The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1901-07-03
DIR, TALMAGES SERMON
SUNDAYS DISCOURSE BY THE NOTED
DIVINE,
Subject: The Nature of God - The Least
Understood Being in the Universe -
Evidence of Divine Power - Gods In
finite Love-His Nature Never Changes

Evidence of Divine Power - Gods In
finite Love-His Nature Never Changes
Copyright 1901
WASHINGTON, D. Gin this discourse
DR.. Talmage raises high expectations of
dimly seen will be fully revealed; text,
JOB XVI, Il: "Lo, these are parts of His
ways: But how little a portion is heard
of Him? But the thunder of His power
who can understand"
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, hut how imperfect the sug-
most @ always in language hguratiye:. He
is Light" OF "Dayspring From on High"
or. He is "High Tower" OF 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
for the purpose of making system of re-
ligious belief, they first Of all wanted an
answer to the question, "Who is God?"
No one desired to undertake the answer
ing of that oyermastering question. They
youngest man in the assembly, who hap
pened to be Rev. George Gillespie. He
consented to undertake it on the condi-
tion 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, eternal and Interchangeable
in Thy being, wisdom, power, holiness,
justice, goodness and truth" That first
sentence of Gillespie's prayer was unani-
moasly adopted by the assembly as the
best definition of God. But, after all, it
everything that language can do when
put to the utmost strain and. all we can
see 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:
"Lo, these are parts of His ways. But
how little a portion of Him is heard?
But the thgnder of His power who can
understands"
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
have been far out at sea when in an
equipoctial 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 lightnings. It might
have been in South America when God
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
Auttered, 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 immensity 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 ap-
probation of what omnipotence is. What
you and I see and hear of divine strength
little a portion is heard of Him! But the
thunder of His power who can under
stand"
cit is natural law that controls things.
Gravitation is at work; centripetal 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 con-
tinuous power that controls and harmon
ICES and sustains. That power withdrawn
one instant would make the planetary sys-
tenn and all the worlds which astronomy
reveals one universal wreck, befeft hemls-
pheres, dismantled sunsets, dead constel-
iations, 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 Strombo!l
or from a Vesuvius, putting Pompeli and
Herculaneum into sepulcher, but for the
most part the internal fires chained in
their cages Of rock and century after CEN
tury 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 frosts
versal demolition! Power, as Isaiah says,
"to 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
"hills in balance" 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
to destroy them, as from the observatories
again and again they have been seen red
with fame, 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 reconcled 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 8
men when the sailor was describing how
their ship was surrounded by icebergs, in
the Arctic sea, "The, ice was strong, but
God was stronger than the ice" And,
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?" he
said, "Turn my face toward the enemy"
What challenge that was uttered by the
old missionary hero, "If God be for us,
who can be against u.s." Think OF it!
God is the only being in the universe who
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 buries the
proudest cities and nations. Ancient
Memphis it has ground up until many of
it's 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
crumbling pillars left. Sodom and Go.
morrah are covered by waters SO deathful
that not fish can live in them. Baby lon
and Nineveh are 80 blotted out Of exist
ence that not one uninjured shaft of their
ancient splendor remains. Nothing. but
nmninntence could have put them down