Milford chronicle. [volume] (Milford, Del.) 1878-1974, 1891-07-10
GOSPELO FTHE WEATHER
Or. TALMAGE breaches ON THE
COMPLAINTS ABOUT THE RAIN.

The Wonderful Imagery of the Book OF
JoB-How the Study of It Has Made
Weak Men Into Infdels-Never Wade
Into Mystery Over Your Head.
BROOKLYN, July 5.-Dr. Talmage's ser
mon today is on kind of gospel in which
few people believe. The weather is a com
mon object of complaint and fault finding,
but DR.. Talmage finds a gospel in it, which
today he prOclaims from the text, Hath
the rain a father?" Job xxxviii, %.
This Book of Job has been the subject of
unbounded theological wrangie 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 an epic
poem; others, that it is 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 inndelity Now, have no trouble
with the Books of Job or Revelation-the
two most mysterious books in the Bible
( because of a rule adopted some years ago.
! wade down into a Scripture passage as
long as l can touch bottom, aAd when l
cannot then / wade out. / used to wade in
until it was over my head and then I got
: drowned. l study passage Of Scripture
so long as it is a comfort and help to my
soul, but when it becomes a perplexity and
4 spiritual upturning l 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 20
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 Liver
pool.
GODS MYSTERIOUS GOVERNMENT.
Isuppose you understand your family
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 not the rain a father?"
This question is not asked by a poetaster
or a scientist, but by the head of the uni
verse. To humble and to save Job God
asks him fourteen questions: About the
worlds architecture, about the refractiOn
of the suns rays, about the tides, about the
snow crystal, about the lightnings, and
then he arraigns him with the interroga-
ton Of the text, Hath the rain a father2"
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, "helpl"
You all know that the rain is not an or
phan. You know it is not cast out of the
gates of heaven founding. You would
answer the question of my text in the If
firmative.
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 comes down in
solitary drops, pattering the dust, and then
it deluges the fields and angers the noun
tain torrents and makes the traveller inn
plore 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 n flying evan
the gospel of the weather. You know that
God is its father
If this be true, then how wicked is our
murmuring 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 Noahs ark before it landed A few
drenched people sat before drenched pas
tor; 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 denouncing the weather. Ministers Of
the Gospel sometimes fret about stormy
Sabbaths, or hot Sabbaths, or inclement
Sabbaths They forget the fact that the
same God who ordained the Sabbath and
sent forth his ministers to announce sal
walton also ordained the weather Hath
the rain a fatherp
lNCEssANT COMPLAINTS OF THE WEATHER.
Merchants, also, with their stores filed
with new goods, and their clerks hanging
idly around the counters, commit the same
transgression. There have been seasons
when the whole spring and fall trade has
been ruined by protraeted wet weather.
Il
weather probabilities" with more interest
than they read their Bibles. They watched
for patch of blue sky. They went com
planning to the store and came complain
ing home again. In all that season of wet
feet and dripping garments and impassa-
BILE streets they never once asked the ques-
ton, "Hath the rain fatherg"
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
NOV dashed Of a shower, or wheat al
most ready for the sickle spoiled with the
rust. How hard it Is to bear the agricul
tural disappointments. God has infinite
resources, but l do not think he has capac
ity to make weather to please all the
farmers. Sometimes 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
harvest, 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 haystack, on every farmhouse
Hath the rain father2"
II we only knew what a vast enterprise
it is to 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 father, Isaac, instead of
your complaining about the.hymns, 60 and
make hymns that are better" And he did
90 and make hymns that were better.
Now, / say to you if you do not like the
weather get up a weather company and
have a president, and a secretary, and
treasurer, and a board of directors, and ten
million dollars of stock, and then provide
weather that will suit us all. There is
man who has a weak head, and he cannot !
stand the glare Of the sun. You must have
a cloud always lowering over him.
like the sunshine; cannot live without
plenty of sunlight, so you must always
have enough light for me- Two ships
meet in mid-Atlantic. The one is going to
Southampton and the othels IS comingte |
New York Provide weather that, while !
It is abaft for one ship, It Il not a head |
wind for the other The:e is "A farm that /
is dried up for the lack Of rain, and there
is pleasure party going out for field ex-