The enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 188?-1899, 1895-05-22
WING AND HAND.
Rev. Talmage Makes a Plea foI
Practical Christianity.
The Hand and Its Power to Aid in Giving
Effect to Prayer-Human sympathy
Needed in Dealing With Earthly
Trials and Temptations.

The Hand ana Its Power TO Ala IN Giving |
Effect to Prayer-Human sympathy
Needed in Dealing With Earthly
Trials and Temptations.
The subject of Rev. T. Dewitt Tai.
mage's sermon, preached in the New
York Academy of Music, was ewing
and Hand" the text being Ezekiel
X, 81, "The likeness of the hands of
man was under their wings" He said;
When tossed on the sea between Aus
tralia and Ceylon, first particularly
noticed this text, of which then and
there made memorandum. This chap
ter is all a-futter 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
marble of Egypt to represent the cheru-
BIN, he made them part lion, or part
OK, or part eagle. But much of that is
an unintended burlesque of the cheru.
BIN whose majesty, and speed, and
splendor we will never know until
lifted into their presence we behold
them for ourselves, as Ipray by the par.
doning 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 fight
above Chimborazo, or Rocky Mountain
eagle aiming for the monday sun, or
albatross in play with ocean tempest,
presents no such glory. We can get an
imperfect idea of the wing of cheru.
BIN by the only wing we see-the bird 8
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 contraction;
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 highest
crags far beneath claw and beak. But
the birds wing is only feeble sugges
ton of the cherubim's wing. The
greatness of that, the rapidity of that
the radiance of that, the Bible agair
and again sets forth.
My attention is not more attracted by
those wings than by what they revea
. when lifted. In two places in Ezellie
we are told there were hands under tn,
wings; human hands; hands like ours
"The likeness of the hands of maj
was under the wings" We have al
noticed the wing of the cherubim, bu
no one seems to have noticed the hu
man hand under the wing. There ar
whole sermons, whole anthems, Who'll
doXologies, whole millenniums in tina
combination of hand and wing. If thi
world is ever brought to God, it wi
be by appreciation of the fact tina
supernatural and human agencies az
. to go together; that which scars, an
that which practically works; tina
which ascends the heavens, and tina
which reaches forth to earth; the join
ing of the terrestrial and the celestia
the hand and the wing. We see tn
union in the construction of the Bibl,
The wing of inspiration is in ever
chapter. What realms of the raj
somed earth did Isaiah fly over? Owe
: what battlefelds for Righteousness
. what coronations; what dominions
| gladness; what rainbows around tt
| throne did st. John hover? But
| every book of the Bible you just as ce
| tainly see the human hand that wrote
| Moses, the lawyer, showing his har
4 in the Ten Commandments, the fou
y tain of all good legislation; Amos, IL
: herdsman, showing his hand in simil
s drawn from fields and focks; the fis
- ermen apostles showing their ha1
when writing about gospel nets; LUX
the physician, showing his hand
d giving especial attention to diseas
cured; Paul showing his scholarly ha1
by quoting from heather poets, al
making arguments about the resurre
tion that stand as firmly as on the d;
he planted them; and st. John shoJ
his hand by taking his imagery fro
the appearance of the bright waite
spread around the island of Patm
at hour of sunset, when he speaks
the sea of glass mingled with fiji
scores of hands writing the parable
the miracles, the promises, the hosa
mas, the raptures, the consultations, t
woes of ages. o, the Bible is so l.
man; so full of heart-beats, so SYM
thetic; so wet with tears; so triu
plant with palm branches, that
takes hold of the human race as not
writer in his own style; Job, the sciC
tific; Solomon, the royal-blooded; Je
miah, the respondent; Daniel, the ;
- stemious and heroic-why, we l1n,
their style SO well that we need l
look to the top of the page to see W
is the author. No more conspicuC
the uplifting wing of inspiration tn
the hand, the warm hand, the heXi
In hand, the sllillful hand of human
strumentality. 1.-THE likeness of
hands of man was under the wing
Again, behold this combination of
text in all successful Christian wo
oo We stand or kneel in our pulpits, a
w social meetings, and reformatory as
M Citations, offering prayer. Now, if a,
w thing has wings, it is prayer. 1t {
fly further and faster than anything
no can now think of. In one second
Is time from where you sit it can fly
"a theAhrone of God and alight in Int
1t can girdle the earth in shorter ii
than Won can seal q letter, or clasT