The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1872-04-25
SUNDAY.
ST. MATTHEW'S EPISCOPAL CHURCH--"pHg
DIFFICULTIES OF sCRIPTUREs''--
SERMON BY THE RECTOR
REV K. A. BRADLEY EE@&E Z t8

| REV E. BRADLEY l9&l. " 3
An impressive discourse was preached in ST.
Matthew's Episcopal Church. on Sunday morn
'ng April 14th., by the Rev 4. A. Bradley, on
The Difficulties of Scripture, or no excuse for
delaying the work OF Savaton'' The rev gen
| tleman announced his text from the Cor xiii !:
p. Now we see through a glass darkly.'
satan's power is best seen when ne makes traps
for mems souls out OF the mysteries Of religion
Entanglipg them in a net OF hows, what's, and
why's about things we only see through a glass
darkly.' Satan makes men cay, il Christ had only
taken away the veil before the holy of holes, and
let men look into the gecrets of Heaven they
would have had no difficulty in believing. This Is
simply delusion for then men would only hear
facts, the of things would be az far as
beyond them. Men then as now would say. "a
can't answer that, how can believe. therefore
will not obey" The final conclusion of thei'
various logic is nothing short ofHell.
| 1t il poor logic ; for st Paul adm ts its whole
point, in the text The Apostle is illuatrating our
present condition. We are like Chi ldren linking.
of the things ia Gods other world just as our boys
and girls think about the things in this world
We only see the invisible things of religion
through glass - By glass, St. Paul means .
mirror. The Corinthians, to whom he is writing,
made them Of metal and Of course the surface
was uneven. The image of anything seen in such
a glass" would be very uncertain and dim The
Bible, Nature, the Church, the Sacraments. and the
Ministry are the different surfaces of the mirror
and in them we see darkly, dimly the image Of
Gods personality attributes, and work for Saliva
ton. We could not see the things at all without
this "gass of revelations ; and that we have
their image is sure proof of their existence. and
we can see enough to know and do our duty St
Paul says we see now datkly, not fully nor plain
ly SO it is bad logic TO refuse to begin the work
of religion because there things we cannot
understand. and see through
our Lord Jesus Christ admits the same point
himself His business was practical He did not
come to satisfy phiosophic specnlations TO tha
properties of being. the seeds and the rea sons #
things in the other world He worked with i'm
measurable forces and facts; but He spake 20
simply He stretched himself on the cross before
angels and men but yelled the explanation Of
what we could see behind depths of Incompetent
sible love.
/ The Bible, St. Paul, and Christ say plainly there
are things about religion hard to be understood,
that we cannot see through. 1t ia no discovery of
the skeptc that there are difficulties in -crpture
i'm religion.
Men ought not to be more unreasonable with
God and their souls than they are with their fellow
men When two men argue, any point admitted
is dropped # men were fair with God they
would drop this objection that they cans see nto
( something's. God admits The point. It is one
of the greatest mysteries to me that men viii let
Satan deude them into resting upon such an en-
| cuse for refusing salvation. When are so
| deuded they go to deny the truth which they
see darkly, and next they deny that the words #
the bible are really inspired They cut out verse
and chapter Iuthessly. They strain their weak
sight to see through the mirror of revelation and
| ike impatient children, at last dash ont their
hands. The divine glass is shivered into frag-
ments and they stand gazing into the ruin hope
lesply questioning. The next point is, that these
obscurities could rot be avoided. Any sorl of re
liglon must begin with an idea of God. Now no
words that God could inspire u man to write
would enable US to sec him clearly. His attri
butes are infote, and o us there must always be
a mystery about the infinite. You strip the deity
of his native sublimity when you produce such an
! image Of him as be circed by the little pupil
of the human eye. That being would uOt b.
| God whom man could fully understand The
| fact that men do not and cannot analyze the
| character Of Jesus cannot agree in their compre-
tensions of it, is mighty proof of his identity
with the Father. How could the spirit be so de
| scribed that we could see him +? What attraction
would the Infinite joys of Heaven possess if they
could be all mapped out by the geography Of
earth?
The third point is, we do not see clearly because
we cannot {: q blind man can't distinguish colors.
The well is too deep for our rope A child cant
understand the analogy, the principle,
We are always children towards God. The better
world is too far above us for our poor sight to see
all it's radiant beauty for our poor ears to hear all
| its avshing melody. With so much we ca not
understand all about us, in the world of nature,
and in ourselves it would be strange indeed if
there were no mystery in all the rich exuberance
of heavens glories. Oh the folly Of man who re
fuses the untold benefits of religion because o.
The hings in it we cannot now comprehend.
The believer glories in these abysses of di, inc
truth because they prove TO his soul its divinity
and being child of God he is willing to be lea
| and taught, content to sec the way through this
life only through glass darkly. The holy secrets
of Heaven are the foundation OF his faith. There
would be no chance for believing ifhe could cy-
| pher everything about God all out on the little
slate Of his understanding.
Then fourthly the fact that We do not see clearly
now is pledge that we shall have greater powers
by and by. God is not mocking us with glimpses
of things he never means to disclose to us. five
are children now we shall be men by and by. If
we ak by faith and not by sight now,we shall rise
to sublime rank among the orders of intelligen-
ces and stand near the very centre of de ty, with