The Kinsley graphic. [volume] (Kinsley, Kan.) 1890-1940, 1891-07-10
LESSON OF THE RAINS.
DE-. Talmage Finds Much Good IN
the Storms.
The Rain a Child OF GOd-Ehe Lords super
vision Over the Smallest ThInss-ReIIef
in the Ram OF Housekeeping
For Joy.

the rain 1ather?" JOB, EZSyi1L %
He said:
This Book of Job has been the sub
ject of un bounded theological wrangle-
Men have made it the ring in which to
display their ecclesiastical pugilisu1.
Some say that the Book of Job is a true
history; others that it is an allegOry;
Others that 1t is an epic poem; others
that it Is a drama Some say that Job
lived 1, 500 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 infidelity.
Now, have trOnble with the Books
of Job or Revelation-the two most
mysterious books in the Bible-because
of a rule adopted some years ago I
wade down into a scripture passage as
long as I can touch bottom, and
when 1 cannot, then I wade out
used to wade in it until it was over
my head. and then 1 got drowned I
study a 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, 1 quit. In other
words, we ought to wade in 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.
suppose you understand your family
igenealogy. 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 father?" This question is not
asked by a pOetaster or a scientist, but
10y the head OF the universe. To hum BILE
and to save Job, God 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
then 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. minister
gets through with that kind of sermons
within the first three years, and if he
has piety enough he gets through with
1T 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 it 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 traveller
implore shelter. You know that the rain
is not an accident of the worlds econ
-Omy. 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 flying evangel from heaven
to earth. You know it is the gospel of
the weather. You know that God is
sA- - = 81 -,
wicked is our murmuring about eli
matte changes.
The first eleven Sabbaths after I en-
tered the ministry it stOrmed. Through
the week it was clear weather, but on
the Sabbath the country meeting house
looked like NOah's ark before it 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
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 inclement
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"
So agFiculturists commit this sin.
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 it IS
to bear the agricultural disappOint-
znents- God has infinite resources. but
do not think he has capacity TO make
weather to suit all farmers Some
times it is too hot, or it is too cold; it is
too wet. or it 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?'' II we only knew what
q vast enterprise it is to provide apprO-
pirate weather for this world we would
not be so critical of the Lord Isaac
Watts, at 10 years of age, complained
III - L