The weekly intelligencer. [volume] (Lexington, Mo.) 1891-1901, 1894-01-27
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.

His Fingers Only.
The subject of a recent sermon at
Brooklyn by Rev. 7. Dewitt Talmage
was: 1.-The Bare Arm of God" the
ext being Isaiah Iii. 10: 1.-The Lord
hath made pare His holy arm" Fol-
lowing is the
IL almost takes our breath away to
rcad some of the Bible imagery. There
is such boldness of metaphor in my
text that | have been for some time
getting my courage up to preach from
it. Isaiah, the evangelistic prophet, is
sounding the Jubilate of our planet re-
deemed, and cries out: THE Lord
hath made bar His holy arm" What
overwhelming suggestiveness in that
figure of speech: 1.-THE bare arm of
God!' The people of Palestine TO this
day wear much hindering apparel, and
when they wan to run n special race,
or lift a special burden, or fight a spe-
cial battle, they put off the outside APP
parel, as in our land, when a man pro-
poses a 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
world became what it ought to be, and
he foresees it all accomplished, and ac-
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 pare His holy arm"
Nothing more %impresses me in the
Bible than the ease with which God
does most things. There is such a re-
serve of power. He has more thunder
bolts than lie has ever flung; more
light than lie has ever distributed;
more blue than hat 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.
| say it with reverence: from all l can
see, God has never half tried.
You know as well as ] do hat 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 a 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 hall
the time, while the crime of our
great municipalities would for half
the time run rampant and unrebuked.
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 uncounted 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 poise. How
many pare arms of human toil-and
some of those bare arms are very tired
in the creation of light and its ap'
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 t~irefiies flashing
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 die
not lift so much as n finger. The flint
out of which lie struck the MONDAY
sun was the word eight" Let Their.
be light" Adam did not see the SUI
until the fourth day. for. though tn,
sun was created on the first day, il
took its rays from the first to the fourtl
Al. 4-.. ~. -
fluids by which the earth was com
passed. Did you eve hear of any
thing so easy as that? So unique
Out of a word came the blazing
sun, the father of flowers, ant
warmth, and light? Out of n wore
building n fireplace for all the nation
of the earth to warm themselves by
Yea, seven other worlds, five of then
inconceivably larger than our OWE, an,
se~venty-nine asteroids, or worlds on
smaller scale! l do not know hov
much grander a solar system God coul'
have created if He had put forth Hi
ROBBED arm, to say nothing of an arm
made bare! But this know, hat oul
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 Carlyl
walking out with n friend one starr
night, and as the friend looked up an
said: ''What a splendid sky!' Mr.. Cal
lyle replied, as he glanced upward
"Sad sight, sad sight," Not so though
David as he read the great scripture O
the night heavens. 1t vas a sweep O
embroidery, of vast tapestry, God ma
nipulated. That is the allusion of tn
Psalmist to the woven hangings G
tapestry, as they were known lon
before David's time. Far back in tn
ages what ~enchantment of thread an
color, the Florentine velvets of sill
and gold and Persian carpets woven c
goats hair! The first of all the science
born was astronomy. Whether iroI
knowledge already abroad, or from d
rect inspiration. it seems to me Dayi
had wide knowledge of the heavens
Whether he understood the full fore
of what he wrote, i know not; but til
God who inspired him knew. and II
would not let David write anythin
but truth; and therefore all the world
that the telescope ever reached, or c.
4 pernicus, or Calico, or Kepler, or New
4 ton, or Laplace, or Herschel, or on
a own Mitchell ever saw were SO easil
made that they were made with I'll
fingers. AS easily as with your finger
you mold the wax, or the clay, or I'll
dough TO particular shapes, SO He d.
cided the shape of our world, and a.
= pointed for all worlds their orbits an
decided their color.
Now | ask, for the benefit of all di
heartened Christian workers, If God o
1 complished so much with His finger
I what can He do when lie puts out
His strength? and when He unlimbe
all the batteries of His omnipotenc
The Bible speaks again and again
Gods outstretched arm, but only one
2 and that in the text, of the bare arm
> God.
My ext makes II plain that the rec
fication of this world is n s~tupendo
p undertaking. 1t takes more power
J. make this world over again than
. took to make it at first. A word W
only necessary for the first creatio
but for the new creation the unsleev
3 and unhindered forearm of the !
mighty. The reason of that | can I
derstand. In the ship yards of Liv'
. pool, or Glasgow, or New foi
n great vessel is constructed. 7
I architect draws out the plan, the leng
s of the beam, the capacity of tonnal
IA a