The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 18??-1935, 1892-09-20

not make anything so delicate and beau
tiful as the prehensile with which that
spider clutches its prey, or as any of its
eight eyes. We do not have to go so far
up to see the power of God in the tapes
try 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 until it can strike with its
scimeter of the lightning.
GOD IN LITTLE THINGS.
1 love better to study God in the shape
of a f1y's wing, in the formation of a
fish's scale. in the snowy whiteness OF
pond lily. 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. Oh. this wonder of di-
vine power that can build habitation
for God in an apple blossom, and tune
bees voice until it is fit for the eternal
orchestra, and can say to a FREELY, LET
there be light" and from holding an
ocean in the hollow of his hand, goes
forth to find heights and depths and
length and breadth of omnipotency in a
dewdrop, and dislnounts from the char
lot of midnight hurricane to cross over
on the suspension bridge of a spiders
web.
You may take your telescope and
sweep it across the heavens in order to
behold the glory of God, but l shall
take the leaf holding the spider and the
spiders web, and ! shall bring the mn
crosoope to my eye, and while gaze
and look and study and am COMPOUNDED
will kneel down in the grass and cry,
Great and marvellous are thy works.
Lord God AlmightyT'
Again, my text teaches me that insig-
nifcance is no excuse for inaction- This
spider that Solomon saw on the wall
might have said: 81 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 80
grand a place. and so will not work my
spinning jenny" Not so said the spider.
The spider taketh hold with her
hands, Oh. what a lesson that is for
you and me! You say if you had some
great sermon to preach. if you only had
a great audience to talk to, if you had a
great army to marshal, if you only had
q 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 us!
Whlt if the Levite in the ancient tenn
pie had refused to snuff the candle be-
cause he could not be a high priest2
What if the humming bird should refuse
to sing its song into the ear of the honey
suckle because it cannot, like the eagle,
dash its wing into the sun: What if the
raindrop should refuse to descend be-
cause it is not Niagara? What if the
spider of the text should refuse to move
its shuttle because it cannot weave a
Solomons robe? Away with such folly!
! If YOU are lazy with the one talent, you
would be lazy with the ten talents. If
! Milo cannot lift the calf he never will
have strength to lift the OK. In the
Lords army there is order for promo
| ton, but you cannot be u general until
/ you have been d captain, a lieutenant
| and n colonel 1t is step by step, it is
! inch by inch, it is stroke by stroke that
our Christian character Is builded.
| Therefore be content to do what God
commands you to do.
| God is not ashamed to do small things.
! He is not ashamed to be found chiseling
| a grain of sand, or helping Il hOneybee
to construct its cell with mathematical
accuracy, or tinGeing a shell in the surf,
or shaping the bill of n chaffinch. What
! God does, he does we'll. What you do, do
well. be it q great work or small work.
If ten talents, employ all the ten. If
FIVE talents. employ all the five. If one
] - only he
thousandth part of talent, employ that.
BE thou faithful unto death, and will
give thee the crown Of life" tell you
if vou are not faithful to God in a small
sphere. YOU would be indolent and in
significant IL q large sphere.
THE REPCLSIvE IN HIGH PLACES.
Again, my text teaches me that re-
pulsiveness and loathsomeness will
sometimes climb up into very elevated
places. You would have tried to have
killed the spider that Solomon saw.
You would have said: This is no place
for it. If that spider is determined to
weave a web. let it do 50 down In the
cellar of this palace or IN some dark
dungeon" An! the spider of the text
could not be discouraged. 1t clambered
on and elm ed up, higher and higher
and higher. ,ntil after awhileit reached
the kings .sion. and he said, THE
spider taket: hold with her hands. and
is in kings Laces-" And so it often is
now that tn lgs that are loathsome and
repulsive get up into very elevated
places.
The church of Christ, for instance, is
a palace. IT King of heaven and earth
lives in it ccording to the Bible. her
beams are cedar. and her rafters OF
fir, and he" windows of agate, and
the fountaip' of salvation dash rain OF
light 1t is a glorious palace-the church
of God is. ard yet sometimes unseemly
and loathsomA things creep up into 1T
evil speaking and rancor and Islander
and backbit; lg and abuse. crawling W
on the walls OF the church. spinning wet
from arch to arch and from the top OF
one communion tankard to the top Of
another com tunion tanksrd- Glorious
palace in which there ought only to bt