Highland recorder. (Monterey, Highland County, Va.) 1877-1972, 1901-06-21
THE NATURE OF GOD.
Or. Talmage Expectations OF the Day
Wh.n That Which is Only Dimly
Seen Will Be Fully Revealed.
Evidence of Divine Power..God's Infinite Love
Ills Nature Never Changes.
copyright 1901.

lCopyrlght l9Ol !
WASHINGTON, ID. Gin this discourse
DR.. Talmage raises high expectations Of
the day when that which is now only
dimly seen will be fully revealed; text,
Job XVI, Ii: "Lo, these are parts of His
ways. But how little a portion is heard
of Him? But the thunder of His power
who can understands"
The least understood being in the uni
verse is God. Blasphemous would be any
attempt by painting or sculpture to rep.
resent Him: Egyptian hieroglyphs tried
to suggest Him by putting the figure Of
an eye upon a sword, implying that God
sees and rules, but how imperfect the sug
gestion! When we speak of Him it is al.
most always in language hgurative. He
is Light or "Dayspring From on High"
or He is High Tower" or the "Foun.
tain of Living Waters" His splendor is
so great that no man can see Him and
live. When the group of great theolog
ians assembled in Westminster Abbey
hgious belief, they first of all wanted an
answer to the question, "Who is God?"
No one desired to undertake the answer
ing of that overmastering question. They
finally concluded to give the task to the
youngest man in the assembly, who hap
pened to be Rev. George Gillespie. He
consented to undertake it on the condi
ton that they would first unite with him
in PRAYER for divine direction. He began
spirit, infinite, eternal and Interchangeable
in Thy being, wisdom, power, holiness,
Justice, goodness and truth" That first
sentence of Gillespie's prayer was unani-
mousy adopted by the assembly as the
best definition of Cod But, after all, it
was only partial success, and after
Everything that language can do when
but to the utmost strain and all we can
lee of God in the natural world and real
ize of God in the providential world we
are forced to cry out with Job in my text:
how little portion of Him is heard?
But the thunder of His power who can
understand"
= Archbishop Tillotson and DR.. Dick and
Timothy Dwight and Jonathan Edwards
of the past and the mightiest theologians
of this young century have discoursed
upon the power of God, the attribute of
omnipotence. And we have all seen dem.
onstration of Gods almightiness 1t might
equinoctial gale God showed what He
could do with the waters. 1t might have
been in an August thunderstorm in the
mountains when God showed what He
could do with the hghtnings. 1t might
have been in South America when God
showed 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
tluttered, our whole being was terrorized,
but we had seen only an instance of di::
vine 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 centuries and for 5000
years, and in a 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
system and all the consultations and gal
axies and the universe? The mightiest
intellect of man would give away if for a
moment there came upon it the full APP
probation of what omnipotence is. What
you and I see and hear of divine strength
are only "parts of His ways. But how
little portion is heard of Him! But the
thunder of His power who can under
stand?"
We try to satisfy ourselves with saying:
cit is natural law that controls things:
Gravitation is at work.. centripetal 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 it is Gods direct and con-
tinuous power that controls and harmon
ICES and sustains. That power Withdrawn
one instant would make the planetary sys-
TEN and all the worlds which astronomy
reveals one universal wreck, bereft hemis-
pheres, dismantled sunsets, dead constel'
fations, debris of worlds. What power it
must be that keeps the internal fires OF
our world imprisoned, only here and there
squirting from Cotopaxi or Stromboll
or from a Vesuvius, putting Pompeii and
Herculaneum into sepulcher, but for the
most part the internal fires chained In
their cages of rock and century after CEN
fury unable to break the chain or burst
open the door! What power to keep the
component parts of the air in right pro-
portion, so that all around the world the
nations may breathe in health, the froste
and the heats hindered from working uni
vt7sal demolition Power as Isaiah says,
40 take up the isles as very little
thing''-Ceylon and Borneo and Hawaii
as though they were pebbles; power to
weigh the mountains in scales" and the
"hilis in balances"-Tenerife and the Cor
dilleras 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
again and again they have been seen red
with flame, then pale with ashes and then
scattered.
What is that power to us? asks some
one 1t is everything to us. With Him
on our side, the reconciled God, the. SYM
pathetic God, the omnipotent God, we
may DEFY all human and satanic antagon-
isms, and when we are shut in by obsta-
cles we can say, as did one of Frobisher' s
Il r. hit1n hnN
their ship was surrounded by icebergs IN
the Arctic sea, "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 your he
said, "Turn my face toward the enemy.
What challenge that was uttered by the
old missionary hero, IF God be for us,
God is the only being in the universe VINO
has power to do as He pleases. All hui
man and angelic forces have environments
There are things they cannot do, heights
they cannot scale, depths they cannot
fathom.
We get some little idea of the divine
power when we see how it burles the
proudest cities and nations. 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 few
crumblng pillars left. Sodom and Go;
morrah are covered by waters 80 beautiful
that not fish can live in them. Babylon
and Nineveh are so blotted out of exist
ence that not one uninjured shaft of their
ancient splendor remains. Nothing. but
oou1d boua ruf fho,Y, down