Audubon County Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Audubon Co., Iowa) 1885-1894, 1891-07-09
LITTLE DROPS OF WATER
THEY ALL SPRING FROM THE
GREAT FOUNTAIN HEAD.
Thrilling Sermon at the BROOKLYN
Tabernacle Sunday-''IIas the Rain
Text.

The Book of Job has been the sui
ject of unbounded theological wrangl,
Men have made it the ring in which {
display their ecclesiastical pugilisn
Some say that the Book of Job is
true history; others, that it is an allie
CORY; others, that it is an epic poem
Others that it is a drama. Some sa
that Job lived eighteen hundred year
before Christ; Others say that he neve
lived at all. Some say that the autho
of this book was job; others, David
others, Solomon. The discussion ha
landed some in blank infidclity Now
| have no trouble with the Books o
Job or Revelation.
You all know that the rain is not al
/ orphan. You know it is not east on
| of the gates of heaven founding
! You would answer the question of IN
/ text in the affirmative.
/ If this be true, then, how wicked i
our murmurirg about climatic changes
The first eleven Sabbaths after en-
tered the ministry it stormed Through
the week it was clear weather, but on
the Sabl aths the old country meeting
house looked like NOah's Ark before i
landed.
Merchants, also, with their store
filled with new goods. and their clerk
hanging idly around the counters, com
nit the same tranSgres ion. There
have been seasons when the whole
spring and fall trade has been ruined
by protracted wet wCa. Ecr.
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 NOW dashed of a
shower, or wheat almost ready Tor the
sickle spoiled with the rust. How hard
it is 10 bear the agricultural
diSappointments God has in.
finite resources. but do not think
he has capacity 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 $ too late. My text also suggests
Gods minute supervisal. You see the
divine Sonship in every drop of rain.
The jewels of the shower are not flung
away by a spcndthrift who knows not
how many he throws or where they
fall. They are all shining princes of
heaven. They all have an eternal lin
cage. They are all the children of Il
King. Hath the rain father?"
If God fathers a rain-drop. is there
anything so insignificant in your fairs
that God will not father that? When
Druyse, the gunsmith. invented the
needle-gun, which decided the battle of
SadOwa, was it mere accident? When
A farmers boy showed Butcher a short
cut by which he could bring his army
up soon enough to decide Waterloo for
England, was it a mere accident?
When Lord Byron took a piece of
money and tossed it up TO de-
eide whethe~ or not he should be
aftianced to Miss Millbank, was it a
mere accident which side of the money
was up and which was down! When
the Christian army were bcsiegcd at
Beziers. and drunken drummer came
in at midnight and rang the alarm bell,
not knowing what he was doing but
waking up the host in time t. fight
their enemies that moment ar
irving, was it an accident? When,
in one of the Irish wars
starving mother flying with her
starving child. sank down and tainted
on the rocks in the night and her hand
fell on Il warm bottle of milk, did that
just happen so? God is either in the
affairs of men. or our religion is worth
nothing at all. and you had better take
it away from us, and instead of this
Bible, which teaches the doctrine, give
us Il secular book. and let us, as the
famous Mr.. Fox. the member of ParIia-
ment, in his last hour, cry out: Read
ne the eighth book of Virgil" o, my
fv.;, 1nt
ton of the fact that all the affairs
Of our life are under Il King command
and under a Fathers watch. AlcXan-
ler's war horse, Bucephalus. would al
low anybody to mount him when he
was Embarrassed: but rs soon as they
put on that war horse, Bucephalus. the
saddle and the trappings If the cor
queror, he would allow no one but
Alexander To touch him. And if soul
less horse could have so much pride in
his owner, shall not we immortals exult
in the fact that we are owped by
King?
Again. my subject teaches me that
Gods dealings with US are incxplica-
BILE. That was the original force of
my text. The rain was Il great mys-
terry to the ancicnts. They could not un-
derstand how the water should get
into the cloud, and getting there, how
it should be suspended, on filling. why
it should come down in drops. Modern
science comes along and says there are
two portions of air of different temper
allure, and they are charged with
moisture, and the one portion of
air decreases in temperature 50 the
water may no longer BE held in
vapor, and it falls And they tell us
that some of the clouds that look To be
only as large as a mans hand, and To be
almost quiet IN the heavens. are great
mountains of mist four thousand feet
from base to top, and that they rush
miles minute. But after all the
brilliant experiments of DIR. James
Hutton and, Saussure. and other
scientists, there is an infinite mystery
about the rain. There is an ocean of
the unfathomablc in every rain-drop,
and God says to-day as he said in the
time of job: III you can not under
stand one drop of rain. do not be sur
prised if my dealings with you are in.
cxplica BILE"
Again, my text makes me think that
the rain of tears is of divine origin
'fl'dN NlohtlN VI ll'llilt llONtI
over us. They are black. and they are
gorged, and they are thundcrous. They
are more portentous than Salvador or
Claude ever painted-clouds of poverty,
or pers ccution. or bereavement. They
hover over us. and they get darker and
blacker, and after Il while tear starts.
and we think by an extra pressure of
the eyclid to stop it. Others follow,
and after while there is a shower of
fearful emotion. Yea. there is q rain
of tears. Hath that rain fathcr?'
so" You say, "a tear is nothing but IL
drop of limpid fluid secreted by the
lachrymal gland--it is only sign OF
weak eyes Great mistake. 1t is one
of the Lords richest bcnedictions to
the world. There are people in Black
wells Island insane asylum, and at
Utica, and at all the asylums Of this
land, who were dcmented by the fact
that they could not cry at the right
time. Said maniac in one of our pub
lie institutions, under a Gospel
sermon that started the tears:
do you see that tear? that is the first
| have wept for twelve years. | think
it will help my brain" There are %
great many in the grave who could not
-. Il 4