hath
the rain q fatherY'3 v ts,.'s es.. =. 81 S,4
MCESSANT COMPLAINTS OF THE WEATHER
Merchants, also, with their stores filled
with new goods, and their clerks hanging
idly around the counters, commit the same
transgression. There have been seasons
4 when the whole spring and fall trade ha,
been ruined by protracted wet weather
The merchants then examined tn,
weather probabilitiesn with more interes
than they read their Bibles. They watched
for patch of blue sky. They went com
planning to the store and came complain
ing home again. In all that season of we
feet and dripping garments and impassa
:, streets they never once asked the ques
tion, Hath the rain fatherf'
So agriculturists commit this sin. Their
Is nothing more annoying than to hav
planted corn rot in the ground because o
too much moisture, or hay all ready for tn
NOV dashed of a shower, or wheat al
most ready for the sickle spoiled with tn
rust. How hard it is to bear the agricul
tural disappointments. God has infinit
resources, but do not think he has capas
.itys to make weather to please all th
farmers. Sometimes it is too hot, or it
too cold; it is too wet, or it is too dry; it
too early or it is. too late. They forge
4 that the God who promised seed time an
harvest, summer and winter, cold an
heat, also ordained all the climatic changes
There is one question that ought to /
written on every barn, on every fence, o
every haystack, on every farmhous
Hath the rain a father?"
II we only, knew. what a vast, enterprii
it is to provide appropriate weather fl