Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1894-02-07
REV. DIR. TALMAGE.
HE BROOKLYN DIvINE'S sun
DAY SERMON.
subject: "The Bare Arm of God. 4"

preach from IL Isaiah, the eyangelistic
prophet, Is soun ling the jubilate Of our
planet redeemed and cries out, ''The Lord
hath made bare His holy arm" What over
whsminE suggejiveness in that figure oil
speech, "fhe hars arm OF Godr' The pso-
pie otPalestine TO this day wear much hinder
ing apparel. and when they want to run a
special race, or lift a special burden, or fight
special battle, they put of the outside
apparel, as IN our land when man proposes
- speciaL exertion he puts of his coat and
rolls up his sleeves. Walk through our
!oundries, our machine shops, our Mines
our factories. and you fll find that most OF
the toilers have their coats of AMI their
sleeves rolled up.
Isaiah SAW that there must be n t-emen-
dous amount of work done before this world
becomes what it ought to be, and he fore
sees il all accomplished, and accomplished
Jy the Almighty, not as we ordinarily think
Of Him, but by the Almighty with the sleeve
of His robe rolled back TO His shoulder
"rhe Lord hath made bare His holy arm
Nothing mora impres5es me In the Bible
han the ease with which God does most
:hings. There is such n reserve OF power
He has more thunderbolts than He has ever
hung, more light than He has ever dist rib
uteI, more blue than with which He has
oyerarchei the sky, more green than thai
with which He has emeralded the grassI
more crimson than that with which He has
FURNISHED the sunsets. / say ii with rever-
snee, from all 1 can see, God has never half
ri,i.
You know as well as do that many o, the
most elaborate and expensive industries of
our world have been employed in creating
artificial light. Half OF the time the world
5 dark. The moon and the stars have their
glorious uses, but as instruments of illuni-
nation they ara failures They will not
allow you 10 read a book or stop the ruffan-
lsm Of your great cities. Had not the dark
0ess been persistently fought back by artih-
sial means, the most Of the worlds enter
prises would have halted half the time while
.he crime oi our great municipalities would
'or half the time run rampant and unre-,
1uksi; hence all the inventions for creating
artificial light, from tho flint struck against
steel in centurtss past to the dynamo OF our
electrical manufactures. What uncountsi
numbers Ofpeopie at work the year round in
making chandeliers and lamps and fixtures
and wires and batteries where light shall be
made, or along which light shall run. or
where light shall pOfss How many bare
arms OF human toil-ar<i some OF those bare
lrms are very tired-in the creation Of light
and its apparatus, and after all the work the
greater part OF tho continents and he<nisI
phcreS at night have no light at all, except
DerhGps tho lirgnips flashing their small Lam
.Crns across tho swamp. I
But see how easy God made the light. Hi
lid not mako bare His arm Heidi not even
put forth His robed arm He did not lift 50
L
struck tho monday sun was the word
Light" 'Let there be Hight - Adam did
not see tho sun until the fourth day for
though the sun was created on the first day
Z took its rays from the first to the fourth
lay 10 work through the dense mass Of fluids
~ which this earth was comprised. Did you
sy-r hear OF anything so easy as that? 81
1uiqucI out OF a word came the blazing
sun, the father OF flowers, and warmth and
light! Out OF q word building a hrs-pl.ce
Tor ell the Nations OF the earth TO warm them
solves by! Yea, seven other worlds, five OF
ihem incOlc ceiyabry larger than our own, and
'sFeDty-hlne asteroids, or worlds on a
smaller scate! The warmth and light for
.ul5 great brotherhood, great sisterhood
great family OF worlds, eighty-seven larger
Or smaller worlds, all from that one masnif-
cent Hreplagc, made out OF the one word
Light. The sun SS6, 900 miles in diameter, L
10 not know how much grander a solar sys-
tenn God could have created II He hal put
forth His rODei arm, to say nothing of an
arm made barel But this know, that our
MONDAY sun was a spark struck from the
anvil Of one word, and that word Light"
'But," says some one, "do you not think
hat in making the machinery OF the uni
Tsrso, OF which our solar system is COM
paratiVely q small wheel working into might
tcr wheels, II must have cost God some ex-
srtionH The upheaval of IN arm either
rObel or an arm made bare?" No: v.s are
4 universe God made simply with lis fingers
David, inspired in night song, says so
when consider Thy heavens, the work of
Thy fingers"
Scottish clergyman told me n few " sks
ago OF dyspeptic Thomas Carlyle walking
out with friend one starry night, and as
the friend looked up and said, what
splendid sky" Mr.. Carlyle replied as he
glanced upward, "Sad sight, sad sigLt p
Not so thought David as he read the great
Scripture of the night heavens. 1t was a
sweep Of embroidery, of vast tapestry. Col
manipulated. That is the allusiou Of the
PsahTst to the woven hangincs of tapestry
as they were known long before Davfd's
time Far back in the ages what enchant-
ment OF thread and color, the Florentins
velyets Of silk and gold and Persian carpets
woven OF COats' hair! II you have been in
the CiObCiin mandatory OF taDestryin Paris
alas, now no more you witnessed wonl
drou7 things you saw the wooden needle
or broach going back and forth and in and
out you were trInShNed with admiration at
the patterns wrought. No wonder that Louis
AIN bought Il, and il became possession Of
the throne, and for long while none but
thrones AMI palaces might have any OF its
work What triumphs of loom ! What
victory Of skilled fingers 50 David says of
the heavens that Gods fingers woye into
them the light that Gods fingers tapestrled
them with stars; that Gods fingers EN-
broiderei them with worlds.
How much OF the immensely of the heavens
David Understood / DO not NOW. Astronomy
was born in China $500 years before Christ
was born. During the reign of Hoang-Tf
astronomers were put to death IL they made
wrong calculations about the heavens. Joh
UNDERSTOOD the refraction OF the suns rays
and said they were turned as the clay to the
senl." The pyramids were astronomical OBJ
servatOrics, and they were so long ago built.
that Isaiah refers to one of them In his nine
fTRnf h lhrTfgr stu.4 aa1la ba nil ,bo
border" The first Of all the sciences born
was astronomy. Whether from knowledgo
already abroad or from direct inspiration, it
seems TO mo David had wide knowledge of
the heavens. Whether he understood tbs
full force OF what he wrote, l know not. but
the God who inspired him knew, and He
would notle David write anything but truth,
and therefore all the worlds that the tele-
scope ever reached or COpernicus or Galilei
or kopier or Newton or Laplace or Herschel
or our own Mitchell ever saw were so easily
made that they were made with the fingers.
IS easily "a with your fingers you mold tho
wax, or the clay, or the dough to partlc-
ular shapes, so He decided the shape Of
our world, and that il should weigh six sex
uilion tons and appointed for all worlds
their orbits and decided their color-the
white 10 Sirius, the ruddy to Aldebaran, the
yellow to POilUy, the blue to Affair, marry
ing some Of the stars, rs the 2+00 double stars
that Uers1hel obs rived, administering to the
whims OF the variable stars as their glance
becomes brighter or dim. preparing what
astronomers called, ''the cirile OF Androme-
da, and the nebula in the sword handle Of
Orion. Worlds on worlds! Worlds under
worlds! Worlds above worlds! Worlds be-
yOut worlds! So many that arithmatics are
of no use in the calculation But He counted
them as he made them, and He made them
WIN Ills fin-c-sl Reservation Of power
Suppr1ssiN OF omnipotencei Resources as |
yet untouched! Aluightiuess yet uniemon-
strateii Now, ask, for the benefit of all
dishearianed Christian workers, If God ac-
conplishci 50 much with His fingers, what
can lie do when H puts out all His strength
and when He unIim5srs all the batteries OF
His CDuipotenee? The Bible speaks again
and again Of Gods outstrstched arm, but
only once. and that in the text, of the bare
arm Of God.
My text makes it plain that the rectihca-
tion Of this world is a stnDend0us under
taxing. Il takes more power to make this |
world over a gain than it took to make it at |
first. \ word was only necessary for the |