The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1901-06-18

against us?' Think of it, God il the
only being in the universe who has power
to do as he pleases. All human and en-
gelic forces have environments. There
are things they cannot do: heights they
cannot scale; depths they cannot fathom.
Whatever their might and velocities.
they are servants Of ~omnipotence,
which has no limitation, no Underwent
and no insurmountable obstacle. Martin
Luther asked a Saxon peasant TO recite
the creed. and the peasant began, 81 be-
lieve In God. the Father, Almighty"
stop" said Luther. What Is Al
mightyT Il do not know" replied the
peasant. Then Luther said: you are
right. my lea fellow. Neither / nor all
the learned men can tell what Is ouanipo-
tence." Human power, however great.
tires and must rest. but o~mnipotence new
er wearies, and a Quadrillion Of years
from now will be as fresh as at this mo-
ment.
Workings Of the Divine Power.
We get some little idea Of the divine
power when ne see how 1t buries the
proudest cities and nations Ancient
Memphis IL has ground up until many of
Its ruins are no larger than your thumb
nail and you car 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 q
few crumbling pillars left. Sodom and
Gomorrah are covered by waters so
deathful that not a fish can live in them.
Babylon and Nineveh are so b}otted out
OF existence that not q uninjured shaft
of the< ancient splndor remains. Moth
ing but omnipotence could have put them
down and put them under. The ante
diluvian world was able to send to the
postdiluvian world only one ship with a
very small passenger list. O~mnipotence
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 o~mnipotent command the waters
bouncing upon their prey, and at omnipo-
tent command Sinking back into their ap-
propriate places. By such rehearsal we
try to rouse our appreciation Of what
o~mnipotence is, and our reverence is ex-
cited, and our alteration is intensified,
but after all we find ourselves at the foot
of a mountain we cannot climb, lowering
over a depth we cannot fathom, at the
rim of q circumference we cannot COM
pass, and we feel like first going down on
u knees and then like falling fat upon
our faces as we exclaim: "Lo, these are
parts Of his ways. But how little a por-
ten is heard Of him? But the thunder Of
his power who can understand"
So all those who have put together sys-
TENS OF theology have discoursed also
about the wisdom Of God. Think of a
wisdom which can know the end from the
beginning, that knows the thirtieth CEN
fury as well as the first century. We can
guess what will happen, but it is only a
guess. Think Of a mind that can hold
all the past and all the present and all
the future! We a contrive and invent
on a small scale, but think of a wisdom
that could contrive a universe! Think of
q wisdom that can learn nothing new,
a wisdom that nothing can surprise, all
the facts, scenes and occurrences Of all
time to come as plainly before it as
though they had already TRANSFERRED! He
could have built all the material uni
verse into one world and swung it a glo-
rious mass through immensely, but behold
his wisdom in dividing up the grandeurs
into innumerable worlds. rolling %splendors
On all sides, diversity, amplitude, maj
esty, infinity! Worlds! Worlds! Nov
ing in complete order. shining with COM
plete radiance. Mightiest telescope on
one hand and most powerful microscope
on the other. discovering in the plan Of
God not one imperfection. What but d.
vine wisdom could have planned a human
race and, before it started, built for it a
world like this; pouring waters to slake
human thirst and giving soils capacity to
produce such food and lifting such a can
opy of clouds embroidered with such sun
light and surrounding the world with
such wonders that all the scientists of
the ages have only 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 organsl No wonder that Galen,
the most celebrated of medical authors
among the a~ncients, fell on his knees at
the overwhelming wisdom Of God in the
constitution Of the human frame. Our
libraries are filed 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 in
tellects? But it Is only the millionth
part Of that wisdom that has come to
mortal appreciation. Close next to every
ulSCONeTy Is q "OuueE CudC HAS uOI Deeu
discovered. We see only one specimen
among 10000 specimens. What we know
is overwhelmed by what We do not know.
What the botanist knows about the flow
er is not more wonderful than the things
he does not know about the flower. What
the geologist knows about the rocks is
not more amazing than the things which
he does not know about them. The
worlds that have been counted are only
a small regiment of the armies Of light,
the hosts of heaven. which have never
passed in review before mortal vision.
What q God we have!
The God of Abraham.
A tradition says that Abraham Of the
Old Testament was when an infant hid
den in a cav because Of the persecu-
lions Of Nimrod. The first time the
child came out Of the cavern it was night.
and he looked up at the star and cried,
This is my God" but the star disappear.
ed. and Abraham said, "No, that canno,
be my God" After awhile the moon
rose. and Abraham said, 'That is my