The Montgomery advertiser., 1901-06-23

ors who have expressed the exact facts. The one was Paul. who says; "Oh, the depth of the riches, God. how un-
 searchable are His judgments and Ills
 ways past finding out" The other author was the scientist who composed
 my text. think he wrote 1t during a
 thunderstorm, for the chapter says
 much about the clouds and describes the tremor of the earth under the re- | verbrations. Witty writers sometimes depreciate the thunder and say it is
 the lightning that strikes. but l am Il sure God thinks well of the thun-
 der or He would not make so much l of 1t. and all up and down the Bible
 he uses he thunder 70 give emphasis. It was the thunder that shook Sinai when 1 the law was given. 1t wasagwith thun- der that the Lord discSSnfited the l Philistines at Ebenezs-. Cob pictures | the warhorse as having a neck clothed l with thunder. St. John, in an apo 1 calyptic visitor, again and again heard
 the thunder. The thunder, which is l now quite well explained by the cleo | tricians. was the overpowering mystery l of the ancients, and standing among
 those mysteries Job exclaimed: "Lo,
 these are parts of His ways. But how l little a portion is heard of Him? But
 the thunder of His power who can un- | derstand?"
 | So. also. all systems of theology try | to tell us what is omnipresence-tfat l is Gods capacity to be everywhere at
 the same time. Where is God?" said
 a heather philosopher to a Christian man. Let me first ask you where He is not?'' The child had it right when
 asked how many Gods are there, and | he answered One" How do you know that?" he was asked again. He answered There is only room for one for He fills earth and heaven.". And the author says that if a man were set
 in the highest heavens he would not be any nearer the essence of God than if
 he were in the center of the earth. I believe it. If this divine essence does not reach all places, what use in our prayer, for prayers are being offered | to God on the other side of the earth I as well as here, and God must be there l and here to take applications which are offered thousands of miles apart. Ubiquity! No one has 1t but God. And what an alarm to wickedness, an every where present Lord. and what a re-in- forcemenS when we need help! God on l the throne and God with the kneeling
 child saying its evening prayer at his l mothers lap. God above you, God be- l meath you. God on the right of you. God on the left of you, God within you. No pantheism, for that teaches that | all things are God, but Jehovah pos
 Sesses all things, as our souls possess
 cur bodies. God at he diameter and
 circumference of everything, as close
 to you as the food you put to your
 lips. as the coat you put upon your
 back. as the sunlight that shines in
 your face. Appreciation of that, if
 through Jesus Christ, the atoning Sav-
 Tor. we are right with God, ought to
 give us a serenity, a tranquility, that
 nothing could upset. Would 1t make us gloomy? No. for God is the God of
 Joy and will augment our happiness. God in full possession of us is a thought
 out of which you ought to make an-
 tnems and intwine garlands and kim
 dle illuminations.
 THE OMNIPRESENCE OF GOD.
 We have all been painfully reminded
 Tn our own experiences that we cannot Ice in two places at the same time, and
 yet here comes the thought that God can be in all places at the same time.
 Madler. the astronomer, went on with
 his explorations until he concluded that the star Alcyone, one of the Pleiades,
 was the center of the universe, and it
 was fixed world. and all the other
 worlds revolved around that world, and some think that that world is
 heaven. and Gods throne is there, and
 there reside the nations of the biest.
 But He is no more there than he is
 here. Indeed. Alcyone has been found
 to be in motion. and it also is revolv-
 ing around some great center. But no
 place has yet beenN found where God is
 not present by sustaining power. Omni-
 presence! Who fully appreciates 1t?
 Not I. Not you. Sometimes we hear
 Him in a whisper. Sometimes we hear
 Him in the voice of the storm that Jars the Adirondacks. But we cannot
 swim across this ocean. The finite cannot measure the infinite. We feel
 as Job did after finding God in the gold mines and the silver mines of
 Asia. saying There is a vein for the silver and a place for the gold where they find it." And after exploring the heavens as ar astronomer and finding
 God in distant worlds and becoming acquainted with Orion and Mazzaroth and Arcturus and noticing the tides of the sea the inspired poet expresses his to understand such evidences of wisdom and power, and says: "Lo, these are parts of His ways. But how little a portion is heard of Him? But the thunder of His power who can un- derstand?"
 So every system of theology has at- tempted to describe and define the d. vine attribute of love. Easy enough Is it to define fatherly love, motherly love and conjugal love, fraternal love, sis terly love and love of country, bnt the love of God defies all vocabulary. For many hundreds of years poets have tried to sing it and painters have tried to sketch 1t and ministers of the gos- pei to preach it and martyrs in the fire and Christians on their deathbeds have extolled 1t, and we can tell what 1t is like. but no one has yet fully told what it Is. Men speak of the love of God as though it were first felt be- tween the pointing of the Bethlehem star and the pounding of the crucifix- ion hammer. But no! Long before that existed the love of God.
 The nature of God never changes, and from all eternity that holy passion gIowed in the Infinite and I think He | was throwing out worlds into, space l and inhabiting them and more worlds for the application of that love. He may not have told the sotker worlds | what He did for this world, as He has not told us what He did for them. l think the love of God was demonstrat- ed in mightier worlds before our little world was fitted up for human resi- dence. Will a man owning 50,OOO acres of land put all the cultivation on a half acre? Will God make a million worlds and put His chief affection on | one small planet? Are the other worlds | and larger worlds standing vacant. un- inhabited while this little world IS | crowded with inhabitants? No, 1t | takes a universe of worlds to express | che love of God. And there arc other | reasons and other rescues and other radav,,Dtions aS there may he other |