The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1897-03-04

wood. though OGeorgeP +. MorriSes Deg the |
woodmen to spare the tree. and hat calls
a corpse a cadaver. and that speaks OF
death as going to the majority and sub
and mother "thc old man" and .the old |
woman and finds nothing impressive |
in the ruins of Baalbec or the columns
Sabbath from other lays except it al |
lows more dissipation. ard reads the
Bible in hat is called higher criticism,
making 1t not the word of God. but a |
good book with some fine things in it IT.
reverence never so much abroad. How
many take the name of Cod in rain. how
many trivial things said about the Al
mighty Not willing to have God in the
world, they roll up an idea Of sentimen-
dence and imbeci'ity and call IL God. No
wings of reverence over the face, no
taking off of shoes on holy ground You
could nave made Il better world than this.
and that .he God OF the Bible shocks
every sense of pToTrie:y- They talk of the
believe II does not make any difference
how bad q man Is here he will come in
of God IL q way which shows you they
think it * = general jail delivery for all
the aharco-ed and the ~scoundreily OF the
u7ive:@o. NJ punishment hereafter for
any wrorg done here.
The ii.le gives two descriptions OF
GOO. ard they are just opposite: and they
are beth true. In one place the Bible says
God s. love. In another place the Bible
says Gc1 is consuming fire. The explana-
ton is plain as plain can be. God through
Christ IS love. God out OF Christ is fire.
To win the one and to escape the other
we have only to throw ourselves. body,
mind and soul into Christ's keeping.
atonement, want no pardon;I want no in
tervention. 1 will go up and face God.
him. and 1 viii! ask him what he wants
to do with me-" So the finite confronts
the Infinite, SO a tack hammer tries to
human nostrils defies the everlasting
God. while the hierarchs of heaven bow
the head and bend the knee as the Kings
chariot goes by, and the archangel turns
away because he cannot endure the
splendor; and the chorus Of all he EN-
pireS of heaven comes in with full diapa-
son, Holy, holy, holy"
REVERENCE.
Reverence for sham, reverence for the
old merely because it is old, reverence for
stupidity. however learned, reverence for
incapacity, how ever finely inaugurated. I
have none. But we want more reverence
for God, more reverence for the Sacra-
ments, more reverence for the Bible more
reverence for the pure, more reverence
for the good. Reverence d characteristic
roll of the master OratorieS. You see it in
the Raphaels and Titians and Ghirlan-
the Aholiabs and Christopher Wrens. Do
not be flippant about God. Do not joke
about death. Do not make fun of the
brightest and mightiest seraph cannot
look unabashed upon him. Involuntarily
the wings come up. with twain he COW
Who is this God before whom the AFRO
giant and intractable refuse reverence?
Strascrates who was in the employ Of
Alexander the Great, and he offered to
hew a mountain in the shape of his mas
ter, the emperor, the enormous figure to
hold in the left hand a city Of 10000 in
habitants, while with the right hand it
was to hold a basin large enough to col
Loot all tho maintain f0rronfC A1ovon6or
applauded him for his ingenuity, but for
babe the enterprise because of it's cost
Illness. ho Yet I L AVE ave to o. tell III YOU gu that hat our af
the earth and all the oceans, while he
has the stars of heaven for his tiara.
from Henry I to Henry II and Henry III,
from Charles I to Charles II. from Louis
I to Louis II and Louis III, but from ev-
first, God the last, God the only. He has
one telescope, with which he sees every
thing his omniscience. He has one
bridge with which he crosses everything
his omnipresence. He has one hammer,
with which he builds everything-his ON
Impotence. Put two tablespoonfuls of wa
overflow, but Isaiah indicates that God
puts the Atlantic and the Pacific and the
Arctic and the Antarctic and the Medi-
~terranean and the Black sea and all the
waters of the earth in the hollow of his
hand. The fingers the beach on one side,
the wrist the beach on the other. He
hand"
A MEASURE OF THE EARTH.
AS you take a pinch of salt or powder
between your thumb and two fingers, so
Isaiah indicates God takes up the earth.
He measures the dust Of the earth, the
original there indicating that God takes
all the dust of all the continents between
the thumb and two fingers. You wrap
around your hand a blue ribbon five
times, ten times. You say it is five hand
b~readths, or it is ten handbreadths. So
indicates the prophet God winds the blue
ribbon Of the sky around his hand. HE
meteth out the heavens with a span."
You know that balances are made of a
beam suspended in the middle with two
that way what vast heft has been weigh
ed. But what are all the balances of
balances that Isaiah saw suspended when
he saw God putting into the scales the
Alps and the Apennines and Mount
You see the earth had to be ballasted.
1t would not do to have too much weight
In Europe, or too much weight in Asia. or
SO when God made the FOUNTAIN he
weighed them. The Bible distinctly says
so. God knows the weight of the great
ranges that cross the continents, the tons,
the pounds avoirdupois, the ounces, the
grains. the m~illigrams-just how much
they Weighed then, and just how much they
weigh now. He weighed the mountains
in scales and the hills in a balance" Oh.
a God to run against! Oh, what
d dOU 10 OlSOOey! Ou, what a zoo To OlS-
honor! Oh, what a God to defy! The
brightest, the mightiest angel takes no
familiarity with God. The wings Of rev.
erence are lifted. with twain he cover
ed the face"
Another seraphic posture in the text.
The seraph must not always stand still.
He must move, and it must be without
clumsiness. There must be celebrity and
beauty in the movement. with twain he
did fly" Correction, CELEBRATION. Cor
lection at our slow gait, for we only crawl
in the service when we ought to fly at the
divine bidding: Exhilaration in the fact
have wings. What is a wing? An instru-
ment of locomotion. They may not be like
seraphs' wing, they may not be like. birds
wing, but the soul has wings. God says
so. shall mount up on wings as
eagles We are made in the divine i'm
age, and God has wings. The Bible says
SO. Healing in his wings" Under the
shadow of his wings" Under whose
wings hast thou come to trust The soul
with folded wing now, wounded wing,
broken wing, bleeding wing, Gagged wing.