Milford chronicle., 1906-04-20
Calmaoe
Sermon
BY Rev.
Frank ne Witt TallnaGe. D. D.

Los Angeles. Cal, April 15-In this
sermon the preacher shows how our
human misconceptions Of God and his
promises lead US into error and that
the remedy is simple faith and Obedi-
euce. The text is John iv, 48, Except
We see signs and wonders, ye VIII 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
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, 'SGive tus the
evidence or we viii not believe" Now.
1 want to show you not only that faith
is the substance of things hoped for,
the evidence of things not seen," 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 explana-
Gion. 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 his
spurs, he had a right to give advice to
the younger man. Michael Angelo stood
for some time before one of Raphaels
seasels. The yOuEg man at this time
was absent from his studio. Angelo
lifted a pencil and drew the curves of
the figure upon the canvas along broad
,er lines. Then under the picture he
wrote this one word three times: Am
pIify! 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 dwarf, lBut a giant. The mas
ter builders of history are not pygmies.
but Titans. NepEune'si trident does not
rule a mill pond, but has for its realm
the mighty deep. .Amplify! Amplifyl
Amplify! Good advice that for Raph-
ael. in an artistic sense. Good advice
for us In theological sense. We nave
received certain revelations given IN
reference to Gods personality, but we
must not stop with these revelations
We must be continually enlarging our
ideas Of God. We must try to gain
conception of him greater than ouf
eyes can see and greater than our hui
man fntelleets can explain.
We must amplify our belief of Gods
personality in reference to his eternal
existence. The firxt verse of the hrst
chapter Of Genesis says, I'm the begin
ming God created the heaven and the
earth" But that beginning" simply
alIudes 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 "alwaysF
follow Hugh Miller, the Scottish ge-
ologist. in his Testimony Of the
Rocks" and In his Footprints Of the
Creator" and he tells me that the six
DAYS OF creation were not six days OF
twenty-four hours eaGh, but that each
day represented ages upon ages OF
time. This conception of the time OF
the creation was well expressed by the
psalmist when he said, "A thousand
years in thy sight are but as yesterday
when it is past. and as a 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. If you go and stand by the rails
of Niagara, the scientists will tell you
that the falling waters wear away
about six feet Of rock every year Ihen
they will take you for miles down the
rapids, toward Lake Ontario, and show
Won 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 go
back thousands upon thousands Of
years to the creation of the world, you
are not yet at the beginning of Gods
eternal existence, for God existed be-
fore the world was.
What Eternal Means.
What the eternal existence OF GOD
means cannot be better illustrated than
by the following words of N. Camille
Flammarion. the celebrated asrono-
mer. What this French writer says
about the heavens we can easily apply
- 4I,o 1,.,.- ftor, Of ffrr1n. 81 of lis imqg-