The united opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1881-1970, 1895-05-24
1HE WONDROUS HAND
REV. T. DE WITT TALMAGE IN THE
METROPOLITAN PULPIT.


Christ Was Divine and Also Very Human
The Religion of Some Christians Is Al
wing-Good Wrought In Cities-Th'
Toilers' Everlasting Rest.
New YORK, May 19.-Rev. DR.. Tai
mage's sermon in the Academy of MI
sic this afternoon was powerful and
eloquent plea for practical Christianity.
The subject, as announced, was, Ewing
and Hand, the text being Ezekiel x, 21,
"The likeness of the hands of man
was under their wings. -
While tossed ON the sea between Aus
tralia and Ceylon I first particularly
noticed this text, of which then and
there made memorandum. This chap
ter is all af1utter with cherubim. Who
are the cherubim? An order of angels
radiant, mighty, all knowing, adoring,
worshipful When painter or sculptor
tried in temple at Jerusalem or in mar
BILE Of Egypt to represent the cherubim
he made them part lion or part OK or
part eagle. But much of that is an un-
intended burlesque of the cherubim
whose majesty and speed and splendor
we will never know until lifted into
their presence we behold them for our
selves, as pray by the pardoning grace
of God we all may. But all the accounts
Biblical and all the suppositions human
represent the cherubim with wings, each
wing about seven feet long, vaster, more
imposing than any plumage that ever
foated in earthly atmosphere.
Condor IN flight above Chimborazo,
or Rocky mountain eagle aiming for the
monday sun, or albatross in play with
ocean tempests, presents no such glory.
We can get an imperfect idea of the
wing of cherubim by the only wing we
see-the birds pinion-which is the
arm of the bird, but in some respects
more wondrous than the human arm;
with power of making itself more light
or more heavy, of expansion and con-
traction; defying all attitudes and all
abysms; the bird looking down with
pity upon boasting man as he tolls up
the sides of the Adirondacks, while the
wing with a few strokes puts the high
est crags far beneath claw and beak
But the bird s wing is only feeble sug-
gestion of cherubim s wing. The great
ness of that, the rapidity of that, the
radiance of that, the Bible again and
again sets forth.
The Wing of Inspiration.
My attention is not more attracted by
those wings than by what they reveal
when lifted In two places in Ezekiel
we are told there were hands under the
hands, hands like ours,
1.-THE likeness of the hands of a man
was under the wings" We have all no.
ticed the wing of the cherubim, but no
one seems yet to have noticed the hui
man hand under the wing. There are
whole sermons, whole anthems, whole
doxologies, whole millenniums in that
combination of hand and wing. If this
world is ever brought to God, it will be
by appreciation of the fact that super
natural and human agencies are to go
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 union in the construction |
Of the Bible. The wing of inspiration is
in every chapter. What realms of the
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. Mo-
ses, the lawyer, showing his hand in
the Ten Commandments, the foundation
OF all good legislation; Amos, the herds
man, showing his hand in SMILES drawn
from fields and flocks; the fishermen
apostles showing their hand when writ
ing about Gospel nets; Luke, the physi-
clan, showing his hand by giving espe-
cial attention to diseases cured; Paul
showing his scholarly hand by quoting
from heather poets, and making argu-
ments 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
OIlSub WdUelS 6pI6du drOuuu bHo lSlduu
Of Patmos at hour of sunset, when he |
speaks of the sea of glass mingled with
fire; scores of hands writing the para
bles, the miracles, the promises, the ho-
;annas, the raptures, the consultations,
'he woes of ages. Oh, the Bible is so
human, so full of heartbeats, so sympa-
,hetic, so wet with tears, so trium-
ohant with palm branches, that it takes
1old of the human race as nothing else
,ver can take hold of it, each writer in
lis own style-Job, the scientific; Solo
non, the royal blooded; jeremiah, the
Daniel, the abstemious and
we know their style so
we'll that we need not look to the top of
he page to see who is the author. No
more conspicuous the uplifting wing of
Inspiration than the hand. the warm
land, the flexible hand, the skillful
,and of human instrumentality. 1.-THE
likeness of the hands of man was un-
Ter the wings !"
The Speed of Prayer.
Again, behold this combination of
ny text in all successful Christian work
We stand or Lneel in our pulpits and So
,ial meetings and reformatory associa-