Homilist Isaiah 40:28-31 Have you not known? have you not heard, that the everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth, faints not… Power is a faculty for producing changes and performing works. There are three kinds or manifestations of power — physical, intellectual, and moral. I go into St. Paul's Cathedral when some grand religious service is performed, the choral part is of the highest order, the sermon is delivered by the grandest preacher of the day. Here I receive an impression of three manifestations of power. The bringing together and adjusting the stone, marble, iron, timber that compose the enormous structure, impress me with physical power-power to act on material bodies. In the architectural symmetry of the whole I am impressed with the intellectual power — power of planning and contriving so as to give utility, stability, and beauty to the whole. In the sacred music that floats around me and the eloquent sermon that is addressed to me, my nature is brought under the influence of moral power — power that rouses the conscience, that stirs the deepest sentiments of the soul. Out in open Nature these three kinds of manifestations of power appeal to man. God's power is inexhaustible in all these phases. I. HIS PHYSICAL POWER IS INEXHAUSTIBLE. This will appear if we consider — 1. The nature of His work in the material department. He is the Originator of all. 2. The effect of His work in the material department. 3. The constancy of His work in the material department. II. HIS INTELLECTUAL POWER IS INEXHAUSTIBLE. Intellectual force is as visible in nature to a thought. ful eye as physical. Science shows that everything — the minute and the vast, the proximate and the remote, is formed, sustained, and directed according to plan. "In Thy book all my members were written." Think of the boundless variety amongst all the flowers and trees that have ever grown. Amongst all the men of all the generations that are gone, have there been two in face and figure exactly alike? Here is intellectual fertility! The little intellectual force of contrivance possessed by the bee or the bird is very soon exhausted, Man, too, soon reaches a culminating point in inventive skill. But not so with God. But in the creations of the spiritual world the same inexhaustibleness of intellectual energy is displayed. Each spirit involves something of a new plan. On this little planet fresh souls appear every hour. III. HIS MORAL POWER IS INEXHAUSTIBLE. 1. Look at His moral power in nature. Nature is brimful of the moral power of God; power appealing to the souls of men. 2. Look at His moral power in the Gospel. What is moral power? "Truth and grace." (Homilist.) Parallel Verses KJV: Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? there is no searching of his understanding. |
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