The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1892-10-28
THE FINGER OF GOD.
AN ELOQUENT SERMON FROM THE
TABERNACLE PULPIT.

Peroration of Wonderful Force an,
Beauty OF Expression.
BROOKLYN, Oct. 29.-The capacity O
the Tabernacle was tested this mornin,
by the vast crowd that filled it In ever,
part as soon as the doors were opened
After reading and commenting on sew
eral passages of Scripture illustrative o.
Gods providential dealings, DR.. Tai
mage gave out the hymn beginning
God moves In mysterious way
His wonders to perform.
His sermon was on the text Exodus viii
10, "The Finger of God"
Pharaoh was sulking In his marble
throneroom at Memphis. Plague after
plague had come, and sometimes the
Egyptian monarch was disposed to dc
better, but at the lifting of each plague
he was as bad as before. The NEGRO.
mancers of the palace, however, were
compelled to recognize the divine move.
ment, and after one of the most exas.
perating plaques of all the series they
cried out in the words of my text,
'This is the finger of God"-not the first
nor the last time when bad people said a
good thing. An old Philadelphia friend
visiting me the other day asked me If /
had ever noticed this passage Of Scrip
ture from which today speak. / told
him no, and said right away, "That is
good text for a sermon"
We all recognize the hand of God and
know it is mighty hand. You have
seen man keep two or three rubber
balls flying in the air, catching and
pitching them SO that none of them fell
to the floor, and do this for several min
utes, and you have admired his dexter
ity. But have you thought how the
hand of God keeps millions and millions
of round worlds, vastly larger than our
world, flying for centuries without let
ting one fall9 Wondrous power and
skill of Gods handl But about that
am not to discourse. My text leads me
to speak of less than fifth Of the divine
hand. "This is the finger of God"
Only in two other places does the Bible
refer to this division of the omnipotent
hand. The rocks on Mount Sinai are
basalt and very hard stone. Do you
imagine it was chisel that cut the ten
commandments in that basalt? No; in
Exodus we read that the tables of stone
were written with the finger of God"
Christ says that he cast out devils with
"the finger of God" The <nly instance
that Christ wrote word III wrote not
with pen on parchment, but with his
finger on the ground Yet, though so
seldom reference is made in the Bible
to part of Gods hand, if you and l
keep our eyes open and our heart right
we will b compelled often to cry out,
"This is the finger of God" It is my
intention before long to begin series of
sermons on 1.-THE Astronomy of the BIZ
BILE, or God Among the Stars;" "The
ORTHODOXY of the Bible, or God Among
the Birds" 1.-The Pomology of the Bible,
or God Among the Orchards" "The
lchthyology Of the Bible, or God Among
the Fishes" "The Geology of the Bible,
or God Among the Rocks" "The Wa
tiers Of the Bible. or God Among the
Seas;" "The Zoology of the Bible, or
God Among the Beasts" 1.-THE Precious
Stones of the Bible, or God Among the
Amethysts;' 1.-The Conchology Of the
Bible, or God Among the Shells;" 1.-THE
Botany of the Bible, or God Among the
Flowers" 1.-THE Chronology of the BIZ
BILE, or God Among the Centuries" and
want this coming winter to get you
and get myself into the habit of seeing
the finger of God everywhere and in
everything; but this morning l want
to induce you to look for the finger of
God in your personal affairs.
PRovIDENTIAL GESTURES.
To most of us gesticulation is natural.
If stranger accost you on the street
and ask you the way to some place, it is
as natural as to breathe for you to level
your forefnger this way or that. Not
one out of thousand of you would
stand with your hands by your side and
make no motion with your finger. What
ever you may say with your lips is en-
phasized and REINFORCED and translated
by your finger. Now God in the dear
old Book says to US innumerable things
by the way Of direction. He plainly tells
us the way to go. But in every exigency
Of our life, if we will only look, we will
find providential gesture and a provi-
Dental pointing, so that we may conf
IDENTIFY say, "This is the finger of God"
Two or three times in my life, when
on questions of duty after
earnest prayer, have cast lots as to
what / should do. In olden times the
Lords people cast lots. The land of
Canaan was divided by lot. The cities
were divided among the priests and
Levites by lot Matthias was chosen to
the apostleship by lot. Now casting
lots is about the most solemn thing you
can do. 1t should never be done, except
with solemnity like that of the last
Judgment. 1t is direct appeal to the
Almighty. If after earnest prayer you
do not seem to get the divine direction,
think you might without sin write
upon one slip of paper eyes," and upon
another NO" or some other decisive
words appropriate to the case, and then,
obliterating from your mind the identity
Of the slips of paper, draw the decision
and act upon it. In that case think
you have right to take that indication
as the finger of God. But do not do
that except as the last resort and with
devoutness that leaves absolutely all
with God.
For much that concerns us we have
no responsibility, and we need not make
appeal to the Lord for direction. We
are not responsible for most of our sur
We are not responsible for
the country of our birth, nor for whether
we are Americans, or Norwegians, or
Scotchmen, or Irishmen or English |
men. We are not responsible for the |
age in which we live. We are not re-
spousible for our temperament, be it |
nervous or phlegmatic, bilious or san
guiae. We are not responsible for our
features, be they homely or beautiful. |
We are not responsible for the height or
imallness of our stature. We are not |
for the fact that we are men,
ally dull or brilliant For the most of |
our environments we have no more re-
,ponsibility than we have for the mol |
usks at the bottom of the Atlantic |