The Grenada sentinel. [volume] (Grenada, Miss.) 1868-1955, 1901-06-22
GLIMPSES OF GOD.
Discourse Of DR.. Talmage on the
Divine Saviour.
He Raises High Expectations of Day
when Tha Now But DimIy
Seen VIII De Fully
Revealed.
copyright, 1901. by Louis Klopsch. N. VI
Washington,

In this discourse Dr. Ialmage
raises high expectations of the day
when hat which is now only dimly
seen will be fully revealed; text, Job
&c, IA: so, these are parts of His
ways. But how little a 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 a
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 a High
Tower or the Fountain of Living
Waters" His splendor is SO great
hat no man can see Him and live.
When the group of great theologians
assembled in Westminste ter abbey for
the purpose of making a system of
religious belief, they first of all want
ed an answer to the question: "Who
is CODE" 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
..-t+b Ls,, -, ,,,~-o- g., ns,sr1 I..oo
ton. He began his prayer by say
ing: 80 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 err out with Job in my
text: 10, these are parts of His
ways. But how little a portion is
Atdid VI IIlh Dul lIt lIullutI Ol
His power who can understand?"
Archbishop Tillotson and DR.. Dick
and Timothy Dwight and Jonathan
Edwards of the past and the might
lest th%eologians of this young cen
fury have ~discoursed upon the power
of God, the attribute of omnipotence.
And we have all seen demonstrations
nf Code ninhftnnc -asrI+ La,-
been far out at sea when in an
%equinoctial gale God showed what He
could do with the waters. 1t might
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 He
could do with the avalanches. Our
cheek was b%lanched, our breath
stopped, our pulses fluttered, our
whole being was terrorized, but we
had seen only IN 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 immensely the entire solar
system and all the consultations and
galaxies and the universe? The
mightiest intellect of man would
give way if for a moment there came
upon it the full appreciation of what
omnipotence is. =
We try to satisfy ourselves with
saying: at is natural law that cor.
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 hat 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
tons, debris of worlds. What powe,
it must be that keeps the interna'
fires of our world imprisoned-onl,
here and there squirting from a Coto
paXi, or a Stromboli, or from a Vesuvi
us, putting Pompeii and Herculaneun
into sepulcher, but for the most par
the internal fires chained in theii
cages of rock, and century after cen
fury 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 al
around the world the nations ma,
breathe in health, the frosts and tn
heats hindered from working uni
versal demolition! Power, as Isaial
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 il
scales" and the "hills in balances