The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1895-05-20
TALMAGE ON WING AND HAND.
A POWERFUL PLEA FOR PRACTICAL
CHRISTIANITY.


Likeness of the Hands of "A Man
Was Under the Wings"-Dr. Tai
mage Finds whole AIiIIenniums i'm
That Combination of Hand and
WinE-ElevatfOn, Celestial and
Eternal, for Every Christian Hand.
New York, May 19.-Rev. DR.. Talmage's
sermon in the Academy of Music. this
afternoon, was a powerful and eloquent
plea for practical Christianity. The sub
Ject as announced was: Wing and
Hand" the text being Ezekiel 10: q, THE
likeness Of the hands Of man was under
their wings"
While tossed on the sea between Aus
tralia and Ceylon. I first particularly no
tieed this text, Of which then and there
I made memorandum. This chapter is
all a-hutter with cherubim. Who are the
cherubim? An order of angels radiant,
mighty. all-knowing. adoring, worship
ful When painter or sculptor tried in
temple al Jerusalem, or in marble OF
Egypt to represent the cherubim, he made
them part lion, or part OK, or part eagle.
But much of that is an unintended bur
lesque of the cherubim whose majesty
and speed, and splendor we will never
know until lifted into their presence we
behold them for ourselves. as 1 pray by
the pardoning grace of God we all may.
But all the accounts Biblical, and all the
suppositions human. represent the cheru-
bin with wings. each wing about seven
feet long. vaster, more imposing than
any plumage that ever fioated in earthly
atmosphere. Condor In flight above Chin
borazo 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 cherubim by the only wing we
see-the birds pinion-which is the arm of
the bird, but in some respects more won
drous than the human arm; with power
of making itself more light, or more
heavy; of expansion and contraction; de-
flying all attitudes and all abysms. the
bird looking down with pity upon Boosting
man as he tolls up the sides of the Adj
irondacks, while the wing with a few
strokes puts the highest crags far be-
meath claw and beak. But the birds
wing is only a feeble suggestion of cheru-
buns wing. The greatness of that, the
rapidly of that the radiance of that,
the Bible again and again sets forth.
those wings than by what they reveal
when lifted. In two place in Ezekiel we
are told there were hands under the wings;
human hands; hands like ours: THE like
ness of the hands of a man was under
the wings" We have all noticed the wing
of the cherubim, but no one seems yet to
have noticed the human hand under the
wing There are whole sermons, whole
anthems, whole doXoogies, whole millen-
NUNS in that combination of hand and
wing If this world is ever brought to
God, IL win be by appreciation of the
fact that supernatural and human agen-
cies 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
I'm tie construction of the
Bible. The wing of inspiration is in ev.
cry chapter. What realms of the ran
somed 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 lust as certainly see the human
hand that wrote it. Moses, the lawyer,
showing his hand in the Ten Command
ments, the foundation of all good legisla-
ton; Amos, the herdsman, showing mis-
hand In SMILES drawn from fields and
fiocks; the fishermen apostles showing
their hand when writing about Gospel
nets; Luke, the physician, showing his
hand by giving special attention to dis
eases cured; Paul showing his scholarly
hand by quoting from heather poets, and
making arguments about the Resurrec-
ton that stand as firmly as on the day he
planted them; and St. John shows his
hand by taking his imagery from the APP
pearance 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 parallels, the miracles, the
promises, the hosannnas, the raptures,
the consultations, the woes of ages. On,
the Bible is so human; so full of heart
beats; so sympathetic; so wet with tears;
so triumphant with palm-brancheS, that
IL takes hold of the human race as moth
ing else ever can take hold of teach
writer in his own style; Job, the scien-
tifc; Solomon the royal-blooded;
Jeremiah, the Respondent; Daniel
the abstemious and heroic 80 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 instrumentality.
1.-THE likeness of the hands of a man was
under the wings"
Again, behold the combination of my
text in all successful Christian work. We
stand or kneel in our pulpits, and social
meetings, and reformatory associations,
offering prayer Now, if anything has
wings, it is prayer. 1t can fly farther and
faster than anything 1 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 a, shorter time than YOU can seal
letter, or clasp a belt, or hook an eye.
Wings, whether that prayer starts from an
infants tongue, or the trembling lip of a
centenarian, rising from the heart of a
farmers wife standing at the dashing
churn, or before the hot breath of a coun-
try oven, they soar away and pick out of
all the shipping of the earth, on all the
seas, the craft on which her sailor boy is
voyaging. Yea, prayer can fly clear down
into the future. When the father of
Queen Victoria was dying, he asked that
the infant Victoria might be brought
while he sat up in bed; and the babe was
brought, and the father prayed: IF this
child should live to become Queen of Eng
land, may she rule in the fear of Godr'
Having ended his prayer, he said: Take
the child away" But all who know