The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1901-07-03

dom that nothing can surprise, all the
facts, scenes and occurrences of all time
to come as plainly before it as though
they had already transpired. He could
have built all the material universe into
one world and swung it, a glorious mass,
dom in dividing up the grandeurs into in:
Vulnerable worlds, rolling .splendors on all
sides, diversity, amplitude, majesty, IL
fnity. Worlds, worlds, moving in com.
plete order, shining with complete "a.
dance. Mightiest telescope on one hand
and most powerful microscope on. the
other, discovering in the plan of God not
one imperfection..
What but divine wisdom could have
planned a human race and, before, it
started, built for it a world like this,
pouring water to slake human thirst and
giving soils capacity to produce such food
broidered with such sunlight, and sur
rounding the world with such wonders
that all the scientists. of the ages have
ouly begun to unroll them? Wisdom in
magnitude and in atom, in archangel and
in mollusk.
Think OF a wisdom that was able to
form without any suggestion or any model
to work by the eye, the ear. the hand, the
foot, the vocal organs. No wonder that
Galen, the most celebrated of medical au.
thors among the ancients, fell on his knees
at the Overwhelming wisdom of God IN
the constitution of the human frame:
Our libraries are filled with the wisdom
of the great thinkers of all time. Have
you considered the far superior wisdom
which fashioned the brain for all those
thoughts of the Infinite mind that built
those intellects? But it is only the mil
lionth part of that wisdom that has come
to mortal appreciation.
Close next to every discovery is won.
der that has not yet been discovered. We
see only one specimen among 10000 speci::
mems. What we know is overwhelmed
by what we do not know. What the bot.
anist knows about, the flower, Is not more
wonderful than the things he does not
know about the flower. :.
Witty writers sometimes depreciate the
thunder and say it is the lightning that
strikes, but am sure God thinks we'll Of
the thunder, or He would not make so
much of it, and all up and down the Bible
He uses the thunder to give emphasis. 1t
was the thunder that shook Sinai when
the law was given. 1t was with thunder
that the Lord discounted the Philis.
tines at Eben-ezer.
Job pictures the war horse as having a
neck clothed with thunder. St. John in
an apocaIyptic vision again and again
heard the thunder. The thunder, which
is now quite well explained by the elec::
tricians, was the overpowering mystery OF
the ancients, and, standing among those
mysteries, Job exclaimed: 'Lo, these are
parts of His ways. But how little por-
tion is heard Of Him? But the thunder
of His power who can understands"
So, also, all systems of theology, try to
tell us what is omnipotence-that is,
Gods capacity to be everywhere at the
same time, Where is GodT said q
hsat3sn philosopher to Christian ssk man
where He is not?" The child had it right
when, asked how many Gods are there,
and he answered, Zone" "How do you
know that" he was asked again. He an.
swered, "There is only room for one, for
He fills earth and heaven" An author
says that if man were set in the highest
heavens he would not be any nearer the
essence of God than if he were in the
centre of the earth. believe it.: II this
| divine essence does not reach all places,
being offered to God on the other side
of the earth as we'll as here, and God
| must be there and here to take supplica.
tions which are offered thousands OF miles
apart. Ubiquity! No one has it but God.
And what an alarm to wickedness, an
everywhere present Lord, and what a re-.
enforcement when we need help! God
on the throne and God with the kneeling
child saying his evening prayer at his
| mothers lap. God above, you, God be;
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 possesses all
things, as our souls possess our bodies.
God at the 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 Sa-
viour, we are right with God, ought to
give US a serenity, tranquility, tnat
nothing could upset. Would it make US
gloomy? No, for God is the God OF Joy
and will augment our happiness.
We have all been painfully reminded in
our own experiences that we cannot be in
two places at the same time, and yet here
comes the thought that God can be in all
| places at the same time. Nader, the as.
tronomer, went on with his explorations
of the heavens until he concluded that the
star Alcyone, one of the Pleiades, was the
centre of the universe, and it was liked
| 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
blessed. But He is no more there than He
is here. Indeed Alcyone has been found
to lie in motion, and it also IS revolving
around some great centre. But no place
has vet been found where God is not
present by sustaining power. Omnlpres-
ence. Who fully appreciates it? Not l;
| not you.
Sometimes we hear Him in 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 vein for the silver and
a place for the gold where they fine it."
Men speak of the love of God as though
it were first felt between the pointing of
the Bethlehem star and the pounding OF
the crucifxion hammer. But no! Long
before that existed the love of God.
The nature of God never changes, and
from all eternity that holy passion glowed
in the Infinite, and I think He was throw
ing out worlds into space and inhabiting
them and more worlds for the application
of that love. He may not have told the
other worlds what He did for this world,
as He has not told us what He did for
Clem. Cnltlh Iuc lofC VI 0ou was oSih
onstrated in mightier worlds before our
little world was fitted up for human resi-:
dence. Will man owning $4,000 acres Of
land put all the cultivation on a half
acre? Will God make million worlds
and put His chief affection on one small
planet? Are the other worlds and larger
worlds standing vacant, uninhabited,
while this little world is crowded with in.
habitants? No, it takes universe of
worlds to express the love of God. And
there are other ransoms and other rescues
and other redemptions, as there may be
other millenniums and other resurrection
mornings and judgment days than those
of our world. But in the space of six
feet by five was comprised the mightiest
evidence of Gods love that any world
ever saw or ever will see. Compressed on