The Penn's Grove record., 1894-01-26
REV. DIR. TALMAGE.
rHE BROOKLYN DivINE's SUN.
DAY SERMON.
Subject: "rhs Bare Arm of God"

Text "The Lord han made bare His hols
~drRi.'-Isaiah Ill.,, 10.
1t almost takes our breath away to read
some ofthe Bible imagery. There Is such
boldness OF metaphor in my text that / have
peen Tor some time getting my courage upt to
preach from it. Isaiah, the evangelistic
prophet, is sounding the iubflate Of our
planet redeemed n cries out, isThe Lord
hath made bare His holy arm" What over
wheiming suggestiveness in thut figure oil
speech, "The bare arm Of Godr' The PEG
pie o. Palestine 10 this day wear much hinder
ing apparel. and when they want to run q
special race, or lift a special burden, or fight
q special battle, they put OF h outside
apparel, as in our land when asman proposes
a special exertion no puts off his coat and
rolls up his sleeves. Walk through our
'oundrles, our mlGhine shops, our mines.
our factories, and YOU fill find TINT most oil
he toilers have their coats of and their
sleeves rolled ur.
Isaiah saw that there must be a fremen-
dous amount of work lone before this world
becomes what it ought to be, and he fore
sees it all accomplished, and accomplished
by the Almighty, NOT as We ordinarily think
Of Him, but by the Almighty with the sleeve
OF His robe rolled back to His shoulder,
s'The Lord hath made bare His holy arm"
fNChhAiS ihbl llUTtSStS itt III tuo DtDiB
han the ease with which God does most
things. There is such a reserve of power.
He has more thunderbolts than He has ever
dung, more light than He has ever distrib-
uted, more blue than with which He has
overarched the sky, more green than thai
with which He has emeralded the grass
more crimson than that with which He has
FURNISHED the sunsets. 1 say 1t with rever-
snee, from all l can soc, God has never half
tried.
You know as well as 1 do that many OF the
most elaborate and expensive industries OF
our world have been employed in creating
artificial light. Half OF the time the world
IS dark. The moon and the stars have their
glorious uses, but rs instruments OF iilumi-
nation they are failures. They will not
allow you to read a book or stop the rufian-
Ism OF your great cities. Had not the dark
ness been persistently fought back by artifi-
,ial means, the most Of the worlds enter
prises would have halted half The time, while
he crime Of our great municipalities woul 1
'or half the time run rampant and IN res
1uked hence all the inventions for creating
artificial light, from the flint struck against
Iteei in centuries past to the dynamo of our
electrical manufactures. What uncounted
numbers Of people at work the year round in
making chandeliers and lamps and fixtures
snd wires and batteries where light shall be
ububy VI hiOily WHICH iixnt Shall run, or,
where light shall poisei How many bare
arms of human toil-and some OF those bare
trms are very tired-in the creation OF light
and its apparatus, and after all the work the
greater part OF the continents and hemisj
pheres at night have no light at all. except
PERHAPS tho f~lrefiies flashing their small LAM
tcrns across the swamp.
But see how easy Tod made the light. Hid
lid not make bare His arm ; Heidi not even
put forth His robed arm ; He did not lift so
much as q finger. The flint out Of which He
struck tho MONDAY sun was the word,
Light" 'Let there be light T. Adam did
not see the sun until the fourth day, for,
though the SUI was created on the first day,
It took Its rays from the first to the fourth
lay to work through the dense mass Of fluids
oy which this earth was comprised. Did you
syer hear Of anything so easy as that? 81
unique? Gu of a word came the blazin 1
sun, tho father of flowers. and warmth AMI
light Out OF n word building a Fireplace
tor elithe Nations OF the earthto warmthem-
selves byI Yea. seven other worlds, five OF
hem inconceivably larger than our own, and
,eventy-nine asteroids, or worlds on q
smaller scale! The warmth and light for
his great brotherhood, great sisterhood,
great family OF worlds, eighty-seyen larger
Or smaller worlds, all from that one magnif.
sent fireplace, made ont of the one worj-
Light. The sun SS6.0n miles in diameter, I
10 not know how much grinder a solar sys-
tom Gcd could have created If He had put
forth HIS rooei arm, to say nothing OF an
arm made barrel But this | know, that our
MONDAY sun was a spark struck from the
anvil of one word, and that word hLight."
ssBut," saws some one, t'do you not think
that In making tine machinery of the uni
ferse, OF which our solar system is COM
paratiyely a small wheel working into might
Ter wheels. it must have cost God some ex-
ertion? The upheayal OF an arm either
ROBBED or an arm made baxe2' No; We are
distinctly told otherwise. The machinery Of
q universe God made simply with BIS fingers.
David, inspired in a night song, q ) So
"whsn / consider Thy heavens, the work OF
Thy fingers"
A Scottish clergyman told me q few weeks
ago Of dyspeptic Thomas Carlyle walking
out with a friend one starry night, and as
the friend looked mp and said, what a
splendid skyr' Mr.. Carlyle replied MS be
glanced upwarl sad sight, sad sight ~
Not so thought David as he read the great
sweep of embroidery, OF vast tapestry, Col
manipulated, That is the allusion Of the
psalmist 10 the woven hangings of tapestry
as they were known long before Davids
time. Far back in the ages What epchant-
ment of thread and color, the Fiorentipe
velyets of-silk and gold sod Persiap carpets
woven of goats hair! III you have beeE IN
the Gobelin mandatory Of tapestryin Paris
alas, now no more you Witnessed Won
drous things as you saw the wooden needle
or broaeh going back and forth and tn and
out you were transfixed with admiration ut
the patterns wrought, No wonder that Louis
XIV bought it, AMI it became a possession OF
the throne, and for IA long whiie none but
thrones and palaces might have n OF it,
work. What iriumphs OF loomi What
victory Of skilled fingers! SO David says OF
the heavens that Gods fingers wove into
them the light that Gods fingers tspestrled
them with stars that Gods fingers ems
broidered them with worlds,
How much of the immensely OF the heavens
David : nderstooi lido not NOW. Astronomy
was born In China $500 years before Christ
was born. During the reign of Hoang-Ti
astronomer were put to death II they made
wrong calculations about the heavens. Joh
undcrstood the Fefraction of the suns rays
and said they were turned as the clay to the
SEAL" Inc pyramids were astrQncmical OBJ.
servatories, and they were SO long agQ bqilt
that Isaiah refers to one OF them In his nine.
toentb chapter and calls II the 'splllar at the
border" The first Of all the sciences born
was Whether from knowledge
already abroad or from direct inspiration, II
seems 10 me David had wide knowledge Of
me heavens, Whether he understood the
full force OF what he wrote, l know not, but
the God who inspired him knew, and He
would not let David write anything but truth,
and therefore all the worlds that the tele'
scope ever reached or Copernicus or Galile
or Kepler OF Newton or Laplaee or Herschel
or our own Mitchell eyer saw were 50 easily
made that they were made With fhe tngera
AS easily as with your fingers you mold ths
wax. or the clay, or the dough to p8rtic.
Mar shapes, SO He decided the shape o.
our world, and that 1t should weigh sia sex
iiIIion tons and appo'nfj for all world
tbe.r orbits and decide 7 their color-ths
whiIe 10 s RUS, the rudy to Aldebaran, II,
ynliow Is pollix, the blue to Affair, marry.
ing some Of the stars, as the 2aoo double star
that HerGchel Observed, administering toths
whims OF the variable shlrs as their glanet
becomes brighter o. dlm, preparing Whal
asst ronom called, the girdls Of Andr9me.
da." and the nebula in the sword handle o
Orion. Worlds on worlds Worlds undel
worldel Worlds above worlds. Worlds be
yond wsridsi So many that arithmatics ar
Of no use in the aalqylationt But He countet
them as He made then, RBd We made then
w1rn HIS ;ncersl ResArvation OF power
Suppression Of onnipotencel Resources AS
vet Untouched. ~AinightinF$s yet uniemon.
stratedl Nov, I ask, Tor tks bepefit OF all
diaheartened Christian workers. II God 90,
eonplIshed so much wlh His fingers, whaI
can Ia do when Ne pstS out all His strength
and ,v,en He nnimbers all thu batteries o
as am~njpoience2 The Bible speaks agaII
ana aoain az Gods oulstretched arm, but
onIv once. and that In thk tex, OF the bar.