The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1892-09-30
SMALL. THINGS.
DR.. Talmage breaches His Farewell
Sermon in London.
Lessons Drawn From the Spiders Web
Small Sins May Grow Until They
Blight tho Church or Ruin the
FamIly-The Toiler's Reward.


text was from Prov. xxx. rs: ''The
spider tal1eth hold with her hands and
is in kings palaces" DIR. Talmage said:
Permitted as / was few days ago to
attend the meeting of the British Scien-
tific association at Edinburgh, / found
that no paper read had excited more
interest thanahat by Rev. DIR. McCook,
of America, on the subject of spiders
1t seems that my talented countryman,
banished from his pulpit for a short
time by i'll health, had in the fields and
forests given himself to the study of
insects. And surely if it is not beneath
the dignity of God to make spiders, it is
not beneath the dignity of man to study
them.
We are all watching for phenomena.
A sky full of stars shining from Janu-
airy to January calls out not so many
remarks as the blazing of one meteor.
a whole flock of robins take not so
much of our attention as one blunder-
ing bat Sarting into the window on n
summer eve. Things of ordinary sound,
and sight, and occurrence, fail to reach
us, and yet no grasshopper ever springs
up in our path, no moth ever dashes in
to the evening candle, no mote ever
floats in the sunbeam that pOurs through
the crack of the window shutter, no
barnacle on ships hull. no burr on
chestnut, no limpet clinging to a rock,
no rind of an articho5e but would teach
us a lesson if we were not so stupid.
God in His Bible sets forth for our con-
sideration the lily. and the snowflake,
and the locust. and the storlz's nest and
the kinds foot and the aurora
borealis and the ant hills One
of the sacred writers. sitting amid the
mountains, sees a hind skipping over
the rocks The hind has such a pc
culiarly shaped foot that it can go over
the steepest places without falling and
as the prophet looks upon the marking
of the kinds foot on the rocks and
thinks of the Divine care over him, he
says: Chou markest my feet like
kinds feet that l may walk on high
places" And another sacred writer
sees the ostrich leaving its egg in the
sand of the desert, and without any
care of incubation, walk off; and the
Scripture says, that is like some par
ents, leaving their children without
any wing of protection or care. In my
text inspiration opens before us the
gate of palace, and we are indicted
amid the pomp of the throne and the
courtier, and while we are looking
around upon the magnifcence, inspira-
ton points us to spider plying its
shuttle and weaving its net on the wall
1t does not call us to regard the grand
surroundings of the palace. but to
solemn and earnest consideration of
the fact that: The spider takcth hold
with her hands, and is in kings
palaces"
II is not very certain what was the
particular specie of insect spoken of in
from it the eXquisiteness Of the Divine
mechanism. The kings chamberlain
comes into the palace. and looks around
and sees the the spider on the wall, and
says: Away with that intruder" and
the servant of Solomon's palace comes
with his broom and daSheS down the
insect, saying: What loathsome
thing it is" But under microscopic in
spection find it more wondrous of con-
struction than the embroideries of the
palace wall, and the upholstery about
the windows. All the machinery of the
earth could not make anything SO deli
cate and beautiful as the prehensile
with which that spider clutches his
prey, or as any of its eight eyes. We
do not have to go 50 far up to see the
power of God in the tapestry hanging
around the windows of Heaven, or in
the horses or chariots of fire with which
the dying day departs or to look at the
mountain swinging out its sword arm
from under the mantle of darkness I'M
til it can strike with its scimetar of the
lightning. l love better to study God
in the shape of fiy's wing, in the for
nation of fish's scale, in the snowy
wilderness of a pond lily. l love to
track His footsteps in the mountain
moss and to hear His voice in the hum
of the rye fields. and discover the rustic
of His robe of light in the south wind.
o, this wonder of divine power that can
build habitation for God in an apple
blossom. and tune n bees voice until it
is fit for the eternal orchestra, and can
say to FREELY: Let there be light"
and from holding an ocean in the HOY
low of His hand, goes forth to find
heights, and depths, and length, and
breadth of omnipotency in a dewdrop,
and dismounts from the chariot of mid
night hurricane to cross over on the sus-
pension bridge of spiders web. You
may take your telescope and sweep it |
across the heavens in order to behold |
the glory of God, but | shall take the
leaf holding the spider and the spiders |
web and l shall bring the microscope |
to my eye and while l gaze and look
and study and am confounded 1 will |
kneel down in the grass and cry: |
Great and marvellous are Thy works, |
Lord God Almighty"
Again, my text teaches me that in |
is no excuse for inaction. |
This spider that Solomon saw on the |
wall might have said: Il can't weave |
a web worthy of this great palace; what |
can do amid all this gold embroidery? |
l am not able to make anything fit for
so grand place and so / will not work |
my spinning jenny" Not so, said the
spider The spider taketh hold with
her hands" o. what lesson that is |
for you and me. You say if you had
some great sermon to preach, if you
only :iad great audience to talk to, If |
you had great army to marshal, if
you only had a constitution to write, if
there was some tremendous thing in
the world for you to do-then you
would show us Yes, You would show
u.s. What if the Levite in the ancient
temple had refused to snuff the candle
because he could not be high priest?