Evening capital journal. (Salem, Or.) 1888-1893, 1891-05-25

Sermon Preached Sunday, May "a.
BROOKLYN. May "a. The striking sermon
DIR. Talmage delivered this morning to an
audience which filled the new Tabernacle
in every part dealt with a topic of interest
to all who have watched the discussions
now agitating the churches Wherever
the question Of the inspiration of the hi BILE
is raised, the trustworthiness Of the Mosaic
narrative of the creation is always the
point chiefly assaied. The fact that so
prominent and eloquent preacher as Dr.
Talmage places himself clearly on record
on the side of orthodoxy will doubtless
have marked influence on public opinion
His text was Genesis j. 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 am going to tell you what
God did in one week. Cosmogony, geology,
astronomy ornithology, ichthyology, bot
any, anatomy are such vast subjects that
no human life is long enough to explore or
comprehend any one of them. But have
thought / 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 week of days or a week of ages,
care not, for | shall reach the same prac
tical result of reverence and worship
THE FIRST MONDAY MORNING.
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 a human family, and
they must have house to live in. But
where9 Not roof, not wall, not a door
not room was fit for human occupancy
&, Ia De in oil
lowstone park or an extinct volcano in
Honolulu so inappropriate for human resi-
dence as was this globe at that early period.
Moreover, there was no human architect
to draw plan, no quarryman to blast the
foundation stones, no carpenter to hew out
a beam, and no mason to trowel wall.
Poor prospect But the time was coming
when being called man was to be con
structed, and he was to have a bride; and
where he could find a homestead to which
he could take her must have been a won
derment to angelic intelligences.
There had been earthquakes enough and
volcanoes 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, scarifcations and
monstrosities 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 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: mo, no; try
some other world; the -etIlct alloA5l,
new. r---.-.7 -, - creylces ol Vnl' n
palling; its darkness is too thick"
~ T.. lNf
was a spring morning and about half-pas
four o'clock. The first thing needed was
Eght 1t was not needed for God to work
Iy, for he can work as well in the dark
,Iess. But light may be necessary, for an
yelic intelligences are to see in its full
glory the process of world building But
where are the candles, where are the can
delabra, where is the chandelier? No rising
sun will roll in the morning, for if the sur
is already created its light will not yet reacf
the earth in three days. Nor moon nor stars
ran brighten this darkness The moon anC
stars are not born yet, or if created thei
light will not reach the earth for somt
time yet But there is need of immediate
light Where shall it come from? Desir
ing to account for things in a natural wa!
you say, and reasonably say, that heat ant
electricity throw out light Independent o
Jl6 sun, anu lldI lub Il6JdlllC DdSCS buION
out light independent of the sun, and tina
alkalies throw out light independent o
the sun.
Oh, yes, all that is true, but ! do no
think that is the way light was created
The record makes me think that, standing
over this earth that spring morning, Coz
looked upon the darkness that palled tn
heights of this world, and the chasms of it
and the awful reaches of it, and uttered
whether in the Hebrew of earth or some Ian
guage celestial know not, that wore
which stands for the subtle, bright glow
ing and all pervading fluid, that wore
which thrills and garlands and lifts every
thing it touches, that word the full mean
ing of which all the chemists of the age
have busted themselves in exploring, tina
word which suggests a force that flies on
hundred and ninety thousand miles in
second, and by undulations seven hundret
and twenty-seven trillions in a second. tina
one word that God utters-Lightl
And instantly the darkness began Il
simmer, and the thick folds of blacknes
10 lift, and there were scintillatiOns ant
coruscations and flashes and billowini
up of resplendence, and in great sheets
spread out northward, southward, east
ward, westward, and a radiance filled tn
atmosphere until it could hold no more o
the brlliance. Light now to work b.
while supernatural intelligences look on
Light, the first chapter of the first day o
the week. Light, the JOY of all the cent
uries. Light, the greatest blessing tina
ever touched the human eye. The robe o
the Almighty is woven out of it, for h
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
light That will make our work easier
That will keep our disposition more radi
ant That will hinder even our losse
from becoming too somber Give us NOR
light natural light, intellectual light
spiritual light, everlasting light For lacl
Of IL the body stumbles, and the soul STUN
bles. o thou Father of Lights, give u
lghu
The great German philosopher in his las
moment said, II want more light" A min
ister of Christ recently dying cried out II
exultation, IL move into the light| MI
Toplady, the immortal hymnologist, II
his expiring moments exclaimed, Light
Iichtp Heaven itself is only more light
Upon all superstition, upon all Ignorance
upsn all sorrow let in the light hut nov
the light OF the first Monday is reoeding
The blaze is going out The colors ar
dimmiug Only part Of the earth's sur
face Is visible. Il Is o'clock, o'clock,
O'Clock; observation and darkness lt
Monday night "Aad the evening and th
morning were the fil'st day"
TUEspAN's WORK.
Now il is Tuesday morning. A delieat
and tremendous undertaking Is set apar