The Calhoun chronicle. [volume] (Grantsville, W. Va.) 1883-1984, 1901-08-06
THE NATURE OF GOD.
.r. Talmage Expectations OF the Day
When That Which is Only Dimly
Seen Will BE Fully Revealed.
Evidence OF Divine Power.-Gods Infnite owe
Ibis Nature Never Changes
tCopyright 1911

-. ,oih1ke raises nlgh expectations of
the day when that which is now only
dimly seen will be fully revealed; 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 understands?
The least understood being in tho mi.
verse Is God. Blasphemous would be any
attempt by painting or sculpture TO rep
resent Him: Egyptian hieroglyphs tried
10 suggest Him by putting the figure of
an eye upon sword, implying that God
sees and rules, but how imperfect the sug-
gestlon! When we speak OF Him 1t is al
most always IN a language figurative. He
Is Light or "Dayspring From on High"
or lie IS High Tower" or the "Foun-
tain OF Living Waters" His splendor Is
so great that no man can see Him and
i've. When the group of great theolog-
lans assembled in Westminster Abbey
Tor the purpose of making a system of re-
hgious belief they first OF all wanted an
answer TO the question, WHO is Gody"
No one desired to undertake the answer
ing OF that overmastering question. They
hnally concluded to give the task to the
youngest man in the assembly who hap
pened to. be Rev. George Gillespie He
consented to undertake il on the condi-
ton that they would first unite with him
IN prayer for divine direction. He began
ms prayer by saying, 20 God, Thou art
spirit, infinite, eternal and Interchangeable
IN my being, wisdom, power, holiness,
sentence of Gillespie's prayer was unani-
mously adopted by the assembly as the
best definition of God But, after all, it
was only partial success, and after
everything that language can do when
put to the utmost strain and all we can
sec of God in the natural world and real
lie 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 portion of Him is heard!
MT hn hun aw nf N.-
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 cf
omnipotence. And we have all seen dem
onstration of Gods almightiness 1t might
have been far out at sea when in an
equnoctiai 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. 1t might
have been in South America when God
showed what He could do with the earth.
4qAKes, IL might nave been among the
Alps when God showed what He could
do with the avalanches. Our cheek was
planched, our breath stopped, our pulses
fiuttered, our whole being was terrorized,
but we had seen only an instance of di-
vine strength What was the power of
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 aud for 5000
years, and in formative and incomplete
shape for hundreds of thousands OF years?
What is tlNt power that sustains our
world comp red 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
moment there came upon it the full ap-
probation 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 ua1er-
standE
We try to satisfy ourselves with saying:
ut 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 or doing things. At every point in
the universe 1t Is Gods direct and con-
tinuous power that controls and harmon
ICES and sustains. That power Withdrawn
one instant would make the planetary cys-
TEN and all the worlds which astronomy
reveals one universal wreck, bereft hemis-
pheres dismantled sunsets, dead constel-
lations. debris OF worlds. What power it
must be that keeps the internal fires of
our world imprisoned, only here and there
squirting from a Cotopaxi or n Stromboli
or from Nesuvius, putting PompeIi and
Herculaneum into Gepulcher, 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 tie
component parts OF the air in right pro-
portion, so that all around the world the
nations may breathe in health, the frosts
and the heats hindered from working uni
versai demolition! Power, as Isaiah says
"to 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 -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 70 create worlds and power
to destroy them, as from the observatories
again and again they have been seen red
with flame, then pale with ashes an then
scattered.
What is that power to US? asks some
one. IL IS everything TO rs With Him
on our side, the reconciled God, the sym
pathetic God. the omnipotent God, we
may defy al human and satanic antagon
isms, and when we are shut in by Obsta
cles we can say az did one Of Frobisher'.
men when the sailor was describing how
their ship was surrounded by icebergs II
the Arctic sea- THE ice was strong, buI
God was stronger than the ice" And
whatever opposition we may have, oul
God is mightier than the opposition. Al
right with Cod, we may have the courage
of the general dying on the battlefield
lie asked to be turned, and when the,
said. Which way shall we turn you" n,
said f"Tur1 my f1oo toward tho ouornw