The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1895-05-29
WITH HAND AND WING.
REV. DIP. TALMAGE CHOOSES ACURl-
OUSLY UNIQUE TEXT.

The Likeness OF the Hands OF :, Nan Was
Under Their Wings 4 Powerful iior-
tatory Discourse by the Worlds Great
Preacher.
New YORK, May 19.-Rev. DR.. Tai
IMAGES sermon in the Academy of
Music this afternoon was powerful
and eloquent plea for practical Chris
tianity. The subject as announced
was, Wing and Hand" the text be
ing Ezekiel Y, p, The likeness OF tie
hands of Il man was under their
wings.
While tossed on the sea between
Australia and Ceylon l first particu-
larly noticed this text, Of which then
and there l Imade memorandum. This
chapter is all a-tlutter with cherubim
Who are the cherubim: An order of
angels, radiant, mighty. all knowing,
adoring, worshipful When painter
or sculptor tried in temple at Jerusa-
lem or in marble of Egypt to repre-
sent the cherubim, he made them part
lion, or part OK, or part eagle. But
much of that is an unintended bur
lesqe of the cherubim whose majesty
and speed and splendor we will never
know until, lifted into their presence,
we behold them for ourselves, as |
pray by the pardoning grace of God
we all may. But all the accounts
Biblical. and all the suppositions hui
man. represent the cherubim with
wings, each wing about feet long,
vaster, more imposing than any plum
age that ever fioated in earthly atmos-
phere. Condor in flight above Chin
borazo, or Rocky mountain eagle aim
ing for the MONDAY sun, or albatross
in play with ocean tempest, presents
| no such glory. We can get an imper-
| feet idea of the wing of cherubim by
the only wing we see-the birds pin
ion which is the arm of the bird, but
in some respects more wondrous than
| the human arm; with power Of max
ing itself more light or more heavy;
of expansion and contraction, defying
all attitudes and all abysms; the bird
looking down with pity upon boasting
man as he tolls Up the sides of the Ad
irondacks, while the wing, with few
strokes, puts the highest crags far be-
meath claw and beak. But the birds
wing is only a feeble suggestion of
cherubim's wing. The greatness of
that, the rapidity of that, the radiance
of that the Bible again and again sets
forth.
Ny attention is not more attracted
by those wings than by what they re,
veal when lifted. In two places in
Ezekiel we are told there were hands
under the wings, human hands. hands
like ours, The likeness Of the hands
of man was under the wings" We
have all noticed the wing of the cher
| ubim, but no one seems yet to have
noticed the human hand under the
wing. There are whole sermons,
whole anthems, whole doxologies,
whole millenniums in that combina
ton of hand and wing If this world
is ever brought to God, it will be by
appreciation of the fact that supernat-
| ural and human agencies are to go to-
gether; that which scars and that
which practically works; that which
ascends the heavens and that which
reaches forth to earth; the joining of
the terrestrial and the celestial; the
hand and the wing. We see this un-
ion in the construction of the Bible.
The wing Of inspiration is in every
chapter. What realms of the ran
somed earth did Isaiah fly over. Over
what battlefelds for righteousness,
what coronations, what dominions Of
gladness, what rainbows around the
throne did St. John hover. But in
every book of the Bible you just as
certainly see the human hand that
wrote it. Moses, the lawyer, showing
his hand in the Ten Commandments,
the foundation of all good legislation;
Amos, the herdsman, showing his
hand in SMILES drawn from fields and
focks: the fishermen apostles showing
their hand when writing about gospel
nets; Luke, the physician, showing
his hand by giving especial attention
to diseases cured; Paul showing his
scholarly hand by quoting from heath
en- poets and making arguments about
the resurrection that stand as firmly
as on the day he planted them, and
st. John shows his hand by taking his
imagery from the appearance of the
bright waters spread around the island
of Patmos at the hour of fsunser, when
he speaks of the sea of glass mingled
with fire. Scores of hands writing the
parallels, the miracles, the promises,
the hosannas, the raptures, the conso-
lations, the woes Of ages. Oh, the BIZ
BILE is so human, so full of heartbeats,
so sympathetic, SO wet with tears, so
triumphant with palm branches, that
it takes hold of the human race as
nothing else ever can take hold of it
each writer in his own style-Job, the
scientific; Solomon, the royal blooded;
jeremiah, the despondent; Daniel, the
abstemious and heroic-why, we know
their style so well that we need not
look to the top of the page to see who
is the author. No more conspicuous
the uplifting wing of inspiration than
the hand, the warm hand, the flexible
hand, the skillful hand of human in
strumentality. The likeness Of the
hands of man was under the wings.
Again, behold this combination of
my text in all successful Christian
work. We stand Or kneel in our pull
pits and social meetings and reforma-
tory associations, offering prayer.
Now if anything has wings it is prayer.
1t can fly farther and faster than any
thing I can now think of. In one
second of time from where you sit it
can fly to the throne of God and alight
in England. In one second of time
from where you sit it can fly to the
throne of God and alight in India. 1t
can girdle the earth in shorter time
than you can seal a letter, or clasp a
belt. or hook an eve. Wings. wheth-