Alma record. (Alma, Mich.) 1878-1928, 1891-05-29
TALMAGE ON CREATION.
THE GREAT DIVINE ON THE
WORLDS FIRST WEEK.
Tho Mountains. tho Rivers. and All the
Living Things over Which Man IL
Emperor and Woman Empress
"A Wonderful Sermon.

] From Monday morning to Saturday
night gives usa weeks work. 1--we nave
! tiled that week with successes We are hap
} py. But 1 am going 10 tell you what God
did In one week. Co,omoSony, geology,
astronomy, ornthology, lchthyOlogy, bot
any, anatomy are such vast subjects that
no human llie II Ion, enough 10 explore or
comprehend any one OF thom. But nave
thought i might ia an unusual way tell You
littlo Of what God Il II IN one week and that
tho hrst week. And whether you make IL
week OF days or aweek OF ages, care not,
for L shall reach the same Practical result
4 OF reverence and worship. =
The first Monday morning found swing
! Ing in space the piled-up lumber OF rocks
aud metal md sol and water from which
the earth was To be bullded. tod made up
his mindtc create \ human family aud they
must have house 10 live in. But wherey
] Not roof, not "A wall. not door, not
/ room was 1T for hulnrn occupancy. There
! ~ not a pile or black basalt IN leIlowstone
/ Park or an extinct volcano IN Honolulu 30
| Inappropriate for human residence u WAS
/ this globe at that early period. Moreover,
/ there was no human architect 10 draw \
4 plan, no quarryman To blast the foundation
stones, no carpenter 10 hew out beam, aud
no mason to trowel n wall. Poor prospect!
/ God never did take any one In has counsels,
/ but II he had asked sumo angel about the
/ attempt To turn this planet into place Tor
/ human residence, the angel would have
4 said, "Ss, no; try sometother world; the
4 creyces OF thls earth are too deep; its crass
are too appalling; its darkness Is too
! thick" But Monday morning came. l
| thiLk 1t was a spring morning and about
/ half past four o'clock. The first thing
/ needed was lght.-Light! And instantly
tue darkness began 10 simmer. and the
thick folds OF blackness TO lift, aud there
were scintillations, aud coruscations. and
/ flashes and y billowlns up OF resplendence,
I Il Gxst nrfh
ward, Southwark. Eastward, Westwarl
and = radiance FIJI ID The atmosphere until
! IL could hold m uore OF the brilliancs.
! Light now 20 w0r.. by while supernatural
intelllgences lcok on. Light, tie first
cLaDleS Of TIE iirs. day OF the week.
! Now II is Tuesday morning. A delicate
and tremendous undertaking il set apart
! for his day. There was great super
! abundance OF water. God toy the wave or
I his hand this morning gathers part OF - In
! suspended reservoirs aud part or II he orders
! down into the rivers, aud lakes and seas.
/ How To hang whole Atlantic Oceans in the
! clouds without their spIllins over except
! in right quantities ana AT right tim \ was
an undertaking that no one but Omnipo-
! tence would have dared. But God docs IL
us easily "A, you would hit glass OF water.
! There be HOSTS Two clouds each thirty
mile. wide and live miles high and balances
them. Here lie lifts the cirrus clouds and
! spreads them out IN great wnite banks -
though IL had ben showing in heaven.
! And the clrro-stratuS clouds IN
! long parallel lines 80 straight you know an
/ infinite Geometer has drawn them. Clouds
which are the armory from which thunder
storms get their blyonets OF TIRE. Clouds
! which are oceans on the wing. NO wonder
| long alter this fist Tuesday OF Creation
week. Elihu cOufouuded job with the qucs-
/ ton, "DoSt thou know the balancings OF tn
cloud>r" Half OF hls Tuesday work done,
/ the other half is the work OF compelling
| the waters to lie down In their destined
places. SO God picks up the solid ground
| aud packs 1t up INTO five elevations which
/ are The continents. With his finger lie
/ makes deep depresSons IN them, and these
are the lakes While ut the piling up OF the
! Aleghnnics and Sierra Neyadas and Pyrcn-
! ees and Alps aud llimalayas the rest OF the
waters start by the law OF grayitation 10
/ the lower places, and In their run down-hill
! become the rivers, and then all around tue
! earth these riyers come into convention and
| become oceans beneath, IS the clouds are
oceans above.
Now It is Wednesday morning OF the
worlds H. II week. How queer the hills
look. aud 20 unattraciive they seem hardly
| worth having been made. But now all the
| surfaces are changing color. Something
beautiful il creeping al. over them. Ii has
| the color OF emerald. Aye II IL heritage.
| Hail 10 the green grass, Gods favoritc color
aud COTS favOrlts plant, AS l judge from
/ tue Ne mAhes n numDeF tlem
than OF anything else. But look yonder!
| Something starts out of the ground and goes
| higher up, higher and higher, and spreads
out broad leaves. 1t is I'm tree. londer
! is another growth. and its leaves hang far
! down, and u Is y willow tree. And yOnder
| il u growth with mighty sweep OF branches.
And here they cume--tIe pear aud the APP.
! pie. aud the peach an the ponce ranatc,
aud groves and orchards and forests their
shadows and their fu girdling the ear h.
We are pushing agriculture AMI fruit cut
| ture TO great excellence in the nineteenth
| century, but we have nothing now 10 equal
what | see on this first Wednesday Of tue
! worlds existence.
Now it Is Thursday morning OF the
worlds first week. Nothing will be ere
slej to-day. The hours viii be -ssed in
/ scattering fogs aud miHts AMI yapors. The
atmosphere must be swept clean. Other
worlds are to hove ia sight This little ship
/ OF the earth has seemed to have all the
ocean OF immensely to itself. But mightier
craft are TO be hailed to-day Oh the high
seas OF space. First the moons whlto
SAL appears aud does very
we'll until the sun bursts upon
the scene. The light that OIL the previous
three mornings was struck from an especial
word now gathers IN the sun moon aud
stars. Ons for the day tho othcrr for the
! ngut. Ii seemed rs IL they had all within
! twenty-four hours been created. All, this
il great time IN tile worlds first week.
/ The moon, the nearest neighbor to our
earth appears; her photograph 10 be taken
IN the nineteenth century, when the tele-
scope shall bring her within one hundred
and twenty miles OF New
York. And the sun now appears.
! afterward to he found eight hun
dred aud eighty thousand miles in diam
! eter, and put in astronomical scales, To be
found to weigh nearly four hundred
/ thousand times heavier than our earth; a
mighty furnace. its heat kept up by
meteors pouring Into 10 as fuel, "a world de-
YOuring other worlds with it, Jaws OF
/ flame. Aud the stars come out. those street
! lamps OF heaven those keys OF pearl, upon
: which Gods fingers play the music OF The
spheres. How bright they look in this
/ Oriental EVENING" Consultations! Galax-
I les! What u tweniy-four hours of this first
week-Soiar, lunar, stellar appearances.
I All this Thursday aud the adjoining nights
employed in pulling aside the curtain OF
vapor from these flushed or pale-fUed
worlds. Enougf And the evening and
the morning were the fourth day"
Now II N Friday morning. Water. hut
not IN swimming In 81; air. but not n
wing dying IL. II Is silent world. Can IL