The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1891-06-05
A GREAT WEEKS WORK.
DR., TAlMAGE breaches A SERMON
ON THE CREATION,

| Earth's beginning.
BROOKLYN, May 24.-The striking
sermon DR. Talmage delivered this
morning to an audience which filed
the new Tabernacle in every part, dealt
with topic of interest to all who have
watched the discussions now agitating
the churches, Wherever the question
of the inspiration of the Bible is raised
| the trustworthiness of the Mosaic mar
rative of the creation is always the
point chiefly assailed The fact that
so prominent and eloquent preacher
as DR., Talmage places himself clearly
on record on the side of orthodoxy will
doubtless have marked influence on
public opinion. His text was Genesisi |,
81, "And the evening and the morning
were the sixth day."
From Monday morning to Saturday
night gives us weeNs work. If we
have filed that week with successes
we are happy. But I am going to tell
you what God did in one week. Cos
mogony, geology, astronomy, ornith-
ology, ichthyology, botany, anatomy
are such vast subjects that no human
life is long enough to explore or COM
prehend any one of them. But | have
thought might in an unusual way tell
you little of what God did in one
week, and that the first week. And
whether you make it a week of days or
a week of ages care not, for l shall
reach the same practical result of rev.
erence and worship
THE FIRST DAYS WORE.
The first Monday morning found
swinging in space the piled up lumber
of rocks and metal and soil and water
| from which the earth was to be builded.
God made up his mind to create hui
man family, and they must have house
to live in. But where2 Not a roof not
| a WALL not door, not a room was fit
for human occupancy. There is not a
pile of black basalt 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 archi-
tect to draw a plan, no quarryman to
blast the foundation stones, no carpen-
| ter to hew out beam, and no mason
to trowel wall Poor prospect! But
the time was coming when a being
called man was to be constructed, and
hc was to have bride; and where
he could find homestead to which he
c;ild take her must have been u won
drrnont to angelic inteiligences. There
had been earthquakes enough, and vol
canoes enough, and glaciers enough,
but earthquakes and volcanoes and
glaciers destroy instead of build. A
worse looiing world than this never
swing 1t was heaped up deforlnities,
scariiications and monstrosities. The
Bible says it was without form. That
is. it was not round, it was not square,
it was not octagonal, it was not a
| rllomboid.
| God never did take any one in his
counsels. but if he had asked some
angel about the attempt to turn this
planet into a place for human resi-
dcncc the angel would have said, No,
no; try some other world: tie crnvices
of this earth are too deep; it's crags are
too appalling; its darkness is too
thick" But Monday morning came.
ti!ink it was spring morning, and
about half past four o'clock. The
first thing needed was light 1t was
not needed for God to work by. for he
can work as well in the darkness. But
light may be necessary, for angelic In
telligences are to see in its full glory
the process of world building. But
where are the candles, where are the
candelabra, where is the chandelier
No rising sun will roll in the morning,
for if the sun is already created its
light will not yet reach the earth in
three days No moon nor stars can
brighten this darkness. The moon
inl stars are not born yet, or il
created, their light will not reach the
earth for some time yet. But there
is need of immediate light. Where
shall it come from? Desiring to &C
count for things in natural way, yor
say. and reasonably say, that heat anG
electricity throw out light Independent,
of the sun, and that the metallic base.
throw out light independent of the sun
and that alkalies throw out light indie
pendent of the sun. Oh, yes; all thai
is true, but do not think that is thu
way light was created.
The record makes Inc think that
standing over this earth that sprine
morning, God looked upon the dark
ness that palled the heights of thi
world, and the chasms of it, and tn,
awful reaches of it, and uttered, whethe
in the Hebrew of earth or some Language
celestial | know not, that word which
stands for the subtle, bright, CLOWN!
and all pervadiDg fluid; that wore
which thrills and garlands and lift
everything it touches; that word tn
full meaning of which all the chemist
of the ages have busted themselves il
exploring; tlia. word Which suggests
force that flies one hundred and ninet
thousand miles in q second, and by III
dulations seven hundred and twenty
seven trillions in a second, that on
word God uttsrH-Light.
And instantly tie darkness began t
simmer, and the thick folds of black
ness to lift, and there were scintillation
and coruscations and flashes and bi
lowing up of resplendence and in grea
sheets it spread out northward, soutl
, ward, eastward westward, and a rad
ance filed the atmosphere until it coul
hold no more of the brilliance Ligf
now to work by while supernatural il
telligences look on Light, the frs
chapter of the first day of the week
Light, the Joy of all the centurie:
Light. the greatest blessing that eve
touched the human eye. The robe {
| k1,,,s,I,{x, &c. - Co.