The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1901-06-26
TALMAGEs SERMON.
Dr.. Talmage's Discourse OF Gods
Way Of Doing.

II lnlS OIsCOOISo IL, ASIAaSc tsiSeo AlSH
expectations Of the day when that which is
now only dinly seen viii be fully revealed
text, Job XVI, a: "Lo, these sre parts Of
his ways. But how little portion is heard
ofhim? But the thunder Of his power who
can understand"
The least understood being in the uni
verse IS God. Blaspheuous would ne any
attempt by painting or sculpture to repre-
sent him. Egyptian hieroglyphics tried to
suggest him by putting the figure of az eye
upon 8 sword, i'm plying that God sees ana
rules, but how imperfect the suggestion!
When We spesk of him, j: is almost always
IN language fgurativa. He is Light or
"Dayspri1g From on High" or he is High
Tower or the Fountain of Living Waters
His splendoc is 80 great that no man can see
him alive. When the group Of great theo-
logisns assembled in Westminster abbey for
the purpose ofnaking system of religious
belief, they first of all wsnted an answer to
the question, .Who is Go6?'' No one de.
sired to undertake the answ ering Of that
overnastering question They finally con-
clu6ed to give the task to the youngest man
in the assembly, who happened to be Rev
George Gillespie. He consented to under,
take It on the condition tnst they would first
unite with him in prayer for di7ile 6irec-
ton. He began his prayer by saying, go
God, thou art spirit, Infinite eternal and
Interchangeable in thy being, wisdom, power,
holiness, justice, goodness and truth That
first sentence of Gillespie prayer was unani-
nously 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 an 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: s'Lo, these are parts Of his ways. But
how little portion is heard Of him? But
the thunder Of his power who can under
stsnd?'
Archbishop Tllotson and Dr.. Dick and
Timothy Dwight and Jonathan Edwards Of
the psst and the mightiest theologians of this
young century have dlscoursed upon the
power Of God, the attribute Of omnipotence
And We have FL seen demonstrations Of God 8
almightiness. It Z ight have been far out at
sea when in an eQuinoctial gale God showed
what he could do with the waters. 1t might
low AVVA - Oh SaNSAst L4O4OSISlOIW LII lAC
mountains when God showed what he could
do with the fghtnings. 1t might have been
IN South America when God showed what he
could do with the earthquakes. It might
have been among the Alps when God showed
what he could do With the svalanches. Our
cheek was blanched, ocr breath stopped,
our pulses duttered, our whole be
ing was terrorized, but we had seen only an
instsnce of divine strength. What was the
pcZer Of that storm compared with the
power EMch holds sll the oceans? What was
the power that shook the hills com pa7ed
with the power that wings the earth through
al the centuries and for 5000 years and in
8 formative and incomplete shape for hun
dreds Of Thousands Of years? What is that
power that sus:sins our world compared with
the power which rolls through immensity
the entire solar system and a1 the constell-
ations and galaIies and the universe? The
miShEest intellect of msn would give way If
for moment there came upon it the full
appreciation Of what omnipotence is. What
you and see and hear Of divine strength
are only 'tparts Of his ways. But how little
portion is heard Of him. But the thund r
OF his power who can understand
We try to satisfy ourselves with saying,
s'It Is natural law that controls things, gravi-
tstion is st 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 continuous power thst COZ
trolls and harnonizs and sustains. That
power Withdrawn one instant would make
the planetary system and all The worlds
which astronomy reveals one universal
wreck, bereft hemisphe-es, dismantled sun
sets, dead consultations. debris Of worlds.
What power it must be that keeps the inter-
nal fires Of our world imprisoned-only here
snd there squirting from Cotopaxi, or
StromboG, or from Vesuyius, putting Pom
pen and Herculaneun into sepulcher, but
for the most part the internal fires chained
in their csges Of rock, and century af:er CEN
tury unable to break the chain or burst open
the door! What power to keep the COM
ponent parts Of the air in right proportion,
80 that all around the world the nations
msy breathe in health, the frosts and the
heats hindered from working universal
demolition! Power, as Isaiah says, 'sto take
up the isles as very little thing" Ceylon
and Bornec and Hawaii IS though they were
SSSS-VS, = w I4C AV0AScAIS -!
scales all tx hills IN balances '-Tenerife
and the Cordillelas. To move rock We
uust have lever and screw and great
machine y, but God moves the world With
nothing but word; power to create worlds
and power to destroy them, as from the
observstores again and agaia they have been
seen red with fame, then psle with ashes
and then scattered.
What is that power 10 US? asks some one.
It IS everything to Us. With him on cur side,
the reconciled God, the sympathetic God, the
ononipotent God, We may defy al bIman and
satsni, antsgonisms. And when We are
shut in by obstacles We can gay as did one of
Frobisher's men when the sailor was describ.
ing how their ship was surro lnded by ice
bergs IN Arctic sea, '.The ice was strong, bu.
God was stronger than the ice," and what
ever opposition We may have our God is
mighter than the opposition. All right with
God We msy 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.
elf God be for US, who can be against us?''
Goo Is the only oeIng ID the universe VINO
has power to do as pieases. All human and
angelic forces have environments. There
are things they cannot do; heights they can
not scale; depths they cannot fathom.
Whatever their might and veIocities they
are servants Of omnipotence, which has no
Gmitssion, no hindernent and no insur-
mountable obstacle. Martin Luther asked
Saxon peasant to recite the creed, and the
peasant began, 81 believe in God, the Father,
Almighty "Stop," said Luther. "What is
Almighty 81 do not know" replied the
peasant. Then Luther said: "You are
right, my dear fellow. Neither nor al the
learned men can tell what is omnipotence.
Human power, however great, tires and
must rest, but onnipotence never wearies,
and q quadrilion Of years from now win be
as fresh as at this moment.
We get some little idea of the divine power