The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1891-07-17
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
The Brooklyn Preacher Discourses
on the Weather.
The Providence or God I'm the Sunshine
and I'm tins Rain-The Wlckednesn
OF Murmuring Over Gil
matte Changes.

Rev. IT. De Witt Talmage delivered the
following discourse in the new Brook
Iyn tabernacle. taking for his text:
Hath she rain a father-Job ~xxxviii., 2.
This Book Of Job has been the sub
iect of unbounded theological wrangle-
Men nave made it the ring in which to
display their ecclesiastical pugilism.
Some say that the Book of Jobs a true
history; others, that Il Is an allegory;
others, that IL Is an epic poem; others,
that IL Is a drama. Some say that Job
lived eighteen hundred years before
Christ others say thathe never lived at
all Some say that the author of the book
was Job; others, David; others, Sol
ONION. The discussion has landed some
in blank infdelity. Now, / have no
trouble with the Books of Job or Reve-
lation-the two most mysterious books
in the Bible-because Of a rule
/ adopted some years ago. / wade
down into a Scripture passage as
long rs I can touch bottom, and when
] can not then / wade out / used 70
wade in until IL was over my head, and
then I got drowned / study a passage
OF Scripture so long as il in a comfort
and help to my soul; but when it be-
comes a perplexity end a spiritual up
turning, ] quit In other words, we
ought TO wade in mp 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 / go down
into the Atlantic ocean at East Hamp-
ton, l.. l., just far enough to bath; then
- ~ - IL AA-A
with my weak hand and foot / could
strike my way clear over TO Liverpool.
j suppose you understand your fami-
lily ~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 the
rain a father?" This question is not
asked by a poetaster or a scientist, but
by the head of the universe. To hum
BILE and to save Job, God asks him four
teen questions; about the worlds archi-
lecture. about the r~efraction of the
suns rays, about the tides. about the
snow crystal, about the lightnings, and
then He arraigns him with the inter
rogation of the text: Hath the rain a
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 IL i'm the first three
months. A sermon has come to me to
mean one word of four letters: ''helpI'
You all know that the rain is not an or
~h~r N,vr l-r0wy "a - not nact ont nf
the gates Of Heaven a founding. You
would answer the question of my text
in the affirmative. Safely housed dur
ing the storm, you hear the rain beat
ing 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 Anglers
the mountain torrents, and makes the
traveller implore shelter. You know
that the rain is not an accident of the
worlds economy. You know il was
born of the cloud. You know it was
rocked in the cradle of the wind. You
know il was sung to sleep by the storm.
You know that it was a flying evangel
from Heaven to earth. You know it is
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 / en-
tered the ministry il 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 people sat be-
fore a drenched pastor; but most OF the
farmers staid at home and thanked God
that what was bad for the church was
good for the crops. / committed a good
deal of sin in those days in denouncing
the weather. Ministers of the Gospel
sometimes fret about stormy Sabbaths,
or hot Sabbaths. or Indictment Sabbaths.
They forget the fact that the same God
who ordained the Sabbath and sent
forth His ministers to saliva
ton also ordained the weather. Hath
the rain a father?"
Merchants also with their stores filed
with new goods, and their clerks hang
ing idly around the counters, commit
the same transgression. There have
been seasons when the whole spring
and fall trade has been ruined by pro-
tractcd wet weather. The merchants
.hen examined the weather probabili-
ties" with more interest than they read
their Bibles. They watched for a patch
Of blue sky. They went complaining
to the. store, and came complaining
home Rgain. In all that season of wet
feet, and dripping garments and inn
passable streets, they never once asked
the question; Hath the rain a father?''
So agriculturists commit this sin.
There is nothing more annoying than
to have planted corn rot in the ground
because of zoe much moisture, or hay
all ready for the NOW dashed of a
showers or wheat almost ready for the
sickle spoiled with the rust. How hard
1t is to bear the agricultural disappoint-
ments. God has infinite resources, but
do not think He has capacity to maaR
weather TO please all the farmers
Sometimes il is too hot, or it is too cold.
it Is too wet, or it is too dry; it is toe
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 climate
changes. There is one question that
ought to be written on every barn. on
everv fence, on every haYstack, on every
farmhouse Hath the rain a father?'
If we only knew what a vast enter
prise il Is 20 provide appropriate
weather for this world we would no
be so critical OF the Lord. Isaac Watts
at ten years of age, complained that h,
did not like the hymns that were suns