Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1891-05-25
"A GREAT WEEKS WORK.
DR.. TALMAGE breaches A SERMON
ON THE CREATION.


BROOKLYN, May 24-The striking
sermon DR. Talmage delivered this
morning to an audience which filed
the Tabernacle in every part, dealt
with a topic of interest to all who have
watched the discussions now agitatin9
the churches. Wherever the question
of the inspiration of the Bible is raised
the trust worthiness 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 Oh the side of orthodoxy will
doubtless have marked influence on
public opinion. His text was Genesis i,
81, Ard the evening and the morning
were the sixth day.
From Monday morning to Saturday
night gives us Il weeks work. If we
have filed that week with successes
we are happy. But | am going to tell
you what God did iii 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 l might in an unusual way tell
you a 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 l care not, for [ shall
reach the same practical result of rev.
erence and worship.
THE FIRST DAYS WORK
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 a HUI
man family, and they must have a house
to live in. But where? Not a roof, not
a wall, not door, not a room was fit
for human occupancy. There is not a
pile of black basaIt 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 plan. no quarryman to
blast the foundation stones, no cGrpen-
ter to hew out a beam, and no mason
to trOwel a wall Poor prospect! But
the time was coming when Il being
called man was to be constructed, and
he was to have Il bride; and where
he could find homestead to which he
could take her must have been a won
der1nent to angelic intelligences. There
had been earthquakes enough. and vol
canoes enough, and glaciers enough,
but earthquakes and volcanoes and
glaciers destroy instead of build. A
worse looking world than this never
swung. 1t was heaped up deformities,
scarifications and monstr0sities 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
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 resi-
dence the angel would have said. No,
no; try some other world; the crevices
of this earth are too deep; its crags are
too appalling; its darkness is too
thick" But Monday morning came.
think it was a 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
telIigences 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 c&n
brighten this darkness. The moon
and stars are not born yet, or, if
created, their light viii not reach the
earth for some time yet. But there
is need of immediate light. Where
shall it come from! Desiring to ac-
count for things in a natural way, you
say, and reasonably say, that heat and
electricity thrOz out light independent
Of the sun, and that the metallic bases
throw out light independent of the sun,
and that aIIlalies throw out light indie
pendent Of the sun, Oh yes; all that
is true, but | do not think that is the
way light was created
The record makes me think that,
standing over this earth that spring
morning, God looked upon the dark
ness that pa!led the heights of this
world, and the chaslns Of it, and the
awful reaches 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 gaTlands 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 a
force that flies one hundred and ninety
thousand miles in a second, and by I'M
d,..ations seven hundred and twenty
seven trillions in a second, that one
word God utters-Light!
And instantly the darkness began to
simmer, and the thick folds of black
ness to lift, and there were scintillations
and coruscatiOns and flashes and a bill
lowing up of respiendence, and in great
sheets it spread out northward, south
ward, eastward, westward, and a radi-
ance filed the atmosphere until it could
hold no more of the brilliance. Light
now to work by while supernatural in
telIigences look on. Light, the first
chapter of the first day of the week.
Light, the joy of all the centuries
Light, the greatest blessing that ever
touched the human eye. The robe of
the Almighty is woven out of it, for he
covers himself with light as with gar
ment Oh, blessed light
l am so 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
cur disposition more radiant That
will hinder even our losses from becom-
ing too sOmber. Give us more light,
natural light, intellectual light, spirit
ual light, everlasting light For lack
of it the body stuInbles, and the soul
stumbles Oh, thou Father of Lights,
give us light
The great German philosopher in his
last moment said, Il want more light