Connecticut western news. [volume] (Salisbury, Litchfield Co., Conn.) 1871-1970, 1901-06-20

| 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
standH
The least understood being in the uni
verse Is God Blasphemous would be
any attempt by painting or sculpture
to represent him. Egyptian hieroglyphs
tried to suggest him by putting the fig
ure Of an eye upon sword, implying
that God sees and rules, but how i'm
perfect the suggestion! When we speak
Of him, 1t is almost always In language
figurative. He Is Light" or DAY
spring 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 theologians assem-
bled in Westminster abbey for the pur-
pose of making a system of religious
belief, they first of all wanted an an
swer to the question, "Who is God?"
No one desired to undertake the an
swering Of that overmastering ques-
ton. They finally concluded to give
the task to the youngest man in the
assembly, who happened to be Rev.
George Gillespie. He consented to
undertake it on the condition that they
would first unite with him In prayer
for divine direction. He began his
prayer by saying, 30 God, thou art
spirit, infinite, eternal and unchange-
able in thy being, wisdom, power, holt
ness, 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, 1t was only a partial sue
cess, and after everything that Ian
guage 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 of his ways. But how little q
portion of him Is heard? But the thun-
der of his power who can understands
Archbishop Tillotson and DR.. Dick
and Timothy Dwight and Jonathan
theologians Of this young century have
discoursed upon the power of God, the
attribute Of omnipotence. And we have
all seen demonstration of Gods al
mightiness. 1t might have 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 Au-
gust thunderstorm in the mountains
when God showed what he could do
with the lightnings. 1t might have
been in South America when God show
ed 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 blanched, our breath stopped, our
pulses futtered, our whole being was
terrorized, but we had seen only an in
stance 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 CEN
turtles and for 5000 years and In
formative and incomplete shape for
hundreds Of thousands of years? What
Is that power that sustains our world
compared with the power which rolls
through immensely the entire solar sys-
tenn and all the consultations and gal
axies and the universe2 The mightiest
intellect Of man would give away If for
q moment there came upon 1T the full
appreciation of what omnipotence Is.
What you and see and hear of divine
strength are only parts of his ways.
But how little a portion Is heard Of
him! But the thunder of his power
who can understands
Gods Omnipotence.
We try to satisfy ourselves with say
ing: "It Is natural law that controls
things. Gravitation is at work; cen
tripetal 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
1t is Gods direct and continuous power
that controls and harmonizes and sus-
tains. That power withdrawn one in
slant would make the planetary system
and all the worlds which astronomy
reveals one universal wreck, bereft
hemispheres, dismantled sunsets, dead
consultations, debris of worlds. What
power 1t must be that keeps the inter
nal fires Of our world imprisoned, only
here and there squirting from a Cotu-
paxf or Stromboli or from Vesuvius,
putting Pompeii and Herculaneum in
to 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
doorl What power to keep the compo-
nent parts of the air in right proper
ton, so that all around the world the
nations may breathe In health, the
frosts and the heats hindered from
working universal demolition! Power,
as Isaiah says, ito take up the isles as
a very little thing'-Ceylon and Borneo
and Hawaii as though they were peb-
bIes; power to weigh the mountains
In scales" 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 a word;
power to create worlds and power to
destroy them, as from the Observable
ries again and again they have been
seen red with fame, then pale with
ashes and then scattered.
What rs that power to us? asks some
one. Il LIS everything to us. With him
on our side, the reconciled God, the
Sympathetic Cod the omnipotent God,
we may defy all human and satanic
antagonlsms, and when we are shut in
by obstacles we can say, as did one of
Frobisher's men when the sailor was
describing how their ship was sur
rounded by icebergs in the Arctic sea,
1.-THE Ice was strong, but God WAS
stronger than the ice." And, whatever
opposition we may have, our God is
mightier than the opposition. All right
with God, we may have the courage of
the general dying on the battlefield.
He asked to be turned, and when they
said, (Which way shall we turn you"
no sold fon fnu ri ho