The Penn's Grove record., 1892-10-28
REV. DR.. TALNlGR,
The Brooklyn Divinc's
Sund v Sermon.
Subject:-"The Finger Of God.'

TEXT: a7he finger of God."-Exodus
viii, 9.
Pharoah was sulking in his marble throne
room at Memphis. Piague after plague had
come, and sometimes the Egyptian monarch
was disposed to do better, but at the lifting
of each plague he was as bad as before. The
necromancers OF the palace, however. were
compelled torecognize thedivine movement.
and after one of the most exasperating
plaques OF ali the series they cried out in the
words OF my text, This is the finger Of
Goan-not the first nor the last time when
bad people said a good thing. An old Phil
adelphia friend visiting me the other day
asked me IL l had ever noticed this passage
OF Scripture from which 1 to-day speak. /
| toia him no, and l said right away, That
lie a goo / text for a sermon"
We all recoguizs the hand Of God and
know it is a mighty hand. You have seen
a man keep two or three rubber balls flying
in the air, catching and pitching them 80
that none of them fell to the floor, and do
| this for several minutes, and you nave adj
| mired his dexterity. But have you thou ht
now the land Of God keeps millions and
millious of round worlds vastly larger than
our world flying Tor centuries without let
ting one fali2 Wondrous power and skill
OF Gods han ! But about that l am not to
| discourse. Ny text leads me to speak of
less than a fifth of the divine and This
is the finger of God" Only in two other
places does the Bible refer to this division
Of the onnnipotent hand. The rocks on
Mount Sinai are basalt and very hard stone.
Do you imagine it was a chisel that cut the
ten Commandments in that basalt? No; in
Exodus we read that the tables of stone
were swritten with the finger of God"
Christ say that He cast out devils with ''the
finger OF Cor
The only instance that Christ wrote q
word He wrote not with pen on parchment
but with HIS finger on the ground. Yet
though Seldom reference is made IN the
Bible to a part OF Gods hand, IL you and
keep our eyes open and our hearts right we
will be compelled often to cry out, 'rhis is
the finger OF Godr' 1t is my intention be-
fore long to begin a series OF sermons on
.lhe Astronomy of the Bible, or God
Among the Stqrs;' "The Ornithology OF
the Bible, or God Among the Birds;'' THE
Pomology of the Bible. or God Among the
Orchards" "rhe lchthyology OF the
Bible, or God Among the Fishes 1.-THE
Geology OF the Bible, or God Among the
Rocks;' .The Waters of the Bible, or
Col Among the Seis;' ''Tae Zoology of the
Bible, or God Among the Beasts "rhe
Prec Gus Stones OF the Bible, or God Among
the Amethysts;" sine Conchology Of the
Bible, or God Among the Shells:' 'Tne
Botany of the Bible. or God Among the
F.owers;" "rhe Chronology of the Bible, or
God Among the Centuries" and | want this
coming winter to get you and get myself
into the habit of seeing tbs finger OF Col
everywhere AMI in everything; but this
morning l want to induce you to look for
the finger of God in your personal affairs.
The mostof the gest,cu' alton Is natural
II a stranger accost you on the street and
ask you the way to some place, it Is. az
natural as to breathe for you to level your
forehnger this way or that. Not one out
OF a thousand of you would stand with your
hands by your side and make no motion with
your finger. Whatever you may say with
your lips is emphasized and REINFORCED and
translated by your finger. Now God in the
dear old Book says to US in1unerable 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 a providential gesture
) confidently say, "fhis is the finger Of God.D
Two or three times in my life, when per-
picked on questions OF duty after earnest
prayer, / have cast lots as to what should
do. In oiden times the Loris people cast
lots. The land Of Canaan was divided BY
lot. The cities were divided among the
priests and Lsvites by lot. Matthias was
chosen to the apostleship bylot.
i. Now casting lots is about the most solemn
thing you can do. Il should never be done
except with a solemn;ty like that Of the last
Judgment. 1t is q direct appeal to the AL
mighty. IL alteE earnest prayer you 10
not seem to get the divine direction, l 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 oblitsradng from your
mind the identity of the slips Of paper draw
the decision AMI act upon it. In that case l
think you have a right to take that indica.
ton as the finger OF God. But do not do
that except as the last resort and with a de-
~voutuess that leaves absolutely all with
God.
For much that concerns US we haven no re
Sponsibility, and we need not make appeal
to the Lord for direction. We are not re-
sponsible for most of our ~surroundin e. We
are not responsible for the country Of our
birth, nor for whether we are Americans or
Norwegians or Scoschmen or lrishmen or
Englishmen. We are not responsible for
the age in which we live. We are not re-
sponsible for our temperament, DO it ner-
vous or phlegmatic, bilious or ssnguine.
We are not responsible for our features, b
they homely or beautiful. We are not re-
sponsible for the height or smallness OF our
stature. We are not responsible for the
fact that we are mentally dull Of brilliant.
, For the most Of our environments we have
no more responsibility than ws have for the
moltusxs at the bottom Of the Atlantic
ocean.
Oh, I am so glad that there are about ive
hundred thousand things that we are not re-
sponsible fori Do not Dlame US for being In
our manner cold as an iceberg, or nervous
as q cat amid q pack Of Fourth of July fire.
crackers, II you are determined to blame
somebody, blame our great-grandfathers or
Rreat-grandmothers, who died before the
Revolutionary war, and who may have had
I habits depressing and ruinous. There are
wrong things about us all, which make me
think that one hundred and fifty years ago
there was some terrible crank in our ancss-
I kw.I r-A D..l,~. kkat aud ~ x~lll Ia a rA-
lief semtinfinite. Let US taks ourselves as
we ara this moment, and then ask (which
way?' Get all the direction you can from
careful and constant study of the Bible, and
then look up and look out and look around,
and see II you eau find the finger OF God.
IL is a remarkable thing that sometimes
} 40 one can see that finger but yourself. A
3 year before Abraham Lincoln signed the
proclamation Of emancipation the Whit,
House was thronged with committees and
I associations, minister's and laymen, advising
: the president to make that proclamation.
/ But he waited aud waited, amid scoh and
anathema. because he did not himsslf see
the anger Of Col. After awhile and at just
5 tbs right tune he saw the divine pointing
/ and signed the proclamation. The distin
, euished Confeserates, Mason ant
: Slideil. were taken OF an Engiisf
vessel by the United States Govern
ment Don't give them up" shoutet
2 1 all the QOIIQeEu otatCSs 81t ~ h8NS 'e
with England rather than surrender them,
was the almost unanimousc cry Of the north
But William Il. Seward saw the finger o
God leading in just the opposite direction
!. and the Confederates were given up. and W
> avoided a war with England which at tina
time would nave been the demolition OF IN
!. United States Government. :,
. la other words. the finger OF God as 10 q
: eects you, may be invisible to everyood,
else. Follow the divine pointing. as yo'
: see il, although the world may call you
fool. There has never been q man or
woman who amounted to anything tina
has not sometimes been called . fool
J Nearly all the mistakes that you and
: havs made>havs come from our following
y the pointing OF some other finger, instea
Of the finger OF God. But uows suppos
= All forms Of disaster close in upon . man
u suppose his business collapses. supoos
he buys goods and cannot sell them. sup
pose by a new Invention others can iurnis
the sanis goods at less price. Suppose q eoi
!, spring or a late autumn or the eomiag OF 9
y epidemic corners q man, and his notes con
, due and he cannot meet them, and MS ren
must be paid and there is nothing wa
~ ~ nav N and thA wages OF the employee ~