The Iola register., 1901-06-21
GLIMPSES OF GOD.
Discourse of DR.. Talmage on the
Divine Saviour.
He Raises High Expectations of Day
when That Now hut Dimly
Seen VIII lie Fully
Revealed.

raises high expectations of the day
when that which is now only dimly
seen will be fully revealed; text, Job
&c, ID: "Lo, these are parts of His
ways. But how little a portion is
heard of Him2 But the thunder of
His power who can understandY'
The least understood being in the
universe is God. Blasphemous would
be any attempt by painting or sculp-
ture % represent Him. Egyptian
hierogyphs tried to suggest Him by
putting the figure of an eye upon n
sword, implying that God sees and
rules, but how imperfect the sug-
gestion! When we speak of Him, it
is almost always in language figura-
tive. He is Light" or "Dayspring
from on High" or He is High
Tower" or the Fountain of Living
Waters" His splendor is so great
that no man can see Him and live.
When the group of great theologians
assembled in Westminster abbey for
the purpose of making n system of
religious belief, they first of all want
ed an answer to the question: "Who
is God?" No one desired to under
take the answering of that overmas-
tering question. They finally con-
cluded to give the task to the young
est man in the assembly. who hap
pened TO be Rev. George Gillespie. He
consented to undertake it on the con-
dition that they would first unite
with him in prayer for Divine direc-
tion. He began his prayer by say
ing: 80 God. Thou art spirit, in
finite, eternal and unchangeable in
Thy being, wisdom, power, holiness,
Justice, goodness and truth That
first sentence of Gilcspie's prayer
was unanimously adopted by the as
sembly as the best definition of God.
But, after all, il was only Il partial
success, and after everything that
language can do when put to the ut
most strain and all we can see of God
in the natural world and realize Of
God in the providential world we are
forced to cr- out with job in my
text: "Lo, these are parts of HIS
ways. But how little a portion is
heard of Him? But the thunder OF
His power who can understand"
Archbishop Tillotson and DR.. Dick
and Timothy Dwight and Jonathan
Edwards of the past and the might
lest theologians of this young cen
tury have discoursed upon the power
of God, the attribute of omnipotence.
And we have all seen demonstrations
of Gods almightiness. 1t might have
been far out at sea when in an
eCuinoctial gale God showed what He
4 Il. 4 II
have been in an August thunder
storm in the mountains when God
showed what He could do with the
lightnings. 1t might have been in
South America when God showed
what He could do with the earth
quakes. 1t might have been among
the Alps when God showed what lie
could do with the avalanches. Our
check was blanched our breath
stopped, our pulses futtered, our
whole being was terrorized, but we
had seen only an instance of Divine
strength. What was the power of
that storm compared with the power
which holds all the oceans? What
was the power that shook the hills
compared with the power that swings
the earth through all the centuries
and for 5000 years and in a forma-
tive and incomplete shape for hun
dreds of thousands of years? What
is that power that sustains our world
compared with the power which rolls
through immensity the entire solar
system and all the consultations and
galaxies and the universe? The
inta1Iact 90
give way if for a moment there came
upon it the full appreciation of what
omnipotence is.
We try to satisfy ourselves with
saying: "It is natural law that con
trolls things, gravitation is at work
centripetal and centrifugal forces re
spond to each other" But what /,
natural law? 1t is only Gods way o.
doing things. At every point in tn,
universe it is Gods direct and con
tinuous power that controls and har
monies and sustains. That power
withdrawn one instant would max,
the planetary system and all tn,
worlds which astronomy reveals on,
universal wreck, bereft hemispheres
dismantled sunsets, dead constela
IlOuSs utDTlS Ol WOTluSs hnaI pONe
it must be that keeps the interna
fires of our world imprisoned-onl
here and there squirting from Coto
paXi, or a Strombol, or from a Vesuvi
us, putting Pompeii and Herculaneur
into sepulcher, but for the most par
the internal fires chained in thei
cages of rock, and century after cen
tury unable to break the chain o
burst open the door! What power t
keep the component parts of tn
air in right proportion, so that a.
around the world the nations ma
breathe in health, the frosts and tn
heats hindered from working un
versal demolition! Power, as Isaia
says, "to take up the isles as a yer
little thing" Ceylon and Borneo an
Hawaii as though they were pebbles
power to weigh the mountains i
scales" and the hills in balances
-Tenerife and the Cordillera
no moVe n rock we must have leVt