The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1895-05-24
THE WONDROUS HAND
REV. T. DE WITT TALMAGE IN THE
METROPOLITAN PULPIT.
Christ Was Divine and Also Very Human.
The Rsiigiop OF Some Christians Is All
Wing-Good wrought In Cities-The
Toilers' Everlasting Rest.

Wing-Good Wrought In Cities-The
Toilers' Everlasting Rest.
| NEW YORK, May l9.-Rev. DR.. Tai
mags's sermon in the Academy of Mu.
sic this afteriiooh was d powerful and
eloquent plea for practical Christianity,
The subject, as announced, was, Wing
and Hand, p" the text being Ezekiel X, 81,
"The likeness of tho hands of a man
was under their wings, 4"
While tossed on tho sea between Aus,
tralia and Ceylon I first particularly
noticed this text, Of which then and
there made memorandum. This chap
ter is all hhutter with cherubiiti. Who
are the cherubim? An order of angels
radiant, mighty, all knowing, adoring,
worshipful When painter or sculptor
tried in temple ut 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 I'M
intended burlesqr ~ tho cherubim
whose majesty AN, ed 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 suggestions human
represent the cherubim with wings, each
wing about seven feet long, vaster, more
! imposing than any plnmage that ever
fioated in earthly atmosphere.
Condor in flight above Chimborazo,
| or Rocky mountain eagle aiming for tho
| MONDAY sun, or albatross in play with
| ocean tempests, presents no such glory.
We can get an imperfect idea of The
wing Of oherubim 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 moro 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 few strokes puts the high
Sst 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
| Wings-humau hands, hands like ours,
ttTbe likeness of the hands of man
was under the wings" We have all no.
ticed the wing of the cherubim, but no
one seems yet to have noticed the hu-
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
together-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 union in the construction
Of the Bible. The wing of inspiration is
| IN every chapter. What realms of the
| ransomed earth did Isaiah fly over
Over what battlefields 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
SEES, the lawyer, showing his hand i'll
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
bright waters spread around the island
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-
sannas, the raptures, the consultations,
the woes of ages Oh, the Bible is SO
human. SO full of heartbeats, SO svmpa-
thetic, so wet with tears, so trium-
plant 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 styie-Job, the scientific; Solo
mon, the royal blooded; jeremiah, the
respondent; Daniel, the abstemious and
heroic-why, we know their style SO
we'll 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 sl1illfu,
hand of human instrumertality. "The
likeness of the hands of u man was un
der the wings ;"
The Speed of Prayer.
Again, behold this combination of
my text in all successful Christian work
We stand or hleel in our pulpits and SO
cial meetings and reformatory aSsocia
lions Offering prayer. Now, if anything
has wings, it is prayer. 1t can fly farthc.
and faster than anything can row
think of In one second of time from
where you sit it can fly to the throne Of
Sod and alight in England In one sec
ond Of time from where you sit it car
fly to the throne Of God and alight in
India 1t can girdle. the earth IN a
shorter time than you can seal letter
or clasp belt, or hook an eye Wings.
whether that prayer starts from al in
fant's tongue or the trembling lip OF II
centenarian, rising from the heart Of .
farmers wife standing at the dashl:Is
churn, or before the hot breath OF a
| cOnntrY oven. thnz snar AWAY ard ND;