The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1891-06-03

The Striking sermon Or. 1alma2o de-
Iivered Sunday 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
sgitating the churches. Wherever the
question Of the inspiration of the bible is
raised the trustworthiness of the Mosaic
narrative of the creation Is always the
point chiefly assailed. The fact that 80
prominent and eloquent preacher as DR..
Talmase places himself clearly on record
on the side of orthodoxy will doubtless
have marked influence on public opin-
ion. His text was Genesis i, 81: "And
the evening and the morning were the
sixth day."
From Monday morning to Saturday
night gives us a weeks work. If we have
filed that week with successes We are
happy. But 1 am going to tell you what
God did in one week. Cosmogony, geol-
ogy. astronomy, ornithology, ichthyology,
botany, anatomy, are such vast subjects
that no human life is long enough to ex-
ii re or comprehend any one of them
Pit have thought might in an unusual
way tell YOU q little of what God did in
one week and that the first week. And
whether you make il q week of days or q
week of ages, | care not, for / shall reach
the same practical result of reverence and
worship.
The first Monday morning found swing
ing 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 human family and
they must have house to live in But
where2 Not roof, not wall, not
door. not a room was fit for occupancy.
There is not pile of black basalt in Vel
lowstOne park or an extinct volcano In
Honolulu so inappropriate for human resi-
deDce this globe at this early
period. Moreover, there was no human
architect TO draw plan, no quarryman TO
blast the foundation stones, no carpenter
10 hew out beam and no mason TO trowel
wall. Poor prospect But the time was
coming when being called man was to be
constructed and he was to have abride and
where he could find homestead TO which
he could take her must have been a won
dernent TO angelic intelligences. There
had been earthquakes enough, and volca-
noes enough, and glaciers enough, but
earthquakes and volcanoes and glaciers
destroy instead of build. Aworse looking
world than this never swung. 1t was
heaped up deformities, scarifcatiOns and
monstrosties The bible says it was with
out form. That is, it was not round, it
was not square, it was not octagonal, it
was not a rhombOid. 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
residence, the angel would have said, "No,
no; try some other world; the crevices of
this earth are too deep: it's crags are too
appalling; its darkness is too thick"
But Monday morning came. | think it
was spring morning and about 1870
o'clock. The first thing needed was light.
II was not needed for God 10 work by, for
He can work as well in darkness. But
light may be necessary. for angelic intel
ligences are to see in its full glory the
process of world building. But where
are the candles, where are the candelsbra,
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
or stars can brighten this darkness. The
moon and stars are not born yet, or, ii
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 account
for things in a natural way you
say, and reasonably say, that heat and
electricity throw out light independent of
the sun, and that the metallic bases throw
out light independent of the sun, and that
alkalies throw out light independent of
the sun. Oh, yes, all that is true, but do
not think that Is the way light was ere
ated. The record makes me think that,
standing over this earth that spring morn
ing God looked upon the darkness that
palled the heights OF this world, and the
chasms OF It, and the awful researches OF
it. and uttered whether in the Hebrew OF
earth, or some language celestial / know
not, that word which stands for the
subtle, bright, glowing and all-pervading
fluid, that word which thrills and
garlands and lifts everything it
touches, that word the full meaning
OF which all the chemists of the ages have
busted themselves in exploring, that word
which suggests force that flies one hun
dred and ninety thousand miles in a sec
Ond and by fluctuations one hundred and
twenty-seven trillions in a second. that
one word God utters-Lightl And in
stantly the darkness began to simmer,
and the thick folds of blackness to lift,
and there were scIntillations, and corus-
cations and flashes and a billowing up OF
resplendence, and in great sheets it spread
out northward, southwark, eastward. west
ward and a radiance filed the atmosphere
until IL could DOlQ no more OF the DrllllanCo.
Light now to work by while supernatural in
telligences look on. Light, the first chapter
of the first day of the week. Light, the
joy of all the centuries. Light, the great
est blessing that touched the human eye.
The robe of the Almighty is woven out of
it, for He covers himself with light as with
garment. Obi blessed light! am 80
glad this was the first thing created that
week. Good thing to start every week
with is light That will make our work
easier. That will keep our disposition
more radiant. That will hinder even our
losses from becoming too somber. Give
us more light, natural light. intellectual
light, everlasting light For lack OF
it the body stumbles, and the soul
stumbles- Oh thou Father of Lights,
give us light The great German
philosopher in his last moment said: 81
want more light" A minister of Christ
recently dying cried out in exultation, 81
move into the lightp Mr.. Toplady, the
immortal hymnologist, in. his expiring
moments exclaimed, "Lightl Light 70
Heaven itself is only more light Upon
all superstition, upon all ignorance, upon
all sorrow let in the light. But now the
light of the first Monday is receding.
The blaze is going out. The colors are