Virginia citizen. (Irvington, Va.) 1891-1921, 1906-04-20
Calnnage
Sermon
by Rev.
Frank De Witt Talmase. d. D.


human misconceptions of God and bis
promises lead us into error and that
the remedy is simple faith and obedI-
ence. The text is John iv. As. Except
ye see signs and wonders. ye will not
believe"
- We are always demanding gospel
proof. Like Gideon of old, we want
our faith bolstered up by the wet
fleece. Like doubling Thomas. we i
want to see Christ in the flesh and to
thrust our fingers into the torn palms
of the hands and into the wounded side
before we will believe that he is risen
from the dead. When any fact about
God or the prophecies of the Bible is
told us we at once say, "Give us the
evidence or we will not believe" Now,
1 want to show you not only that faith
is the Substance of things hoped for,
the evidence of things not SEEM" but
that we should believe and trust God
and accept his words and promises.
even when there are no signs and won.
ders visible to confirm our faith. May
God help us as. in his name, we enter
upon this most important and vital
subject
Signs and wonders theological have
come to us. God and his attributes
pass all the realms OF human expiana-
ton. The story is told that one day
Michael Angelo entered the studio OF
Raphael. You know that the Floren-
tine master was nearly decade older
than the painter OF the Sistine Madon.
ma. As an artist who had won bis
spurs, he had right TO give advice to
the younger man. Michael Angelo stood
for some time before one OF Raphaers
easels. The young man at this time
was absent from his studio. Angelo
lifted n pencil and drew the curves OF
the figure upon the canvas along broad
er lines Then under the picture ne
wrote this one word three times: Am.
plifyi Amplify! Amplify-' You who
have stood before the wonderful crea-
tions of the architect of St Peters OF
Rome know what he meant by that
word He meant Increase the concep-
ton of your subjects" oh, Raphael
knot the muscles OF your models
arms and make swarthIer necks and
broader shoulders and more leonine
countenances. The taunting Philistine
is not 4 dwarf, but giant. The mas
ter builders of history are not pygmies
but Titans. Neptunes trident does moi
rule mill pond, but has for its realm
the mighty deep Amplifyl Ampiifyi
Amplifyl Good advice that for Raph
ael, in an artistic sense. Good advice
for us In theological sense. We have
received certain revelations given in
reference TO Gods personality. but we
must not stop with these revelations.
We must be continually charging out
ideas OF God. We must try to gain q
conception OF him greater than our
eyes can see and greater than our hui
man lntellects can explain.
We must amplify our belief OF Gods
personality in reference to his eternal
existence. The first verse of the first
chapter OF Genesis says, in the begin
ming God created the heaven and the
Garth" But that beginning" simply
alludes to the creation OF the world
and the planetary system. Friend. did
not God exist before that? "Oh, yes,"
you answer; God has always existed"
But what do you mean by "aIways?'
follow Hugh Miller, the Scottish ge-
lologist, in his Testimony OF the
Rocks" and In his Footprints OF the
days OF creation were not six days of
twenty-four hours each, but that each
day represented ages upon ages of
time. This conception OF the time of
the creation was we'll expressed by the
psalmist when he said, "A thousand
years in thy sight are but as yesterday
when 1t is past, and rs watch in the
night" In the creation OF the world
the seconds OF time are centuries. and
the minutes are millenniums, the hours
are eras, and the days are ages upon
ages. IL you go and stand by the falls
OF Niagara, the scientists will tell you
that the falling waters wear away
about six feet OF rock every year. Then
they Will take you for miles down the
RAPIDS toward Lake Ontario. and show
You where those rocks have gradually
been worn away by the falling waters
OF thousands OF years. Next these ge,
ologists will open the leaves OF the
rocks and tell you that those rocks
which have been worn away took ages
upon ages to form. Then. after we 20
back thousands upon thousands of
years to the creation OF the world, you
are not yet at the beginning OF Gods
fore the world was.
What Eternal Means.
What the eternal existence OF God
means cannot be better illustrated than
by the following words OF NJ. Camille
Flammarion. the celebrated astrouo-
mer. What this French writer says
about the heavens we can easily apply
TO the duration of time: let us imag-
Inc that we sail million years with
the velocity of light. $4,000 miles a
second. Are we at the confines of the
visible universe? See the black i'm
menslties we must cross, But yonder
new stars are liz up In the depth Of the
heavens. We push on toward them;
we reach them-again million years.
new revelations, new starry splendors,
new systems, new, worlds. new earths
What. never an end? We are at the
vestibuie OF the infinite. We have adj
vanced but single step. We are al.
WAYS at the same Doint-the centc. ev.
eryWnere, the circumference nowhere
re see before us the infinite OF which
the study Is not yet begun. We have
seen nothing. We recoil In terror. We
might fall In a straight line during a
whole eternity. nor ever reach the bot
tom. 1t is infinite in all directions"
So wherever we go into the past let
rs always think OF God as farther back.
Not only must we amplify our ideas
In reference TO Gods eternal existence.
but we must also amnlffv them I'm raf