The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1894-01-26
THE ALMIGHTY ARM.
DR.. Talmage Discourses on the
Omnipotence of God.
THE Ease with which He Does Great
Things-The Production of Light
His Work the Product of
His Fingers Only.

The subject of a recent sermon at
brooklyn by Rev. T. Dewitt Talmage
was: 1.-The Bare Arm of God" the
text being Isaiah lii 10: 1.-THE Lord
hath made bare His holy arm" Fol-
lowing is the sermon:
1t almost takes our breath away to
read some of the Bible imagery. There
Is such boldness of metaphor in my
text that l have been for some time
getting my courage up to preach from
1t Isaiah, the evangelistic prophet, is
sounding the Jubilate of our planet re-
deemed, and cries out: 1.-THE Lord
hath made bare His holy arm" What
overwhelming suggestiveness in that
figure of speech: "The bare arm of
Godr' The people of Palestine to this
day wear much hindering apparel, and
when they want to run special race,
or lift special burden, or fight spe-
ciai battle, they put off the outside APP
parel, as in our land, when a man pro-
poses special exertion, he puts off his
coat and rolls up his sleeves
Isaiah saw that there must be a tremen-
dous amount of work done before the
WITH OCOdlnC Nhdb ~ jug NJ W ~ INV
he foresees it all accomplished, and &C
complished 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: "The Lord
hath made bare His holy arm"
Nothing more impresses me in the
Bible than the ease with which God
does most things There is such re-
serve of power. He has more thunder
bolts than He has ever flung; more
light than He has ever distributed;
more blue than that with which He has
overarched the sky: more green than
that with which He has emeralded the
grass; more crimson than that with
which He has FURNISHED the sunsets
I say it with reverence: from all | can
see, God has never half tried
You know as well as do that many
of the most elaborate and expensive in
dustries of our world have been en-
ployed in creating artificial light. Half
of the time the world is dark. The
moon and the stars have their glorious
uses, but as instruments of illumina-
ton they are failures They will not
allow you to read book or stop the
ruffianism of your great cities. Had
!, not the darkness been persistently
fought back by artificial means,
the most of the worlds en-
terprises would have halted half
the time, while the crime of our
great municipalities would for half
the time run rampant and unrebulzed.
Hence, all the inventions for creating
artificial light, from the flint struck
against steel in centuries past to the
dynamo of our electrical manufactures
What amounted numbers of people at
work the year round in making chan
deliers. and lamps and fixtures, and
wires. and batteries where light shall
be made or along which light shall
run, or where light shall poisel How
many bare arms of human toil-and
some of those bare arms are very tired
in the creation of light and its APP
paratus; and after all the work, the
greater part of the continents and hem
ispheres at night have no light at all,
except, perhaps, the firef1ies flashing
8 their small lanterns across the swamp.
But see how easy God made the light.
He did not make bare His arm; did not
even put forth His robed arm; He did
not lift so much as finger. The flint
out of which He struck the MONDAY
sun was the word Eight" Let there
be light" Adam did not see the sun
until the fourth day, for. though the
sun was created on the first day. it
took its rays from the first to the fourth
Sav to work through the dense mass of
fluids by which the earth was COM
passed. Did you ever hear of any
thing so easy as that? So unique?
Out of a word came the blazing
sun, the father of flowers and
warmth, and light? Out of a word
building fireplace for all the nations
OF the earth to warm themselves by!
Yea. seven other worlds five of them
inconceivably larger than our own, and
sseventy-nine asteroids, or worlds on a
smaller scale! / do not know how
much grander solar system God could
have created if He had put forth His
ROBBED arm, to say nothing of an arm
made bare! But this | know, that our
MONDAY sun was a spark struck from
the anvil of one word, and that word
Light
A Scottish clergyman told me a few
weeks ago of dyspeptic Thomas Carlyle
walking out with friend one starry
night and as the friend looked up and
said: "'What a splendid sky!'' Mr.. Car
lyle replied, as he glanced upward:
s.Sad sight, sad sight" Not so thought
David as he read the great scripture of
the night heavens 1t was a sweep of
embroidery, of vast tapestry, God ma
stipulated. That is the allusion of the
Psalmist to the woven hangings of
tapestry, as they were known long
before David's time. Far back in the
ages what enchantment of thread and
color, the Florentine velvets OF silk
and gold and Persian carpets woven of
goats hairl The first of all the sciences
born was astronomy. Whether from
knowledge already abroad, or from di-
rect inspiration. it seems to me David
had wide knowledge of the heavens.
Whether he understood the full force
of what he wrote, 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 telescope ever reached, or Co
Fernicus, or Calico. or Kepler, or New
ton, or Laplace. or Herschel, or our
own Mitchell ever saw were so easily
made that they were made with the
fingers AS easily as with your fingers
Won mold the wax, or the clay, or the
dough to particular shapes, so He de-
4cided the shape of our world, and APP
pointed for all worlds their orbits and
decided their color. Worlds on worlds!
Worlds under worlds? Worlds above