The Hickman courier. [volume] (Hickman, Ky.) 1859-current, 1901-06-21

raises high expectations OF the day
when that which is now only dimly
seen will be fully revealed; text. Job
20. Il: 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
universe is God. Blasphemous would
he any attempt by painting or sculp-
ture 10 represent Him. Egyptian
hieroglyphs tried to suggest Him 10y
putting the figure Of an eye upon
sword, implying that God sees and
rules, but how imperfect the sug-
gestion! When we speak of Him, it
is almost always in language figura-
tive. He is Light" or "Dayspring
from on High" or He is High
Tower" or the Fountain of Living
Waters" His splendor is so great
that no man can see Him and live.
When the group of great theologians
assembled in Westminster abbey for
the purpose of making a system of
religious belief, they first of all want
ed an answer TO the question: who
Is God2" No one desired TO under
take the answering of that overmas-
tering question. They finally con-
cluded TO give the task to the young
est man in the assembly. who hap
pened 10 be Rev. George Gillespie. He
consented TO undertake it on the con-
dition that they would first unite
with him in prayer for Divine direc-
ton. He began his prayer by say
an 81 -
finite, eternal and Interchangeable in
Thy being, wisdom. power. holiness,
Justice. goodness and truth" That
first sentence of Gillespie's prayer
was unanimously adopted by the as
sembly as the best definition of God.
But, after all, il was only a partial
success, and after everything that
iangus &c can do when put TO the ut
most strain and all we can see of God
in the natural world and realize of
God in the providential world we are
forced TO cr.- out with JOB in my
text: 10, these are parts of His
ways. But how little a portion is
heard Of Him? But the thunder o.
His power who can understand"
Archbishop TiIlotson and DIR. Dick
and Timothy Dwight and Jonathan
Edwards of the past and the might
lest theologians of this young cen
fury have discoursed upon the power
of God, the attribute of omnipotence.
And we have all seen demonstrations
of Gods almightiness. 1t might have
been far out at sea when in an
equinoctial gale God showed what He
= L -.
have been in an August thunder
storm in the mountains when God
showed what He could do with the
lightningS. IL 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 90 with the avalanches. Our
check was blanched, our breath
stopped, our pulses fiuttered. our
whole being was tcrrorized. but we
had seen only an instance of Divine
strength. What was the power of
that storm compared with the power
which holus 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 forma-
tive and incomplete shape for hun
dreds 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 cons relations and
galaxies and the universe? The
4
give way if for moment there came
upon it the full appreciation of what
omnipotence is. =
We try to satisfy ourselves with
saying: lit is natural law that con-
trolls things, gravitation is at work,
centripetal and centrifugal forces re-
spond 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 har-
monies and sustains. That power
withdrawn one instant would make
the planetary system and all the
worlds which astronomy reveals one
universal wreck. bereft hemispheres.
dismantled sunsets, dead constella-
tions. debris of worlds. What power
it must be that keeps the internal
fires of our world imprisoned-only
here and there squirting from a Coto-
paxi, or Stromboli. or from Vesuvi-
as, 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 proportion, 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, Ito take up the isles as very
little thing" Ceylon and Borneo and
Hawaii as though they were pebbles;
power 10 weigh the mountains in
scales" and the hills in balances
-Tenerife and the Cordilleras.
To move rock we must have lever
aud screw and great machinery, but
God moves the world with nothing
but a word; power 20 create worlds
and power to destroy them. rs from