The Globe-republican., 1901-06-20
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
THE SEEN AND THE UNSEEN
THE SUBJECT
90. These Are Parts of the Ways
But How Little a Portion Heard
of Him''7Sob XVI, 14-Workings of
Divine Power.

Copyright. 1901. by Louis E1opsch. N "
Washington. June 16--In this dis
course Dr. Talmage raises high expec-
tations of the day when that which
is now only dinly seen will be fully re-
vealed; text, Job XVI, IA: 10, these
are parts OF his ways But how little
a portion is heard of him2 But the
thunder of his power who can under
stand2''
The least understood hs.jng in the
universe is God. B1asphemo:ls 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 suggestiont When
we speak of him, it is almost always
in language figurative- He is Light
or '-Dayspring From on High, or he
is a High Tower or the Fountain of
Living Waters. His sp1endOr is so
great that no man see him and
live When the group OF great theo-
1ogians assembled in Westminster alb
hey for the purpose of making a sys-
tenn of religious belief, they hrst OF
all wanted an answer to the question.
who is God?'' No one desired to IN
dertake the answering of that over
mastering question. They finally con-
Guided to give the task to the youngest
| be Rev. George Gillespie. He con-
| scented to undertake it on the cond1-
| ton that they would first unite with
| him in prayer for divine direction He
| began his prayer by saying, 20 God,
| thou art a spirit infinite, Infinite, eter-
| nal and Interchangeable in thy being.
| wisdom, power, holiness, justice, good
| ness and truth. That first sentence
| of Gil1eSpieS prayer was unanimously
/ adopted by the assembly as the best
l del i1if of
| was only a 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 provident1al
world are forced to cry out with
| Job in my text: 10 these are parts
| of the ways. But how little a portion
| is heard of him? But the thunder Of
| his power who can understands"
| God.s Way Doing.
| We try to satisfy ourselves with say
| ing. 1T is natural law that controls
| things, gravitation is at work, centri-
| petal and centrifugal forces respond to
each other" But what is natural law
It 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-
VeaIS one universal wreck, Dereft hem-
i isphereS, .d1smantled 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 Strombo1i, or from a
| Vesuvius, putting POmpeii and Hercu-
Ianeum 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, that all around the
world the nations may breathe in
| health, the frosts and the heats him
| dered from working universal demo1i-
! tom Power, Isaiah says, ito take
up the isles as very little thing -
| Ceylon and BOrneo and Hawaii as
though they We're pebbles; power to
weigh the mountains in sea les 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 observation again and
again they have been seen red with
fame, Thea pale 9TH 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 ara na,t-ns- Ancient
| Memphis e has ground up nti1 many
of its ruins are no larger than your
| thumb nail and you hardly find
a 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 crum bling
| pillars left. Sodom and Gormorrah are
covered by waters so beautiful that not
a 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 postdia1vian world only one ship
| with very small passenger list ON
| impotence first rolled the seas over
| the land, and then told them to go
| back to their usual channels as rivers
| and lakes and oceans At OEnipotent
| command the waters DouT.rlng upon
their prey. and at c-lni.se.1ent com