The Leon reporter. (Leon, Iowa) 1887-1930, 1901-06-20
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
THE SEEN AND THE UNSEEN
! THE SUBJECT.

THE SEEN AND THE UNSEEN
| THE SUBJECT.
To- Ihese Are Parts of the Ways"-
But How Little . Portion Ii Heard
of Him"-Job XVI, 14-Worklngs of
Divine Power.
Copyright 1901, by Louis Klopsch, N. "
Washington, June 16.-In this dis
course DR.. Talmage raises high expec-
tations of the day when that which
is now only dimly seen will be fully re-
vealed; text. Job XVI, IA: "Lo, these
are parts of his ways. But how little
a portion is heard of him? But the
thunder of his power who can under
stand?"
The least understood hrjng in the
universe is God. Blasphemons would be
any attempt by painting or sculpture
to represent him. Egyptian HERO
glyphs tried to suggest him by putting
the figure of an eye upon a sword, i'm
plying that God sees and rules, but
how imperfect the suggestion! When
we speak of him, it is almost always
in language fguratiye. 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 theo-
| logians assembled in Westminster abb
| hey for the purpose of making a sys-
| tenn of religious belief, they first Of
| all wanted an answer to the question,
"Who is God?" No one desired to I'M
| dertake the answering of that over
mastering question. They finally con-
cluded to give the task to the youngest
man in the assembly, who happened to
be Rev. George Gillespie. He con-
sented to undertake it on the condi-
ton that they would first unite with
him in prayer for divine direction. He
began his prayer by saying, 20 God,
thou art spirit infinite, infinite, eter-
nal and Interchangeable in thy being,
wisdom, power, holiness, justice, good
ness and truth" That first sentence
of Gillespie's prayer was unanimously
adopted by the assembly as the best
definition of God. But, after all, it
was only partial success, and after
everything that language can do when
put to the utmost strain and all we
can see of God in the natural world
and realize of God in the providential
world we are forced to cry out with
Job in my text: "Lo, these are parts
/ u,oE D,,%
is heard of him? But the thunder of
his power who can understand"
Gods Way of Doing.
We try to satisfy ourselves with say
ing, at is natural law that controls
things, gravitation is at work, centri-
petal and centrifugal forces respond 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 continuous power that
controls and harmonizes and sustains
That power withdrawn one instant
would make the planetary system and
all the worlds which astronomy re-
veals one universal wreck, bereft hem
ispheres, dismantled sunsets, dead con-
stellations, debris Of worlds. What
power it must be that keeps the in
ternal fires of our world imprisoned
only here and there squirting from a
Cotopaxi, or a Stromboli, or from a
Vesuvius, putting Pompeii and Hercu-
laneum into sepulcher, but for the
most part the internal fires chained in
their cages of rock, and century after
century 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 breathe in
health, the frosts and the heats him
dered from working universal demoli-
ton! Power, as Isaiah says, "to take
up the isles as very little 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 rock we
must have lever and screw and great
machinery, but God moves the world
with nothing but a word power to
create worlds and power to destroy
them, as from observation again and
again they have been seen red with
flame, then pale nth ashes and then
scattered.
Workings of the Divine Power
We get some little idea of the divine
power when we see how it buries the
proudest cities and nations. Ancient
Memphis 1t 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
under the sea which washes the shore.
on which are only a few crumb,ing
pillars left. Sodom and Gormorrah are
covered by waters so beautiful that not
fish can live in them. Babylon and
Ninevah are SO blotted out of exist
ence that not one uninjured shaft of
their ancient splendor remains Moth
ing but omnipotence could have put
them down and put them under. The
antediluvian world was able to send
to the postdiluvian world only one ship
with very small passenger list ON
impotence first rolled the seas over
the land, and then told them to 20
back to their usual channels as rivers
and lakes and oceans. At omnipotent
command the waters bouncing upon
their prey. and at omni,,etent COM
mand Sinking back into their appro-
pirate places. BY such rehearsal we try