St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1885-09-28
HUMANITY'S LONGING G..
Another Remarkable Sermon Delivered
by Henry Ward Beecher in
Brooklyn Yesterday.
Men Recognize in Jesus Christ Com
plete Answer to Their Desire
for a Defined God.
Modern Science Gradually Accepting
the Bible Definition of Uni
versaI Energy.
Adam Never Existed and His Alleged
Stumble Did Not Bring
Christ to Earth.
Reecher's Sermon.

entirely recovered from his severe attack of
hav fever. and was in full possession this
morning of his remarkable vocal powers.
The church was even more crowded than
last Sunday, it having become more gener-
ally known that Mr.. Beecher had resumed
his pulpit. In reading the 139th Psalm be-
fore the sermon Mr.. Beecher adopted the
esvised version, and the changes made by
the revision were very apparent. The
reading made it necessary for Mr.. Beecher
to utter for the first time in the pulpit the
new appellation of the internal regions, and
IL may ke noted by seekers for authority III
such matters that Mr.. Beecher pronounced
it exactly like the word ''sheol." Mr..
Beecher made his annual appeal for cOntri-
buttons to the American Missionary So
ciety. lie described it as in his opinion by
far the most important institution at pres
ent working for Christian prog
ress in this land. Its work
was principally among foreigners
resident or naturalized here, including the
Chinese; ''who." said Beecher, with empha-
sis, ''have emgrated here and will emigrate
here" Mr. Beecher believed that in the
education, and especially the religious edu-
cation. Of these people lay the solution of
many social problems. Whatever may be
the questions Of other lands" he said, 1.-The
question with us to-day is the question OF
races; their rights, their position, their de-
fense their opportunities. For the conflict
between labor and capital, and all who
labor by it; for all the questions of race, of
color, OF differences of religion. there is So
luton in the gospel of Jesus Christ. and if,
having this solvent power and having this
bread of life in our hands, we do not give il
forth. Christian patriotism will Stagger and
will die"
THE SERMON.
Mr.. Beechers text was the first four
verses of the first chapter of John: ''ln
the beginning was the Word, and the Word
was with God and the Word was God.
The same was in the beginning with God.
All things were made by Him, and without
Him was not anything made that was made.
In Him was life, and the life was the light
of men" This last is spoken of Christ, not
of his human condition, but as representing
God, said Mr.. Beecher. Men of definition,
he continued, can make very little of such
mystic passages. The vice of theology, as
it has been handed down to us from the
Roman mind, is an attempt to reduce things
to definition. III such q sense to define God
as that he shall be compressed to our mind,
within exact limits, the immutable God, the
infinite made finite, divine government
framed into chapters and sections, Gas if the
government of the universe could be likened
to the imperial system of Rome, with
its provinces, counties and towns. No
where, perhaps, so much as in this
book, the life of Christ by John, do we
find mysticism the abandonment OF the
system of dots, angles, lines and absolute
ness. 1t is perpetuaIly reaching out in un
expected directions, and it puzzles US to fol-
low, and thereby it shows itself to be
truly inspired record. All phenomena of
nature, and all the framework of the world,
we are to understand by this passage, have
their life in the life of God. Itmaybe said
they float in an universal atmospheric life
divine.
THE LIFE PRINCIPLE OF THE UNIVERSE
is God. 1t is above everything, it issbe
meath everything, it is ON every side, it is
the one Covenant energy. The touch of
Gods presence everywhere is the reason Of
life Johnson is never mistaken for Burke;
the way of their minds is so different. No
one could conf0und Webster III his gigantic
speeches, and Emerson in the stringed
pearls of his style. This is Il recognition OF
interior personality. which is far more
individual than anything corporeal. Plato
10 utdNt. DuG ldUO y W1lJlliSS cAISU,
and Plato eXhales from them, and there is
living Plato and living Socrates. Thus
we have personality as determined by mat
ter and personality as determined by mind.
Almost from the very beginning God for
babe anyone to liken Him to anything ma
terial. In the spiritual kingdom He will
be discernible as God, and no other. When
we shall arise and see Him as the Scripture
subtly says, I'VE shall see him as He is"
God is the universal life emboSomed in
Him. Men borrow from Him energy,
thought. emotion, life. God is everywhere.
His whole being is everywhere. 1t per-
vades space, time and existence. 1t is
more like light and health than any other
illustration. So it is used throughout the
Bible: 'Our God is SUM-" ''He was the
light of the world. and gave light" Were
lie to withdraw Himself there would be no
cohesion, no attraction, no quality. Matter,
RUSHING IN DIRE CONFUSION,
would dissolve and perish. and it IS the
being of God everywhere present that binds
things together and inspires them with
tendencies and ripens them to results.
Here thought stops. We cannot under
stand the quality or the nature of q being
that is everywhere present and always. He
is the great underlying energy that modern
science has at last found out and in which
it believes. They say that no God
is needed. That once postulating energy,
the whole universe can be unfolded from
that. Yes, you call it energy; l call it God.
But science at last has come to that fact.
revealed many thousand years ago. All
things were made by Him; there was not
anything made that was not made by Him.
The Greek Christians accepted the Hebrew
idea that God was a universal presence, and
that He was the light of the world; the
universal energy identified with all growth,
and all life, and all being. So that you
perceive they came very near to our scien-
tiiic postulate of energy as
THE STARTING POINT OF CREATION.
What that energy is, science has never
been able to define or state, or even prove.
But ages ago holy men inspired Of
God declared that God was that energy,
that universal atmosphere i'll which the
world and all of its forces float. The whole
world sprang out of the life Of God and
existed as a part of His life, and was minis
tered to at every stage of its being by the
direct presence and contact of the divine
nature. and this conception of the univer-
salty of the personality of God gives the
life and mission of Jesus Christ clearer
Interpretation. The whole human nature
longs for defined God, for that shall answer
somewhat to our communication with each
other. Who has not felt that? Who has
not said, 'Oh, if I could see Him once. If
He would lay His hand upon me and con-
vince mel am God-and it would suffice
for all my life long" We long for it. That
is to say we want to bring God down to
something like ourselves. This is what
Jesus did.
THE GLORY OF GOD
shone in the face of Jesus Christ; He lived
in the quality of Godhood, and men per-