A man capable of being happy in such employment, could of course take great delight in reading even the genealogies of the Old Testament. It is very easy to see what a glow of joy would naturally over- spread the face of an angel while reading the history of the Jewish wars, how the seraphim and cherubim would clasp their rosy palms in ecstasy over the fate of Korah and his company, and what laughter would wake the echoes of the New Jerusalem as some one told again the story of the children and the bears; and what happy groups, with folded pinions, would smilingly listen to the 109th Psalm. [Illustration: 371] An orthodox "state of mind" THE TALMAGIAN CATECHISM. _As Mr. Talmage delivered the series of sermons referred to in these interviews, for the purpose of furnishing arguments to the young, so that they might not be misled by the sophistry of modern infi-delity, I have thought it best to set forth, for use in Sunday schools, the pith and marrow of what he has been pleased to say, in the form of_ A SHORTER CATECHISM. _Question_. Who made you? _Answer_. Jehovah, the original Presbyterian. _Question_. What else did he make? _Answer_. He made the world and all things. _Question_. Did he make the world out of nothing? _Answer_. No. _Question_. What did he make it out of? _Answer_. Out of his "omnipotence." Many infidels have pretended that if God made the universe, and if there was nothing until he did make it, he had nothing to make it out of. Of course this is perfectly absurd when we remember that he always had his "omnipo- tence and that is, undoubtedly, the material used. 364 _Question_. Did he create his own "omnipotence"? _Answer_. Certainly not, he was always omnipo- tent. _Question_. Then if he always had "omnipotence," he did not "create" the material of which the uni- verse is made; he simply took a portion of his "omnipotence" and changed it to "universe"? _Answer_. Certainly, that is the way I under- stand it. _Question_. Is he still omnipotent, and has he as much "omnipotence" now as he ever had? _Answer_. Well, I suppose he has. _Question_. How long did it take God to make the universe? _Answer_. Six "good-whiles." _Question_. How long is a "good-while"? _Answer_. That will depend upon the future dis- coveries of geologists. "Good-whiles" are of such a nature that they can be pulled out, or pushed up; and it is utterly impossible for any infidel, or scien- tific geologist, to make any period that a "good-while" won't fit. _Question_. What do you understand by "the "morning and evening" of a "good-while"? _Answer_. Of course the words "morning and 365 "evening" are used figuratively, and mean simply the beginning and the ending, of each "good-while." _Question_. On what day did God make vegetation? _Answer_. On the third day. _Question_. Was that before the sun was made? _Answer_. Yes; a "good-while" before. _Question_. How did vegetation grow without sun- light?