The Globe-republican., 1894-01-26
THE ALMIGHTY ARM.
DR.. Talma9e 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.

Brooklyn by Rev. T. Dewitt Talmage
was: 1.-THE Bare Arm of God" the
text being Isaiah lii 10: 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
it 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
God!' 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 a spe-
cial battle, they put off the outside ap-
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 tremen-
dous amount of work done before the
world became what it ought to be, and
he foresees it all accomplished, and ac-
eomplished 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;
fnore 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
l say it with reverence: from all can
see, God has never half tried.
You know as well as do that many
of the most ella aborate 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-
tion 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 half
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 bare arms of human toil-and
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 firehies 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 did
not lift SO much as a finger. The flint
out of which He struck the MONDAY
sun was the word ''light." 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
day 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 word came the blazing
sun. the father of flowers and
warmth, and light? Out of a word
building a 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
asteroids, or worlds on a
smaller scale. l do not know how
much grander a solar system God could
have created if He had put forth His
robed 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:
''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
nipulated 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 yelvets of silk
and gold and Persian carpets woven of
goats hair! 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
III l.