Connecticut western news., 1891-07-09
GODS MYSTERIOUS RULE
THE RAIN USED BY DR. TALMAGE
 AS A COMMON ILLUSTRATION.

God Is Infinity in Infinitesimals as Much
 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 gospel in it, which today he proclaims from the text, Hath the rain a fa- ther2" Job Uxviii, 28
 This Book of Job has been the sub ject 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 ain epic poem; others, that it is a 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 I have no trouble with the books of Job or Revelation-the two most mys- terious books in the Bible-because of a rule adopted some years ago.
 wade down into a Scripture pas sage as long as can touch bottom, and when I cannot, then l wade out. 1 used to wade in until it was over my head, and then got drowned. I study passage of Scripture so long as it is comfort and help to my soul; but when it becomes perplexity and 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 eyer expect to swim across this great ocean of divine truth. I go down into that ocean as Igo down into the Atlantic ocean at East Hamp- ton, Long Island, just far enough to bathe, then 1 come out. 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 fly 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 father2" This question is not asked by poetaster or a scientist, but by the head of the universe. To hum ble and to save Job God asks 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 Ightnings, and then he arraigns him with the interro- gation of the text, t'Hath the rain a father9" .s,-~-zs-s,,.-
 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, "help!" You all know that the rain is not an orphan. You know that it is not cast out of the gates of heaven a foundling 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.
 It 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 mur1nuring 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 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 8 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 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 father?"
 COMPLAININGs OF SINFUL MEN.
 Merchants, also, with their stores filled with new goods, and their clerks hanging idly around the counters, com init 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 a 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 ments and impossible streets they never once asked the question, Hath the rain 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 mow dashed of show CT, or wheat almost ready for the sickle