News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1891-07-09

OOu Is AnnnALy AnAHlGeSAHldiS as 4uuCAA
as in Things Infinitely Great, in Our
Everyday Sorrows as in the Worlds
Erection.
BROOKLYN, July 5.-Dr. Talmage's
sermon today is on a kind of gospel in
which few people believe. The weather
is common object of complaint and
fault finding, but DR.. Talmage finds a
gospel in it, which today he proclaims
from the text, Hath the rain IA
therp Job xxxviii, %.
This Book of Job has been the sub
iect 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 true
history; others, that it is an allegory;
others, that it is an epic poem; Others
that it is drama. Some say that Job
lived eighteen hundred years before
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 infidelity. Now
/ have no trouble with the books of
Job or Revelation-the two most mys-
FERROUS books in the Bible-because of
a rule adopted some years ago.
| wade down into a Scripture pas
sage as long as l can touch bottom, and
when l cannot, then [ wade out. l
used to wade in until it was over my
head, and then got drowned. | study
passage of Scripture so long as it is a
comfort and help to my soul; but when
it becomes a perplexity and a spiritual
upturning, 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 | go down
into the Atlantic ocean at East Hamp-
ton, 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.
SCIENCE IS NOT RELIGION.
I suppose you understand your fam
ily genealogy. You know something |
tOOuG your yOLAA Shboy
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 father2" This question is not
asked by poetaster or a scientist, but
by the head of the universe. To hum
Bile and to save Job God asks him four
teen questions; about the worlds archi-
lecture, about the refraction of the
SUMS rays, about the tides, about the
snow crystal. about the lightnings, and
then he arraigns him with the interro-
CATION of the text Hath the rain a
father2'
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 If he
has piety enough he gets through with
it in the first three months. A sermon
has come to me to mean one word of
four letters, ''helpr You all know
that the rain is not an orphan. You
know that it is not cast out of the
gates of heaven a founding. You
would answer the question of my text
in the affirmative. Safely housed dur
ing the storm you hear the rain beat
ing against the window pane, and you
find it searching all the crevices of the
window sill.
1t first comes down in solitary drops,
pattering the dust, and then it deluges
the fields and angers the mountain tor
rents 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 the cloud.
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 know it is the gospel of
the weather. You know that God is
its father
If this be true, then, how wicked is
our munnuring about climatic changes.
The first eleven Sabbaths after | en-
tered 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 drenched people sat
before 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
good deal of sin in those days in de-
the weather Ministers of
the Gospel sometimes fret about stormy
Sabbaths or hot Sabbaths or inclem
ent Sabbaths They forget the fact
that the same God who ordained the
Sabbath and sent forth his ministers to
announce salvation, also ordained the
weather. Hath the rain father2'
CoMPLAININGs OF SINFUL MEN.
Merchants, also, with their stores
filled with new goods, and their clerks
hanging idly around the counters, com
NIT the same transgression. 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 than
they read their Bibles They watched
for patch of blue sky. They went
complaining to the store and came
complaining home again. In all that
season of wet feet and dripping gar
iments and impossible streets they
never once 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
because of too much moisture, or hay
all ready for the NOW dashed of show
er, or wheat almost ready for the sickle
spoiled with the rust. How hard it is
to bear the agricultural disappoint-
ments God has infinite resources, but
/ do not think he has capacity to make
weather to please all the farmers
Sometimes it is too hot, or it is too
cold it is too wet, or it it is too dry; it
is too early, or it is too late. They for
get that the God who promised seed
time and harvest, summer and winter,
cold and heat, also ordained all the eli
matte changes. There is one question
that ought to be written ON every barn,
On every fence, on every haystack, on
every farmhouse, "Hath the rain a
If we only knew what a vast enter
prise it is to provide appropriate weather
for this world we would not be so crit
zeal of the Lord. Isaac Watts, at ten
years of age, complained that he did
not like the hymns that were sung in
the English chapel. WELL" said his
father, Isaac, instead of your com