National Republican., 1877-04-30
THE WORLD WITHOUT GOD.
Dr. Rankin at the Congregational Gnu

Dr. Rankin at the Congregational Church. |
At the Congregational Church yesterday
morning, Dr. Rankin preached from Ephesians
iI:la; "Havins no hope, and without God in the
world" In the introduction the speaker said that
there could be nothing more pitiful than the con-
ditions Of the Pagan nations Of antiquity Just
before the coming Of Christ; . condition OF blank
despair which their wisest men, their great mag
mates In philosophy were fools: living for things
temporal; deifying and worshiping nature, which
vas helpless To bring them back to 9od; as
physician gives up patient, whose case 10 hope
fess, to indulge his cravings whatever they may
be; 90 lived and died these proud people, who
have sent down to Us their wonderful master
pieces In poetry, philosophy and art. Up out Of
sueh depths OF darkness aud desolation, out OF
this nature worship, tho gospel had brought the
Christians at Ephesus.
This question includes In It the fact that to be
hopeless Is to be Goddess All men live for hope,
more for what shall bs or what they hope may be
In the future than for what really IL. This Is the
mainspring OF all human effort the Inspiration OF
all labors and achievements IN the world, and
that is Why old age IL often 20 desolate, because
hope Is gone for 1t hence It Is said In Ecclesi-
Astics. s'desire shall fail"
We are all constituted prisoners Of hope, and
this Is the condition Of earth. Though we may
be surrounded with all the blessings OF home eul-
ture Of art cf everything beautiful and eievatinK,
yet they are OF earth-earthy. And when at
night man isolates himself from the all, when
he withdraws into that privacy which 80 often
overshadous the soul lust before the sleep Of the
body, as though the soul sought to gather up her
skirts for some possible Journey, when the echoes
have died out from the haunts Of business, when
the halls Of pleasure are hushed or deserted,
when the pleasures OF domestic life have failed Ia
reach the depths OF his nature, and when he turn,
away from the great minds Of the past and close,
up the book he has been reading with sigh, at
is not In them" he, himself, eonfesses It.
The Paimist said, "Hopc thou in God" Hut
strictly speaking there is no other Being in whom
We can hope. There is no other friend Who 10 the
same yesterday, to-day and forever. Some mer
. say there is no God, and others say by theii
actions there Is God and We are his special
tavorites, though tho true God is not in theil
thoughts. A man may admire beautiful sun
set and still manifest his admiration Of the beau
tifui as Gods works with . voliey Of oaths. Al
men may desire to leave out God from theil
thoughts.
This Is seen In common expressions OF daily iift
in our literature. The literature OF the world
depict the life OF the world, and that life .,
irreligious. There must OF course be allusious Il
the Supreme Being; literature must have Its
Sundays, and religions services, and Its Provi
denee, and Its Fate and Nemesis. There Is q
Christian theology in all the plays OF Shaks
/ Christianity that marked and rounded out the
life which the poem depicts. But authors ar,
aiming mostly, not amer moral religious truth
Z but simply artistic truth. why might It not bt
. worth white for modern literature TO change the
popular idsa, the worlds idea OF Christianity, n,
}: something belonging only to weak. minded peo
+ pie, and let It depict for once some such pastor
: as George Herbert or some such preacher Al
: Frederick Robertson
To the scientific tho world Is very often q world
T without God. II cannot be denied that tho ten.
deney of scientific thought with regard to God,
works is professodly contrary to tho instincts o.
4, the human mind with reference to works tho
4 works Of man; that the tendency OF modern spec
ulation In the direction Of Godlessness in crea
tiOu, the effort being, fpossible, to md no neet
!. st . Creator.
|. Take the nne arts-seulpturo and painting-an,
!, what do they illustrate: Subjects mostly from
a mythology-a Christianity ready to convert tn,
statue Of an Apollo to that Peter, and Away
!, prepared to assume whatever guise the prsjud
!. OF . people, to be nominaliy Christian. may de-
a mand. And what shall We say Of tho drama
say Of the usages Of social and public life, Di'
not the Saviour speak correctly in calling the ad
versary Of our souls the prince Of this world
In too many ways We are like the Ephesians
, They deaed commerce as Mercury, hne arts q
! Apollo, wealth A. Pluto, and gave them temples
Are not We doing the same! VIII not the end o
lie come soon TO uss live eivenot CHRIST, VI
have no hope Eternity stretches out Its vast ant
q terrible waste Of remorse before us, and We g
forth into 1t alone, unmitigated, unreleved. Wei
o may It be called the second death" 1t Is cas-,
to stne eonscienees to stiae this want Of God
during the present life, by this artiee that, b,
y this pretenee or that, but when death tears u
$ away from our earthly possessions and attain
5 ments, and when these perverted energies are le
> loose to react upon US forever, and go forth h
= destiny, rayless and pathless and hopeless, ",
= shall begin to fathom the meaning OF tho words
Having no hope ard without God" Are ",
drifting towards such destiny: May God aver
Z IL MAY God heln N IN arerf