The Kinsley graphic. [volume] (Kinsley, Kan.) 1890-1940, 1901-06-21
GLIMPsEs OF GOD.
Discourse Of DR.. Talmage on the
Divine Saviour.
He Raises High Expectations Of Day
When That Now But Dimly
seen VIII he Fully
Revealed.
Copyright. 1901. by Louis Klopsch. N. IL
Washington. June 49,


In this discourse DR.. Talmage
raises high expectations of the day
when that which is now only dimly
seen will be fully. revealed; text, Job
26, IA: "Lo, these are parts of His
ways. But how little portion is
heard of Him? But the thunder of
His power who can understand"
The least understood being in the
universe is God. Blasphemous would
be any attempt by painting or sculp-
ture to represent Him. Egyptian
hieroglyphs tried to suggest Him by
putting the figure of an eye upon
sword, implying that God sees and
rules, but how imperfect the sug-
gestion! When we speak of Him, it
is almost always in language fgura-
tive. He is Light or "Dayspring
from on High" or He is a "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 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-
clnded 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-
ton. He began his prayer by say
ing: 20 God, Thou art a spirit, in
finite, eternal and Interchangeable in
Thy being, wisdom, power, holiness,
justice, goodness and truth" That
first sentence of Gillespie's prayer
was unanimously adopted by the as
sembly as the best definition of God.
But. after all, it was only a 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 understands"
VIC u W SdCASAy OuISc1tcS WIN
saying: cit is natural law that con-
trolls things, gravitation is at work,
centripetal and centrifugal forces re-
spond to each other" But what is
natural law? 1t is only Gods way of
doing things. At every point in the
universe it is Gods direct and con-
tinuous power that controls and har-
monies and sustains. That power
withdrawn one instant would make
the planetary system and all the
worlds which astronomy reveals one
universal wreck, bereft hemispheres,
dismantled sunsets, dead constella-
tions, debris of worlds. What power
it must be that keeps the internal
fires of our world imprisoned-only
here and there squirting from Coto-
paxi, or Stromboli, or from a Vesuvi-
us, putting Pompeii and Herculaneum
into sepulcher, but for the most part
the internal fires chained in their
cages of rock, and century after CEN
fury unable to break the chain or
burst open the door. What power to
keep the component parts of the
air in right proportion, so that all
around the world the nations may
UIcdtuc III AcdAGu, CAc 1IOSUS anu the
heats hindered from working uni
versal demolition! Power, as Isaiah
says, "to take up the isles as very
Lttle thing" Ceylon and Borneo and
Hawaii as though they were pebbles;
power to weigh the mountains in
scales" and the "hills in balances"
.-Tenerife and the Cordilleras.
To move a rock we must have lever
and screw and great machinery, but
God moves the world with nothing
but word; power to create worlds
and power to destroy them, as from
the observatories again and again
they have been seen red with flame,
then pale with ashes and then scat
tered.
We get some little idea of the divine
power when we see how it buries the
proudest cities and nations. Ancient
Memphis it has ground up until many
of its ruins are no larger than your
thumb nail and you can hardly find
souvenir large enough to remind you
of your visit. The city of Tyre is un-
der the sea which washes the shore,
on which are only few crumbling
pillars left. Sodom and Gomorrah
are covered by waters so deathful
that not fish can live in them. Baby
Ion and Nineveh are so blotted out OF
existence that not one uninjured shaft
of their ancient splendor remains.
Nothing but Omnipotence could have
L. To-