The Red Cloud chief., 1891-07-17
LESSON OF THE RAINS.
Talmage Finds Much Good I'm
y the Storms
tain . Child Of God-The Lords super-
IN Over the Smallest Things-Relief
In the Rain Of Tears-weeplns
For Joy.

- recent sermon at Brookly Rev.
DeWitt Talmage took the weather
his subject. His text a Hath
tie rain a father" Job, xviii 2s.
He said:
This Book of Job has been the sub
tect OF unbounded theological wrangle.
Men have made II 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 allcgory:
others that it is an epic poem; others
that 1T is a drama Some say that Job
lived 1,s00 years before Christ, others
that he never live at all. Some say the
author of this book was Job; others
David; others Solomon. The discussion
has landed some in blank ~infdelity.
Now, l nave no tronble with the Books
OF Job or Revelation-the two most
mysterious books in the Bible-becsuse
of a rule / adopted some years ago. !
wade down into a scripture passage as
long as / q touch bottom, and
when / cannot, then ] wade out
j used to wade in it until IL was over
my head, and then l got drowned. /
study a passage of scripture 80 long as
il is a comfort and help TO my soul; but
when 1t becomes a perplexity and a
spiritual upturning, ! quit In other
words, we ought TO wade ia up TO our
heart, but never wade in until il is
over our head No man should ever ex-
pect to swim across the great ocean Of
divine truth.
Gtlnnncn Won rtnIor e%.-I -1---.t-
~genealogy. You know something about
your parents, your grandparents, your
great-grandparents. Perhaps you know
where they were born, or where
they died. Have you ever studied the
parentage Of the shower? Hath the
rain a father" This question is not
asked by a ~poetaster or a scientist, but
by the head of the universe. To humble
and TO save job. rod asked him four
teen questions; about the worlds archi-
lecture, about the refraction of the
suns rays. about the tides, about the
snow crystal, about the lightning, and
hen he arraigns him with the interro-
cation of the text: Hath the rain a
father"
With the scientific wonders of the
rain ! have nothing to do. A minister
gets through with that kind Of sermons
within the first three years, and IL he
has piety enough he gets through with
il in the first three months. A sermon
has come to me TO mean n word of
four letters: ''help," You all know
that the rain is not an orphan. You
know 1t is not cast out of the gates of
heaven a founding. You would an
swer the question 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 crevices of the window
sill 1t first cowes down in solitary
drops, pattering the dust, and then it
deluges the fields and angers the noun
tain torrents. and makes the raveler
implore shelter. You know that the rain
is not an accident of the worlds econ
orny. You know it was born Of the
cloud. You know it was rocked in the
cradle of the wind. You know il was
- to sleep by the storm. You know
is n flying evangel from heaven
-th. You know il is the gospel of
u loa h1oN ttot WV 10
4ather. II this. be true, then how
wicked is our murmuring about eli
matte changes
The first eleven Sabbaths after l en-
tered the ministry it stormed. Through
the week il Was clear weather, but on
the sabbath the country meeting house
looked like Noah's ark before il land
ed. A few drenched people sat before
a drenched pastor. but most of the
farmers stayed at home and thanked
God that what was bad for the church
was good for the crops committed a
good deal of sin in those days in de-
~nouncing the weather. Ministers of
the Gospel sometimes fret about stormy
Sabbaths or hot Sabbaths or Indictment
Sabbaths. They forget the fact that
same God who ordained the Sabbath
and sent forth His ministers TO an
nounce salvation also ordained the
weather. Hath the rain a father"
Merchants, also, with their stores
filed with new goods and their clerks
hanging idly around the counter, com
init the same transgresslon. There
have been seasons when the whole
spring and fall trade has been ruined
by protracted wet weather. The mer-
chants then examined the weather
probabilities" with more interest thar
they read their Bibles They watched
for a patch of blue sky. They went
complaining to the store, n came com
planning home again. In all that sea-
son of wet feet and dripping garments
o.ss Hh.r ~ opesa
asked the question: Hath the rain a
father?"
SO agriculturists commit this sin.
There is nothing more annoying than TO
have planted corn rot in the ground be-
cause of too much moisture, or hay all
ready for the NOW dashed of a shower,
or wheat almost ready for the sickle
spoiled with the rust How hard 1t Is
to bear the agricultural disappoint-
ments. God has infinite resources, but
] do not think he has capacity TO make
weather to suit all farmers Some
times it is too hot OF it is too cold: IT is
toow wet. or il is too dry; it is too early.
or it is too late. They forget that the
God who promised seed time and har-
vest, summer and winter, cold and heat,
also ordained all the climatic changes.
There is one question that ought to
be written on every barn. on every
fence, on every farm house: Hath the
rain a father?' If we only knew what
a vast enterprise it is to provide sPPro-
pirate weather for this world we would
not be SO critical of the Lord Isaac
Watts, at 10 years of age, complained
that he did not like the hymns that were
sung in the English chapel "Weii.
said his father. Isaac, instead OF your
complaining about the hymns go and
make HYMNS that are better" And he
did go and make hymns that were bet
ter. Now, ! say to you. If you do mol
like the weather. get Up a weather com
pany and have a president. and a secre-
iary, and a treasurer. and a board OF
directors, and $40. 600. 600 Of stock. and
then provide weather that will suit all
of us. There is q farm that is dried up
for the lack of rain, and here is q
pleasure party going out for a held ex'
c,,S,n. Provide weather that Will sui