Grand Rapids herald. [volume] (Grand Rapids, Mich.) 1892-1959, 1892-08-29


from Louis ~ Louis u AM Louis III
bat fom egeriasgne to everlasting Is
Cod God tae nrst God the last. God
tie only lie las one telescope with
which be sees everything his oInnis-
cienee. lie b.ss oi.e bridge wiki which
he crosses ever ghng-h ounipres-
ence. lie has one hammer with which
he builds everything omulpotence.
Put two tablesgooafuls II water ia the
palm of yoar hand aud il VIII overflow;
bat Isaiah indicates that God puts the Ar
lantic, and the PaeiGc and the Arctic and
the Antarctic. aud the Mediterranean,
and the Black sea, and all the waters Of
the earth IN the hollow OF his hand.
The fingers tho beach on one side, the
wrist the beach on the other. He
holde1h the water in the hollow Of MS
hand"
REVERENCE TTE INFINITE.
AS YOU take q pinch Of salt OF powder
between your thumb and TWO fingers, 50
Isaiah indicates God takes up the earth.
he measures the dust Of the earth, the
original there indicating that God takes
al the dust Of all the continents between
the thumb and two fingers. You wrap
around your hand a blue ribbon five
times, ten times. You say II Is tive hand
breadths or il Is ten handbreadths. So,
indicates the prophet, God winds the
blue ribbon Of the sky around his hand.
He meteth out the heavens with a span
You know that balances are made OF
beam suspended in the middle, with two
basins at the extremity of equal heft.
Ia that way what vast heft has been
weighed But what are all the balances
Of earthly manipulation compared with
the balances that Isaiah saw suspended
when he saw God putting into the scales
the Alps, and the Apennines. and Mount
Washington, and the Sierra Nevadas?
You see the earth had TO be ballasted.
IL would not do 10 have too much
weight in Europe, or too much weight
In Asia, or too much weight in Africa,
or in America; SO when God made the
mountains he weighed them. The Bible
distinctly says so. God knows the
weight of the great ranges that cross
the continents-the tons, the pounds
avoirdupois, the ounces, the grains,
the milligrams-just how much they
weighed then, and just how much they
weigh now He weighed the noun
tains in scales and the hills in bal
ance" Oh, what God to run against;
oh, what a God to disobey; oh, what
God to dishonor; oh, what God to
defyl The brightest, the mightiest an
gel takes no familiarity with God. The
wings Of reverence are lifted. with
twain he covered the face"
Another seraphic posture in the text.
The seraph must not always stand still.
He must move and it must be without
clumsiness. There must be celebrity and
beauty in the movement. with twain
he did fly" Correction, exhilaration.
Correction at our slow gate, for we only
crawl in the service when we ought to
fly at the divine bidding. Exhilaration
in the fact that the soul has wings as the
seraphs have wings. What is a wing?
An instrument of locomotion. They may
not be like seraph's wing, they may not
be like birds wing, but the soul has
wings. God says SO. He shall mount
up on wings as eagles" We are made
in the divine image, and God has wings.
The Bible says SO. Healing in his
wings" Under the shadow of his
wings" Under whose wings thou hast
come 10 trust" We have folded wing
now, wounded wing, broken wing.
bleeding wing, Gagged wing. Aye! l
have il now. Gagged within bars of bone
and under curtains Of flesh, but one day
to be free. hear the rustic of pinions
in Seagrave's poem, which we often
sing:
Rise nay soul. and stretch thy wings.
l hear the rustic of pinions IN Alexan-
der Pope's stanza, which says:
mount. fly;
o Death. where is thy victoryf
4 dying Christian not long ago cried
out, Wings, wings, wings" The air is
full of them, coming and going, coming
and going. You have seen how the dull,
sluggish chrysalid becomes the bright
butterfly; the dull, and the stupid, and
the lethargic turned into the alert and
the beautiful. Well my friends. in this
world we are in the chrysalid state
Death viii unfurl the wings. Oh. if we
could only realize what grand thing
it Will be 20 get rid Of this old clod of a
body and mount the heavens, neither
seagull nor lark nor albatToss nor falcon
nor condor pitching from highest range
Of Andes, 80 buoyant or so majestic Of
stroke.
SORROW GoETH BEFORE FORGIVENESS.
II -. H.. 81
It looks SO sick. SO ragged feathered, so
worn out aud so half asleep. Is that
eagle dyingg No. The ornithOlogist
will tell Won it is melting season with
that bird Not dying but noting
You see that Christian sick and weary
and worn ont and seeming about 10 ex-
pire on what is called MS deathbed. The
world says be IS dying. | say 1t is the
melting season for his soul-the body
dropping away. the celestial pinions
coming on. Not dying. but melting.
Melting ont of darkness and sin and
struggle into glory and into God. Why
co you not shon3 Why 10 Won SIT shiv-
sring at tho thought II death and trying
10 hold back aud wishing you could stay
here forever. and speak of departure "a
though the subject were filed with skel-
etous and tho va-uish Of collins. and IS
though you preferred lame foot 20 swift
wingf
. people of God let us stop playing
The Tool and prepare for rspturous flight
When your soul stands on the verge ~
tins llfo and there are vast prcclpices
beneath and sapphred do'nos above,