The Penn's Grove record., 1891-07-17
XIV DR.. TALMAGR
me Drooklyn DivIne1s Sunday
Sermon.


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 a true history; Others. that it
is an allegory;. others, that it is an epic
poem; others, that it is n drama. Some say
that Job lived eighteen hundred years be-
fore 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 in
fidelity. Now. | nave no trouble with the
Books of job or Revelation-fhe two most
mysterious books in the Bible-becausa of a
rule / adopted some years ago.
wade down into a Scripture passage as
long as ! can touch bottom, and when | can
not then | a out. l used to a in until
it was over my head and then | got drowned.
/ study a passage of Scripture so long as id
is a comfort and help to my soul, but when
it tecomes a p~erDiexity and a spiritual up
turning l 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. | go down into that ocean
as I go down into the Atlantic Ocean at
East Hampton, Long Island, just far enough
to battle; then | come out. l never had any
idea that with my weak hand and foot /
could strike my way clear over to Liverpool.
| suppose you understand your family
genealogy. You know something about your
parents, your grandparents, your great
grandparents. Perhaps you NOV where
they where born, or where they died. Have
you ever studied the parentage Of the show
er, '41ath not the rain a father" This gnes-
ton is not asked by a poetaster or a scien-
fist, but by the head of the universe. To hum
BILE and to save Job God asks him fourteen
questions: About the worlds architecture.
about the refraction of the suns rays, about
tho ffla1 nhnttt fha enny- nt.-Stul about tho
lightnings, and then He arraigns him with
the interrogation of the text, Hath the rain
a fatherf'
With the scientific wonders of the rain I
have nothing to do. A minister gets through
with that kind of sermons within the first
three years, and IL he has piety enough ha
gets through with it in the first threa
months. A sermon has come to me to NEAR
one word of four letters, 'helpP' You all
know that the rain is not an orphan. You
know it is not cast out of the gateso heaven
a founding. You would answer the ques-
ton of my text In the affirmative.
Safely housed during the storm, you hear.
the rain beating against the window pane.
and you find it searching all the c~revices of
the window sill. 1t first comes down in soli-
tary drops, pattering the dust, and then it
deluges the fields and angers the mountain
torrents, and makes the traveller implore
shelter. You know that the rain is not an
accident of the worlds economy. You know
it was born OF thecloud. 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 is a flying evangel from heaven to
earth. You kno it is the gospel of tho
weather. You know that God is its father.
If this be true, then how wicked is our
m~urmuring about climatic changes. The
first eleven Sabbaths after 1 entered the
ministry it stormed Through the week it
was clear weather, but on the Sabbaths the
old country meeting house looked like Noah's
ark before it landed. A few drenehed peo-
pie sat before a drenched pastor; but most of
the farmers stayed at home and thanked
God hat what was bad for the church was
good for the crops. l committed a good deal
Of sin in those days in ~denouncinS the
weather. Ministers of the Gospel sometimes
fret about stormy Sabbaths or hot Sabhaths,
or Indictment Sabbaths. They forget the
fact that the same God who ordained the
Sabbath and sent forth his ministers to an
pounce salvation also ordained the weather.
''Hath the rain a fatherY'
Merchants, also, with their stores filled
with new goods, and their clerks hanging
idly around the counters, commit the same
trangression. There have been seasons when
the whole spring and fall trade has been
ruined by protracted wet weather. The
merchants then examined the "weatneI
probabilities with more interest than they
read their Bibles. They wa6hed for d
patch OF blue sky. They went complaining
10 the store and came complaining home
again. In all that season of wet feet and
dripping garments and impossible streets
they never once asked the question, ''Hatt
the rain a fathery"
So akricuiturists commit this sin. There
is nothing more annoying than to havt
planted corn rot in the ground because oil
too much moisture, or nay all ready for tht
NOW dashed Of a shower, or wheat almost
ready for the sickle spoiled with the rust.
How hard it is to bear the agricultural dis
appointments. God has infinite resources,
but l do not think He has capacity to max,
weather to please all the farmers. Some
times it is too hot, or it is too cold; it IS toe
wet, or it is too dry; it is too early, or it is
too late. They forget that the God who
promised seed time and harvest, summer ans
winter, cold and heat, also ordained all eli
matte changes. There is one question thai
| ought to be written on every barn, on every
fence, on every haystack. on every farm
house, Hath the rain a father?'
If you only knew what a vast enterprise
it is to provide appropriate weather for this
world we would not be so critical of the Lord
Isaac Watts at ten years of e compliance
that he did not like the hymns that were
sung in the English chapel. swell" aid hi.
| father, Isaac, instead of your complaining
l ppul Ii hN itAA 50 oAAA NV e1 iAhhR ttihl
are better" And he did go and make hymns
that were better. Now, l say to you il you
dc not like the weather get up a weather
| company and have a president, and a secre-
tary, and a treasurer, and a board of dirnc
tors, and ten million dollars of stock, aud
then provide weather that will suit us all
There is a man who has a weak head, and he
cannot stand tine glare of the sun You must
have a cloud always lowering over him.
like the sunshine; l cannot live without
plenty of sunlight, 50 you must always have
enough light for me. Two ships meet in
mid-Atlantic. The one is going to South,
| aInpton and the other is coming to New
York. Provid weather that, while it i!
abafu for one ship, it is not a head wind foT
the other. There is a farm that is dried NJ
| for the lack of rain, and there is a pleasure
marty going out for a field excursion. PRO
vide weather that will suit the dry farm anC
the pleasure excursion. No. sirs, | will no
take one dollar of stock in your weather
company. There is only one Being in tn,
| universe who knows enough to provide the
right IND of weather for this world. Hiatt
the rain fatherT'
My tex also suggests Coils minute super
( visal. You see the divine Sonship in eves
| drop of rain. The jewels of the shower AT
not flung away by a spendthritt who knows
not how many he throws or where they fall
They are all shining princes of heaven
l lucy All nave tttTndt lnedpe- luel
are all the children Of a king. Hath tn
rain a father?s' Well, then, I say if Go
takes notice of every minute raindrop H
will take notice of the most insignificant
affair of my life. 1t is the Astronomical
view of things that bothers me.
We look up into the night heavens, and
we say, "Worldsi worldsr' and how insig-
niicant we feeli We stand at the foot o
Mount Washington or Mont Blanc, and W,
feel that we are only insects, and then W.
say to ourselves, Though the world is S,
large, the sun is one million four hundred
thousand times larger" ''ohp we say, 81
Is no use, If God wheels that great machinery
through immensely He will not take th'
trouble to look down at me" 1nfidei coz.
ciusion. Saturn, Mercury and Jupiter ar
90 more rounded and weighed and swung BY
the hand of God than are the elahules OF
a lilac bush the morning after a shower.
God is no more in m~agnitudes than He /
in minutia. If He has scales to weigh til
mountains He has balances delicate enough
TO weigh the intinitesimal. You can n
more see Him through the telescope than 70,
can see Him through the microscope; n
more when yon look up than when you loOl
down. Are not the hairs of your head al
numbered And il Himalaya has a God
l Hath not the rain a fatherf' / take thi
doctrine Of eparticular Providence and