The Penn's Grove record., 1901-06-21
DIR, TALlIAGES SERMON
SUNDAYS DISCOURSE BY THE NOTED
DIVINE.


DR.. TRlmage raises high 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 underestimate
The least understood being in the uni
verse is God. B,asphemous 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 a language tiguratlve. He
is Light" or "Dayspring From on High"
or He is a 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
for the purpose OF making a system of re-
ligious belief, they first OF all wanted an
answer to the question, "Who is sod"
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
his prayer by saying. 80 God, Thou art a
spun AtlllllAtNy NkNithAl I'll hlA|AiuitENhi44N
in Thy being, wisdom, power, holiness,
justice, goodness and truth That first
sentence Of Gillespie's prayer was unani-
mously adopted by the assembly as the
best definition Of God. But, after all, it
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 real
ize of God in the providential world we
are forced to cry out with Job in my text:
10, these are parts Of His ways. But
how little a portion OF Him is heard?
But the thunder 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 discussed
upon the power of God, the attribute Of
omnipotence. And we have all seen dem
onstration of Gods almightiness. Ii might
have been far out at sea when in an
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 lie
could do with the l~iqhtnings. 1t might
have been in South America when God
showed what lie could do with the earth
quakes. 1t might have been among the
Alps when God showed what He could
do with the ava.anches. Our cheek was
blanched, our breath stopped, our pulses
fluttered, our whole being was terTorized,
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
1rOrl1 upvNrD-ri ,ritk tha QUA ,ti,i4i
rolls through immensely the entire solar
system and all the considerations and gal
Gxies and the universe2 The mightiest
intellect OF man would give away if for a
moment there came upon it the full ap-
probation Of what omuipotence 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 under
stand:'
We try to satisfy ourselves with saying:
ut is natural law that controls things.
Gravitatiou is at work; ceutripetal 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
ANsAtA1 VIZ AAAAN NA1Nhp hAANAk ANA AAAa
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 CotopaNi or a Stromboli
or from a Nesuvins, putting Pompeii and
Herculaneum into s%epulcher, 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 frosts
and the heats hindered from working uni
versal demolitionl Power, as Isaiah saws,
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"-Tenerife and the Cor
dilleras. 10 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, rs from the ob%servatories
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 0mnipotent 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
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,
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 you?" he
said, "rurn my face toward the enemy
What a challenge that was uttered by the
old missionary hero, "If God he for us,
who can be against u.s." Think of it!
God is the only being in the universe who
has power to do as He pleases. All hui,
man and angelic forces have environments
There are things they cannot do, height,
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
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
crumbling pillars left. Sodom and Go.
morrah are covered by waters so beautiful
that not a 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 hui
omnipotence could have put them down
and put them under. The a~ntediluviau
world was able to send to the postdilu
Wan world only one ship, with a very
small passenger list. Omnipotence first
rolled the seas over the land and then
told them to so back to their usual chan
nels as rivers and lakes and oceans. Al
0%mnipotent command the waters pounc.
ing upon their prey and at Omnipotent
command sinking back into their appro.
pirate places. BY such rehearsal we try
to arouse our appreciation of what omnip.
otence is, and our reverence is excited
and our alteration is intensified, but after
all we find ourselves at the foot of a
mountain we cannot climb, lowering over
a depth we cannot fathom. at the rim Of a
circumference we cannot compass, and
we feel like first gong down on our knees
and then like falling fiat upon our faces
as we exclaim; 10, these are parts OF
His ways. But how little a portion il
heard of Him. But the thunder of His
power who can understand
So all those who have put together sys.
ems OF theology have discussed also
about the wisdom of God. Think Of a wis.
dom which can know the end from the