The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1884-02-25
NIHILISM OF INFIDELITY.
Sermon of Rev. Rufus S. Green, of Buff
falO, at the Tabernacle.
Sau Ahbrah, Burmese Christian, Tells the
First Baptist Congregation Of the
Condition Of India.
NIHuIssI OF INFIDELITY.
Discourse by Rev. Rufus 5. Green to the
tabernacle Congregation.

Y, who is stopping in the city, the guest OF Dr.
Mcleod, pastor of the Second Presbyterian
Church, occupied the pulpit at the Tabernacle
yesterday, both morning and evening The
theme of his sermon at the morning service was,
1.-The Nihilism of Infdelity;" and the text
of his discourse was, ''Then said Jesus
unto the twelve will ye also
go away Then Simon Peter answered
HIM Lord, to whom shall we gol Thou hast the
words of eternal life
''The turning point DR.. Green said, tin the
life of Jesus had come. Heretofore He had many
followers. The people had focked to Him, be-
heving Him to be the long expected Messiah, the
deliverer of their nation, through whom they
were to take the first place among the kingdoms
of the earth. By the speech He had just made
He had undeceved them. They could no longer
doubt the nature of His kingdom. He had re
fused to be made temporal king. He had pro
claimed His true mission to earth, in its purity
and spiritual character. The people were nat
urally offended Many, even of His followers,
were disappointed, for they had
been expecting temporal advantages and
official position in the new kingdom; and now
their hopes were dashed to the ground. For
the time" so the mournful record runs, ''many
of His disciples went back and walked no more
in Him" The heart of Jesus was, doubt,
deeply grieyed by such conduct but he could
not be untrue to his heavenly mission. He
could not retain His followers at the expense of
truth. There is sitting power in truth which
will sooner or later, separate chaff from the
wheat. There are times in the history Of every
servant of God when the truth must be spoken
mainly and fp9 TIaSSlU and xVbe it's Mt
will cause alienation. It was more than impulse
which prompted the noble answer of Peter. The
latter part of it showed that impulse was based
upon reason. We often wrong Peter by making
impulsiveness the leading trait of
his character. Impulsive he was, but
his intellectual and spiritual perceptions
were quick and clear Even the loving and the
beloved John was slower than Peter in coming
to understand the nature of Christs person and
the necessity of faith in Him the anointed of
God. So oftentimes, as i'll the scene before US,
his acts and words, which seem born of impulse,
really the legitimate result of rapid ratiocl-
nation which others reach by slower process.
$50 whom shall we COZ In this question we
discover in the first place, felt need of the
soul. None are so self-poised so selfcentered
as to be wholly independent Our sorrows and
our Joys well up and overflow own hearts.
A sorrow told into the of sympathy is a bur
den divided. joy shared by another is
pleasure doubled. Even Jesus so needed com
panonship and sympathy. The weirdest lines
in our literature, as they are the most touching
description of exquisite distress, these in the
Ancient Mariner
"Alone! alone! all. all alone
Alone the wide seal
So lonely twas that God Himself
Scarce seemed there to be-"
The soul needs some one to whom it can go,
and there come times when human companion
ship and sympathy are insufficient. There come
thp ctr If ri(r1lf pH ma
when he feels his need of some higher power to
speak peace to his troubled soul Plato at
tempted to account for these spiritual yearnings
by regarding them as the result of "reminiscences
of a former state of existence, in which the soul
had seen the perfect ideas of things that are
now lost Thus nearly has heather philosophy,
in the person of her greatest representative,
given utterance to the teaching of revelation,
that man was made after the image of God in
knowledge, righteousness and holiness, and. by
sin, fell from the estate wherein he was created.
Thus the "reminiscences of a former perfect state,
which Plato finds in man, and which the Scrip
lures tell us existed in Eden, fill the soul
with spiritual yeaTnings which compel 1t to cry
out, ''Who can restore me to my former seltF
1t well knows that it is work above the
power Of self, is any human power
sufficient to accomplish it. We are
driven by our inward need to the super
natural, the superhuman. No roiinements or
sOphistfies of argument will ever be able to eX
tinguish a general belief in the supernatural
there it remains, and there it will remain. The
soul has always turned to God, or to what it con
sdered to be God, for aid in its attempt to reach
the primal perfection from which 1t knows 1t has
fallen
Notwithstanding we may recognize our soul
need and think we find it. satisfied in Jesus, our
text further suggests that there may come times
of doubt when we will be tempted to so away
from Him. The same temptation assails the fol
lowers of Jesus today, and on precisely the same
ground, as when he was left alone among the
twelve. Many are ready to follow Jesus so long
as it pays, and no longer. Oftentmes the pro
fessior Of Christ is the open deer to society To
be a Christian Is mari of responsibility. Often
times it is a certificate of character, which is
helpful from business point OF view. 1t is
passport to the confidence OF the community,
and thus tends to the increase of trade. How
many are members of the church for the loaves
and fishes they hope thus to gain2 There are
many who can follow Christ in sunshine, but not
in dark. In affection their hearts grow
hard and turn from him. Again, the character
of the truth preached by Jesus and the manner
of its presentation. turns many away from him.
He wrought miracles, but only as the needed at
testation that he was sent forth from God. The
truth which he proclaimed was always simple
direct, and without affectatlon or display. The
gospel in its simplicity and purity is too generally
at discount. Our congregations are too largely
composed of those who are disappointed if they
do not hear the latest deductions of philosophy,
or conclusions of science or discoveries of eXplo-
ration or advancements of various agencies of
civilization. They go to church to be instructed
not in the ways of heavenly wisdom, but in the
things of earth. Many go to be entertained or to
crafty curiosity-to see and hear some new
thing They demand signs and wonders. So
strong has this pressure been, so all-important is
it that the pews should be well filed and the rev
enues large, that ministers have too generally
yielded to the clamor AS consequence our
pulpits have been filed with philosophy and
science and worldly wisdom, with an emascu-
lated Christianity and still worse with sensational
displays to catch and hoi6>the multitude which has
brought reproaeh on the name OF Christianity,
and saddened the hearts of the truly g6liy. The
world measures the success of a minister by the
crowd he draws The heavenly criterion may,
perhaps, be the crowd he sends away through
the medium of the truth
There is still another source of doubt suggest