The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1882-06-15
full courtesy as belongs, by inheritance, to the
daughters of the Palmetto State

day morning by Rev. VIM. E. Edwards, o
Lynchburg, from the 10Th verse Of the It'll
chapter of 1st Corinthians, For now we SCI
through glass darkly, but then face to face
now know, in part, but then l shall know
even as / also am known" The sermon was
one of the grandest efforts of pulpit oratory
we have ever listened to,-eloqueEt, learned
and full Of glowing religious enthusiasm. The
speaker has evidently inherited the fervid
genius, combined with the Apostolic pety, OF
his distinguished father, Jno. E. Edwards, d.
D., whose name has long been a synonym for
all that is greatest and most admirable in
Methodism. The familiar chapter from which
the text is taken, the speaker SAID, may be
read as lovely, poetic idYl of peace and ten
der yearning for the good of humanity, COM
stormy and troublous period of the great Apos-
ties history, when he turns aside from the as
saults OF the world and the Devil to stand tor
moment upon the Mount Of Vision and peer
with longing eyes and heart into the yelled and
unsearchable mysteries of Life's real Whence
and Wherefore.
That all the great facts and truths of spirit
ual existence are invested with mystery, he
does not deny. Science may arrogate to her
self the power to understand all mysteries and
to possess key to all knowledge; to explain
the origin OF matter; to construct world up
on rational geological principles with sOno-
rous nomenclature of periods; to show just
how the sidereal systems are held in change
less and unfaltering equipoise by the power
of gravitstion, and to give plausible and
fair-seeming explanation of a thousand other
things whose meaning God has chosen to veil
from merely human vision, but, after all, there
powerless in her utmost arrogance to advance
one step, when God has said, "Thus far and no
farther"
sStill there lies
Another distance when the first is hailed,
And still forever yawns before our eyes.
An Utmost that is yetled.
How our intellectual pride must be humbled
to the dust before the truth, that in SO many
things we are obliged to accept a name for
fact and take its inner meaning upon trust.
Scepticism has averred that it is only what the
Bible calls vital spiritual truths that are left so
wrapt in these mists of obscurity, that reason
and science can explain everything else in
Nature, but the speaker proved plainly to the
most obtuse understanding that this cannot be
true. When we have delved into the pro-
foundcst depths of scientific research, seeking
for primal and generating cause, there re-
main Terrible deeps and old obscurities" as
inexpllcable, as enigmatcal as the plan of Gre
alton, the scheme of redemption or the holy
mysteries of the incarnation, or the doctrine
of propitiatory sacrifice for sin, as if Heaven
had not foreseen and provided for the one
"Divine event to which the whole creation
moves" We have not space to follow this
grand and eloquent exposition of the familiar
text to its close.
Munsey, in his most lmpassioned and pic
turesque flights, could scarcely have surpassed
this speaker in fervid beauty of language
and grandeur of conception, while the ease,
simplicity of thought and manner made the
profoundest truths he enunciated patent to
ehS Understanding VI CNCu Viz
listener.
The address at night before the Young La
dies Christian Association was by the same
gifted orator, and was splendid Interpretation
of seemingly paradoxical text from the
Proverbs of Solomon, "There is that which
scattereth, yet increaseth, and there is that
which withholdeth more than is meet which
tendeth to poverty"
This. the speaker said, is one of the para
doxes by which God is fond of illustrating
His eternal purposes in working out the des-
tiny of His creatures. That while it has
pleased Him to veil His intents and the great
mechanism of the universe in partial obscu-
rity lest the splendOr of Revelation should
blind and dazzle the poor weak vision of NOR
tality, there is always clue left by which to
solve whatever 1t is essential for us to know
The discOverable and the revealed, supple
menting each others needs, give to the intel
lect a majestic charter of attainment-culture
and knowledge sufficient, if devoutly studied,
to fit us for the next step in the ascending
scale of Christian education, that will widen
out ever into broader planes with the cycles of
Eternity,
"When the spirit, yearning in desire,
May follow knowledge like sinking star
Beyond the utmost bound OF
Human thought"
Increase of grace through constant disburse-
ment, is the special lesson of this text. To
give. not only Of our temporal substance, the
goods which perish, but our love, our time, our
talents, and 80 round to its destined perfection
the sphere, not of our own existence only, but
of all life. To give, not out of the fitful i'm
pulses of an undisciplined generosity, but be-
cause Christ gave Himself for us and left with
US as an abiding bequest and obligation the
thrice blessed duty of charity. BY this minis
try only can we fulfill the royal law of the
Scripture, the oft repeated. strongly enforced
privilege of doing good unto others.
Space fails us, else we would be glad to
spired charge to the fair young postulants
standing with serene and untroubled mien at
the opening portals of life, path of sunshine
and flowers lying behind them, the unpathed
forest, the charities sea of the future before.
1t was inspiration enough for any orator to
gaze upon so many beautiful faces, and see
them lifted in such reverent attention while he
spoke to them words of counsel and cheer.
THE COMMENCEMENT
was continued at the Opera House on Mon
day night by the celebration of the Lee and
jackson Literary Society. The house was
filled at an early hour by a most apprecative
and cultivated audience. 1t was pleasant to
observe how cordially even the genus Small
boy" responded to the polite request of Prof:
Harris for perfect order and quiet during the
Rotations, reading of essays, sc. So finely
trained and well modulated were the voices of
the young ladies', without exception, that not
word was lost to the audience, as so often oc-
ours. After an impressive prayer by Rev. j..
L. Clarke, of the Virginia Conference, the
Sslutatory was read by Miss Carrie Timber
lake, of Richmond. This was brilliant lit
tie effusion, sparkling with witty satire and
good natured railery, chiefly addressed to the
junior representatives of the sterner sex pres
ent, and was received by them in much the
same spirit as q nauseOus compound from the
druggist, is swallowed by the obedient youth
whose courage mamma tries to tortlfy by the
gentle whisper that medicine IS good for little
hovs