The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1891-06-10
REV. DIR. TALMAGE.
THE BROOKLYN DIVINES SUN.
DAY SERMON.
Subject: "One Weeks Work."

TEXT: And the euening and the morn
ing ,oere the sirth day."-Genesis j., 81.
From Monday morning to Saturday night
gives us weeks work. IL we have filled
that week with successes we are happy. But
am going to tell you what God did in one
week. Cosmogony, geology, astronomy, or
orthodoxy, ichthyology, botany, anatomy
long enough to explore or comprehend any
one OF them. But have thought might
in an unusual way tell you little of what
God did in one week. And whether You
make it week Of days or q week ofages, l
care not, for shall reach the sams practi-
cal result Of reverence and worship.
The first Monday morning found swinging
in space the piled up lumber Of rocks and
metal and soil and water from which ths
earth was to be builded God made up hts
mind to create human family, and they
must have house to live in. But where?
Not roof, not wall, not door, not
room was fit for human occupancy. There
Is not pile Of black 5asalt in Yellowstone
Park or an extinct volcano in Honolulu so
inappropriate for human residence as was
this globe at that early period. Moreover,
there was no human architect to draw q plan,
no quarryman to blast the foundation stones,
no carpenter to hew out beam, AMI no
mason to trowel a wall.
The first thing needed was light. It was
not needed for God to work by, for He can
work as well In the darkness. But light may
be necessary, for angelic intelligencss are to
see In its full glory the process Of world build
ing. But where are the candles, where are
the caudelabra, where is the chandelier? No
rising sun will roll in the morning. for II the
sun Is already created its light will not yet
reach the earth in three days. Nor moon
nor stars can brighten this darkness. The
.1% hArv, !
created their light will not reach the earth
for some time yet. But there is need OF im-
mediate light. Where shall it come from?
The record makes me think that standing
over this earth that spring morning God
looked upon the darkness that palled the
heights Of this world, and the chasms Of it,
and the awful reaches Of 1t, and uttered,
whether in the Hebrew Of earth or some
language celestial I know not that word
which stands for the subtle, bright, glowing
and all pervading fluid, that word which
thrills and garlands and lifts every thing 1t
touches that word the full meaning ofwhich
all the chemists Of the ages have busted
themselves in exploring, that word which
suggests force that flies one hundred and
ninety thousand miles in second, and by
undulations seven hundred and twenty-seven
trillions in second, that one word that GOD
utters-Light
And instantly the darkness began to shim-
mer, and the thick folds Of blackness to lift,
and there were scintillations and corusca-
tions and flashes and billowing up Of resplen-
dence and in great sheets it spread out
northward, southwark, eastward, westward,
and radiance filled the atmosphere until it
could hold no more Of the brilliauce. Light
now to work by while supernatural intelli-
gences look on. Light, the first chapter OF
the first day Of the week. Light, the Joy or
the centuries. Light, the greatest blessing
that ever touched the human eye. The robe
of the Almighty is woven out Of it, tor He
covers Himself with light as with gar
ment. Oh, blessed light! am so 6 lad this
was the first thing created that week. For
lack of it the body stumbles. o thou Father
Of Lights give US light!
Now it is Tuesday morning. A delicate
and tremendous undertaking is set apart for
this day. There was a great superabun-
dance Of water. God. by the wave OF His
hand, this morning gathers part OF it in sus-
| pended reservoirs, and part OF it He orders
down into the rivers and lakes and seas.
How to lang whole Atlantic oceans in the
clouds without their splliug over excspt IN
right quantities and at right times was an
| undertaking that no one but Omnipotence
would have dared. But God doesit as easily
asyou would lift glass of water. There He
hoists two clouds, each thirty miles wide aud
five miles high, and balances them. Here
| He lifts the cirrous clouds and spreads them
out in great white banks as though it had
been showing in heaven. And the GIRO
stratus clouds in long parallel lines, so
straight you know an infinite geometer mas
drawn them. Clouds which are the armory
| from which thunder storms get their bayo-
nets Of fire. Clouds which are oceans on
the wing. No wonder, long after this first
Tuesday of creation week, Eihu confounded
!, Job with the question, "Dost thou know the
balancing of the clouds"
Half of this Tuesday work done, the other
| half is the work Of compelling the waters to
i lie down in their destined places. SO God
! picks up the solid ground and packs it up in
to the five elevations. which are the contl-
nents. With his finger he makes deep de-
pressions in them, and these are the lakes
while at the piling up Of the Alleghanies and
Sierra Nevadas and Pyrenees and Alps and
Hinalayas the rest Of the waters start by
the law Of gravitation to the lower places,
and in their run down hill become the
rivers, and then all around the earth these
| rivers come into convention and become
oceans beneath, as the clouds are oceans
above.
Now it is Wednesday morning Of the
worlds first week. Gardening and horticul-
ture will be born to-day. How queer the
hills look, and so unattractive they seem
hardly worth having been made But no"
thing beautiful is creeping all over them. II
has the color Of emerald, AY, it is herbage
Hail to the green guest! Gods favorite color
and Gods favorite plant, cs judge from
the fact that he makes larger number OF
them than Of anything else. But look yon.
der! Something starts out Of the ground
and goes higher up, higher and higher, and
spreads out broad leaves 1t is a palm tree.
| Yonder is another growth, and its leaves
hang far down, and it is q willow tree. And
! yonder is a growth with mighty sweep OF
and the apple, and the peach, and the pome-
| granate. and groves, and orchards, and for
ests their shadows and their fruit girdiny 3
the earth.
Now it is Thursday m Dr. aing Of thu worlds
/ first week. Nothing will bs created to-day.
Ths hours will bs pass,i in scattering fog5
AMI mists AMI vA2ors Tne atnos2iers
must be sw,pt clean. Other worlds are to
heavs in sight. This little ship OF tie earth
has seemed to have all the ocean of i'm
| msnsity to itself. But mightier craft ara to
be hailed to-day on thu high seas of space.
First, the moons white sail appaar5 aud
| does very wall until the SUI bursts upon til,
scene. The light that on thu previous three
mornings was struct fro an cspscial word
| nov gathers in tle sun, moon AMI stars.
OAe for TIA day, ths other for ths nigat.
And til, sun now appears, aftsrward to BE-
| found eight hundred anl eighty-sigat thou
sand miles iu diam ,ter, AMI, put in astro
nonical scales, to b, found to weigh nearly
four hundred thousand times heavisr than
our EARTH mighty furnace, its heat kept
up by meteors ponring into it as fuel world
dsvouring othsr worlds with its jaws OF
flame. Aud tho stars con, out, thoss strs,t
lamps OF heaven, thosa ksys OF pe1rl, upo1
which Gods fingers play thu mlsic OF thu
spheres. How bright thsy loos in this ori-
entail evening! CONSULTATIONS! Gala1ies!
| What twenty-four hours Of this first weak