The Chanute times. [volume] (Chanute, Kan.) 1897-1913, 1901-06-21
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
THE SEEN AND THE UNSEEN
THE SUBJECT.
10, These Are Parts of tho Ways
But How Little . Portion Is Heard
of Hlm"-Job XVI, 14-workings of
Divine Power.

tatlOnS Vi inc udy WITCH tudI WhiSh
is now only dimly 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 him? But the
thunder of his power who can under
stand?"
The least understood hring in the
universe is God. Blasphemous 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 sword, i'm
plying that God sees and rules, but
how imperfect the suggestion! When
we speak of him, it is almost always
| in language figurative. He Is Light
or .Dayspring 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 theo-
logians assembled in Westminster alb
| bey for the purpose Of making sys-
tenn of religious belief, they first or
all wanted an answer to the question,
"Who is God?" No one desired to I'M
dertake the answering of that over
mastering question. They finally con-
cluded to give the task to the youngest
man in the assembly, who happened TO
be Rev. George Gillespie. He con-
sented to undertake it on the condl-
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 Gillespies prayer was unanimously
adopted by the assembly as the best
definition of God But, after all, 1t
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 providentlal
world we are forced to cry out with
Job in my text: 10, these are parts
of the ways. But how little portion
is heard of him? But the thunder or
| his power who can understands
| Gods Way OF Doing.
We try to satisfy ourselves with say
ing, 1T is natural law that controls
things, gravitation is at work, centrl-
petal 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 sustains.
| That power withdrawn one instant
| would make the planetary system and
| all the worlds which astronomy re-
veals one universal wreck, bereft hem
| ispheres, dismantled 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
| Cotopaxi. or Stromboli, or from a
Vesuvius, putting Pompeii and Hercu-
laneum 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, so that all around the
world the nations may breathe in
health the frosts and the heats him
dered from working universal demol1-
tion Power, as Isaiah says, ito take
up the isles as a very little thing
Ceylon and Borneo and Hawaii as
though they were pebbles; power to
weigh the mountains in scales" and
the "hills in balances and
the Cordileras. To move 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 observation again and
again they have been seen red with
flame, thea pale nth ashes and then
scattered.
workings OF the Divine Power.
We get some little idea of the divine
mower when we see how it buries the
proudest cities ard na;i5Ds. Ancient
Memphis it has ground up Until many
of its ruins are no larger than your
thumb nail and you can 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 crumbiing
villars left Sodom and Gormorrah are
covered by waters so deathful 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 postdihvian 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 omnipotent
command the waters pouhcing upon
their prey. and at cmni,Wient COM
mand sinking back into their appro-
pirate places. BY such rehearsal we try
to arouse our appreciation of what ON
impotence 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. |