The times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1882-1897, 1882-07-07

IN iHio SilF, YIN oONDAf MONNlNS,
JULY 2Np, 1882, BY THE RECTOR,
REV. B. F. MATRAU.
ST. Paups 2nd ZIP. to tie Cor, 4th Chapter,
1871 Verse.
"Though our outward man perish,
yet the inward man is renewed day
by day."
One of the first things we are all
taught, and one of the last things we
actually learn, is the fact that each of
one of us is of two parts, and that
the inward is just as real as the out
ward. From the first breath we
draw, to the last when we die, we
carry this fact about with us. Ny
text stands in the great passage
where, among other vivid contrats,
that one between things temporal and
things eternal finally comes in which
lends language to the Collect to-day.
St. Paul declares in my text, how
ever, something more than that our
life is two-fold, outward and inward.
He states fa00 ether Hukhs-or rather
he takes one of them for granted, as
a thing so plain that everybody must
admit it, viz. that the outward man
perishes, and then goes on to say,
"What if it does perish ? Let it
perish" There is one way that we
can afford to lose it, can let it drop
without sorrow or fear, can even
watch its wasting with cheerfulness,
and live without it. To those who
actually comprehend the forms of
these two truths, viz. that our out
ward man is not only of perishable
materials, but has actually begun to
perish, is wearing out in one part or
another--see what a support is Of
fered in the second truth, that there
is an tnOard man, out of sight, i'm
perishable, renewed day by day.
Try to realize that. Is there one
human being in all the world living
in human body, who has not an
interest in this mystery-in this
splendid secret about him now re-
vealedl To the brightest intellects
unillumined by Christ, this doctrine
of two-fold life was nothing but
the guess work of philosophers or
the fancy work of poets. And yet,
since the same Creator made both
the Bible and Nature and since God
is also the Builder of the trees and
the animals and the whole visible
frame of things, it has pleased Him
to set some types of this great truth
even in objects that we see. There
is fruit tree growing at your door.
Wood and bark and leaves make up
its visible figure. 1t has a definite
lifetime. Every year it changes a
little for better or for worse. Watch
it closely, let your eye be instructed
by observation or science, and every
season gives some sign that it is growing
old. You or your father perhaps
planted the seed. You or your sons
will gather the dead branches to
burn them. The end is as certain
as the beginning. And the process
never ceases an instant. Does every
thing about the tree, then, perish /?
No. Underneath this visible form
and color that you can touch and
see there is mysterious power at
work that you can neither touch or
see. 1t is the secret energy, the
mysterious vitalizing power, wonder
fully intertangled in the fibre and
In the sap, never tasted,
never caught, never analysed, never
described, which you can only call
the principle of life. 1t is what
makes it tree. This does not
perish, or grow old, or decay. When
this particular tree has done its whole
work, yielded all its fruit, shed its
last leaf, and gone to the fire, that
secret element of life is all hidden
away in some seed that survives.
Another hand may plant them, and
they will grow, and, through the same
beautiful cycle of germ and root and
stock and bough and leaf and flower
and fruitage, the undying power of