The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1898-03-15
MIGHTY CONTRASTS
Rev DIR. Ta1ma~e Shows How Inadequate
Is Human conception of God--1he Great
Majority Will be saved-Joys Of Heaven
Are Past Mans UNDERSTANDING

one Of mighty contrasts, and the dim
ness of earthly eyesight compared
with the vividnesst of celestial eyesight
is illustrated. The text is l Corin-
thians xiii, II, ~ror now we see
through a glass, darkly, but then face
to face"
The Bible is the most forceful and
pungent of books. While it has the
sweetness of a mothers hush for hu-
Of a scimeter and the crushing power
of a lightning bolt. 1t portrays with
stroke picturing a heavenly throne
and a judgment conflagration. The
strings of this great harp are fingered
by all the splendors of the future, now
sounding with the crackle of consum-
ing worlds, now thrilling with the JOY
Of the everlasting emancipated. 1t
tells how one forbidden tree in the
| garden blasted the earth with sickness
and death and how another tree,
though lea1ess and bare, yet planted
on Calvary, shall yield a fruit which
shall more than antidote the poison of
the other. 1t tells how the red ripe
clusters of Gods wrath were brought
to the wine press and Jesus trod them
0,% o-I h>" - 1o~% Ii H.
chalics of heaven shall glow with the
wine of the awful vintage. it dazzles
the eye with an Ezekiel's vision of
wheel and wing and fire and whirl-
wind and stoops down SO low hat it
can put it's lip to the ear Of a dying
child and say, Come up higher"
And yet Paul, in my text, takes the
responsibility of saying that it is only
an indistinct mirror and hat its mis-
sion shall be suspended. I think there
may be n Bible in heaven, fastened
to the throne. Just as now, in a mu-
scum, we have a lamp eXhumed from
Herculaneum or Nineveh, and We look
at it with great interest and say, How
| poor a light it must have given COM
pared with our modern lamps" so 1
II CIdI LID IN was a
lamp to our feet in this world, may
lie near the throne of God, exciting
our interest to all eternity by the con-
trast between it's comparatively fee
BILE light and the illumination of heav-
en-. The Bible now is the scaffolding
to the rising temple, but when the
building is done there will be no use
for the scaffolding.
HUMAN IGNORANCE.
The idea 1 shall develop to-day is
that in this world our knowledge is
comparatively din and unsatisfactory
but nevertheless is Introductory to
grander and more complete vision.
This is eminently true in regard to
our view of God. We hear so much
about Zoo that we conclude that We
understand him. He is represented as
having the tenderness of a father, the
firmness of a judge, the majesty CT a
king and the love of a mother. We
hear about him, talk about him, write
| about him. W. lisp his name in in
fancy and it trembles on the tongue
of the dying o~ctogenariaI. We think
hat we know very much about him.
Take the attribute of mercy. Do We
undertand it? The Bible blossoms all
| over with the word-mercy. 1t speaks
again and again Of the tender mercies
of God; of the sure mercies, IF the
great mercies; of the mercy that en-
dureth forever; of the multitude of his
mercies. And yet I know that the
views we have of this great being are
most indefinite, one sided and incom-
,1o+o yvL1- ~ Joo%h tho rotac chol1
fly open and we shall look directly
upon him, how new and surprising,
We see upon canvass a picture of the
morning. We study the cloud in the
sky, the dew upon the grass and the
husbandman on the way to the field.
Beautiful picture Of the morning! But
we rise at daybreak and go up on 4
hill to see for ourselves that which was
represented to us. While we look the
mountains are TRANSPORTED. The bur-
nished gates of heaven swing open and
shut, to let past a host of fiery splend-
ors. The clouds are all abloOm and
hang pendent from arbors of alabaster
and amethyst. The waters make
pathway of inlaid pearl for the light
to walk upon, and there is morning on
the sea. The crags o their
SCARED visage, and there is morning
among the mountains. Now you go
home, and how tame your picture OF
the morning seems in contrast! Great
er than that shall be the contrast be-
tween this Scriptural view of God and
that which we shall have when stand
ing face to face. This is a picture Of
the morning hat will be the morning
itself.
A MAGNIFICENT UNFOLDING.
Again, my text is true of the Say
iour's exceIlency. By image and sweet
rhythm of expression and startling an
tithesis Christ is set forth-his. love,
his compassion, his work, his life, his
death, his resurrection We are chal-
lenged to measure it, to compute il, to