Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1891-07-11
REV. DR.. TALMAGH.
The Eminent Brooklyn Divine's Sun
day Sermon.


that JOB lived eighteen hundred years be-
fore 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 in-
fidelity. Now. / have no trouble with the
Books of Job or Revelation--the two most
mysterious books in the Bible--because Of
rule adopted some years ago.
wade down into a Scripture passage as
long as ! can touch bottom. and when cam
not 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 comfort and help to my soul, but when
it ecomes perplexity and a spiritual up
turning | 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 l go down into the Atlantic Ocean at
East Hampton, Long Island, just far enough
to battle; then come out. / never had any
idea that with my weak hand and foot
could strike my way clear over to Liverpool
l suppose YOU understand your family
genealogy. You know something about your
parents your grandparents your great
grandparents. Perhaps You know where
they where born or where they died Have
you ever studied the parentage of the show
4 er, Hath not the rain a fathersn This ques-
I ton is not asked by poetaster or scien-
tist but by the head of the universe. To hum
( bic and to save Job God asks him fourteen
questions: About the worlds architecture,
about the retraction of the suns rays about
the tides, about the snow crystal, about the
/ lightnings, and then He arraigns him with
the interrogation of the text, Hath the rain
father?'
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
enc word of four letters, ''helpn You all
know taat the rain is not an orphan. You
know 1t is not cast out ofthe gates of heaven
founding You would answer the ques.
ton of my text in the affirmative.
Safely housed during the storm, you hear
the ram beating against the window pane.
and you find it searching all the crevices of
the window sill. 1t first comes down in soli--
tary drops, pattering the dust, and then it
( deluges the fields and angers the Mountain
torrents, and makes the traveller implore
shelter You know that the rain is not an
accident Of the worlds economy You know
it was born ot the cloud You know it was
tocked i'll the cradle of the wind You know
It was sung to sleep BY the storm. YOU know
that it is flying eyangel from heaven to
earth. You know it is the gospel of the
weather. You know that God is its father
IL this be true, then how wicked is ouf
mrmuring about climatic changes. The
first eleven Sabbaths after | entered 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 peo-
pie sat before adrencaed pastor; but most Of
the farmers stayed at home and thanked
Col that what was bad for the church was
good for the crops [ committed good deal
of sin in those days in denouncng the
.-f,ff
fret about stormy Sabbaths or hot Sabbaths,
or Indictment Sabbatls. They forget thu
fact that the same God who ordained ths
Sabbath and sent forth his ministers to an
nounce salvation also ordained the weather.
Hath the rain fatherg'
Merchants, also, with their stores fillel
with new goods AMI their cleras hanging
idly around the counters, commit the Sans
trangresslon, There have been seasons when
the whole spring and fall trade has SS-a1
ruined by protractad wet weather. Tbs
merchants then examined the weather
PROBABILITIES with mora interest than they
tead their Bibles They watched for d
patch of blue SKY. They went complaining
to the store and came complaining home
again In all that season of wet feet and
dripping garments and impossible streets
they never once asked the question, Hath
the rain a father
So agriculturists commit this sin There
planted corn rot in the ground because OF
too much moisture, or nay all ready for tine
NOW dashed of a shower, or wheat almost
ready for the sickle spoiled with the rust.
How hard it is to bear the agricultural dis
appointments. God has initiate resources,
but do not think He has capacity 10 make
Feather I'd please sll the farmers, Some
times it is too hot or it is too cold, y is too
wet or it is too dry; it is too early. or il IS
too late. They forget that the God vino
promised seed time and harvest, summer and
winter, cold and heat, also ordained all eli
matte changes. There is one question that
ought to be written on every barn, on every
feace, on every haystacs, on every farm
house, Hath the rain a father?
If you only knew what a vast enterprise
it is 10 provide appropriate weather for this
world We would not be SO critical 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
lathe, isaac, instead of your complaining
2bout the hymns go and make hymns that
are better" And he did go and make hymns
that We're better Now, say to You ii you
do not like the weather get up weather
company and have a president, and secre-
tary, and a treasurer, and board of direc-
tors, and ten million dollars of stock, and
then provide weather that will suit Us ALL
4 There is man wno hes q weak head ami he
cannot stand the glare Of the sun. You must
have cloud always lowering over him.
like the sunshine, ] cannot live without
plenty of sunlight, 50 you must always have
enough light for me. Two ships meet id
mid Atlantic. The one is going to South
ampton and the other is coming to New
York Provide weather that, while it is
abaft for one snip; it is not a head wind for
the other. There is farm that is dried uJ
Tor the lack Of rain, and there is pleasurs
party going out for a fed excursion. Pro-
. vii lui 10 dry farssa nd
the pleasure excursion. No srs l will not
take one dollar of stock in your weather
company. There is only one Being in the
universe who knows enough to provide the
right kind of weather for this world Hath
the rain a fathersp
Ny text a!so su rgests Co.'s minute suDer-
visal. You see the divine Sonship in every
drop of rain. Tho jewels OF the shower are
not flung away by spendthcitt who knows
not how many he throws or where they fall.
They are all shining princes OF heaven.
They ali have eternal lineage They
are all the children OF king s'Hath the
ram fatherE9 Well, then, / saw if Col
takes notice of every minute randrop He
viii take notice of the most ms gnifcant
affair of my life. Ii is the astronomical
view OF things that bothers me-
We lock up into the night heavens, and
we say, Worlds worldsw and how insig-
nihcant we feeli We stand at the foot of
Mount Washington or Mont Blanc, and we
feel that we are only insects, and then we
say to ourselves. Though the world is SO
large, the sun is one million four hundred
thousand times larger" OAR we say, ut
is no use, if God wheels that great machinery
Ilrough immensely He viii not take the
trouble 70 look down ct me- Infidel con-
usion Saturn, Mercury and Jupiter are
Z no more rounded and weighed and swun- by
the hand of Col than ara the globules Oh
lilac bush the morning after shower.
God is no more i'll magnltudes than He is
in miuutlse. Ii He has scales 20 weigh the
mountains. He has balances delicate enough
TO weigh the iafinitssmal. You can no
more see Him through the telescope than you
can sec HiT through the microscope; no
I more when you LOOK up than when YOU look
down. Are net the hairs of your head al
numberedg And il Himalaya has a God.
"Hath not the rain a fatherY | take this
doctrine Of q particular Providence, and
thrust it into the very midst OF your every
day life. II God fathers rainirop, is thers
any thing so Insignificant in your affairs that
God will not father that2
When Drayse. the guasulith. invented tho
needle gun, which Decided the battle of
Saaowa, was l. mare scci.iant3 When a
farmers bog showed Butcher Short cut by
which he couli bring his army up soo1
/ enough to decide Waterloo for England. was
it q mere accident? When Lord Byron toolx
piece OF money and tossel it up to decide
whether or not he shond be affiancai to Miss
MiilbanI, was it mere accident which side
Of the money was up and which was down?
When tbs Christian army was basized at
Bazlers, aud a drunken drummer came in at
midnisnt and rang the alarm bell. not know
ing what be was doing, but waxing up the
host in time to fight their enemies that mo-