, 1874-04-27
PROF. SWING,

And Responds to DR.. Thomas Attack
= on Cnlvinisnl.
4 Good Word for tho Sixteenth Century.
BROAD PhEsBYTER1AN1sM:
scru1on ty rrof. Swing In tho Fourth Prcs-
byterlnn Church.
Prof. Swing preached ycstcrday In tho Fourth
Presbyterian Church to d largo congregation
Ho took Ills toxt from Ephosihns3 g. 40: - j
T. ntsn ss no. .e,s n9 III %fss %a5sn sy ;a
. Church tho manifold wisdom Of aod.. i:
Tue sermon was as follows: The thomo drawn
from this tcxt for your thoughts this morning ia
contained chiefly in the words, "manifold Wis
dom Of God" Tho other ldeas Of tho passage
. may be attended, to aftor this one thought n,ay
have been atndiel. If, us some suppose, Chris
tianity iB to be oil summed up In any ono doc
tr1no, thon tho, Bible il an unuaually largo book
for 90 simple purpose. But il God has made
tho Church. and tho Dib1e is a:mirror, In some
. Honso, Of His vast and varied thought; as to the
duty aud dcssiny Of His children, then tho Bible.
IN it's im1nenAe atoro Of truth botween Gones!s
mnnifoid 1sdo@' 81 q it, anthor: Whoever reads
ture m,1st feel how fitted thew arc to tito many
forms OF human want and character. II thero
arc minds fond Of symbols they may find, Ill
through tho Old Testament Or In tho vision OF
St. John, statement rendered almost wholly In
tho language Of Bymbolsm. When: we romem-
her tho happiness and the knowledge which the
buoyant, poetic years of youth reach through
flGureB Of epcech drawn from tho materin1 world
wo must reioice that tho book which IL to fnflu-
ence their moral career is 30 fult Of Agurnttve
language, from tho Psalms of David to tho last
chapter in John'ea Revelation. :.
lnbor haye boon wnBted over tho effort to mike
htorai prophecies out Of JOINTS poem: and to find
fulhlmont along thc path OF history, yot, not
syitAutaut!ing this long eyror tho poctto part Of
Tho world has oxtracted q groat amount of good
theology from those pnges, 40 terrific nB to the
wielcd, 80 glowing Ms to the righteous.
F.: From that book oomos the new Jerusalem, the
white throne, the river OF life, the pearly gates,
the crystal soa.
When NO remember, also, wl,at a multitude
thore is Of less poetic mud more {ormal minds,
we fool tho value Of tho gront Apostle, Who
premise aud definite conoiusiona.
In the world cverywhero there ID a group
moro limited indeed, but powerful, who stu.fy
. md man and God and to those What an ex.
haustlogs fountnn Of thonaht il onenod IN il,
tho sermons and words Of jesus. This many-
sdod wadom of God has, however aaothor sig-
particularly to refer,
, There il q manY-BdedneBs Of doctrine iust AZ
marked ~ the variety Of literary or logical style
We come along with our ardont desire to form
catochis1u or o formula that shall include and
even contain the wisdom OF God to mon. Dut
no sooner do we close up our eptimatc and prc-
pare to rejoice oyor our work, than along comes
some now student or some now sane and fominjs
II his history Of Christian doctrine. Or. Shcdd
n1l,ldea to periapt a score OF oatechisms, ali Of
which sprang up within a small olrclo Of timo.
and within i email arcs Of epaco. ali which com.
piiations ditferod from oaoh os6or. ' '0@'''
Thvyariations Of Protestants formed the theno
of larce md ouce called noworfui aruumout. 80
Of John Knox, and as varying A. nuu,orous that
he anuouncod when he published his that il auy
friends djscoYorol gomo point wherein it seemed
to come into conflict with Scripture, l,e would
of crnfeeaions Of faith must den0ond from Tia
facf that ~ Go is hic% ant, to- hro.i
for man. and that after bis most pationt effort
he mus must sit down over tho result, sayinx:
f,anht tho find out tho Almighty tn nnrfention
And, next to tho ipflnity Of God, as rendering
Incomplete tho theology OF men, comes the
wonderful ecope Of want and character
There are myriadB OF heads and myrlnde
of mipds and largo must be the volume of truth
tint shall offer food for all. There havo boen
ti,nid, d,strustful souls which have gone through
s feeding e tha ay Heore Of rnths
= been Of little force had they been repoatod to
=, the car Of the extreme ogotst. Thore haye
boon sorrowful souls such al Cowper and pen-
sive Bou!s such as Fonelon, oyer which has daily
passed in an autum1ai sigh tho breath OF only
few doctrines as il the gorgooueness Of summer
had gone by, and nought remained but for
faded leaycs to fall When Maria do Ia Motho
read the Dihlo. hhe navor nnYsoi nwnv fron tho
Nesg Testament, and seldom far from the ptory
Of Christ o. related BY st. John, for her religion,
being one Of iovo to Christ, sLo passed hor liz
actor, -,
THIS immense scope OF tho Bible and this
binilar breadth Of human lfo arc facts which
rondor It a vain attempt to gather up Chriatian-
lty Into catoohisn. aud thus treasure It up for
ouraolt and our ohlldren A !. confession Of
faith can be only an imperfect index Of tho
book. In some editions Of Homor and VIRGIL
=" there stands M argumentum at tho head Of
each canto to toll US what the next Thousand
. iines aro oil about; but oht how dead that
statement is to tho mind that knows what a
nfL =,