St. Paul daily globe., 1888-05-14
We MAY SELL OUR SOULS.
Life Is a Union With God or the
Devil.
WHAT IS POSSIBLE TO MAN.
The Rev. Dr.. Smiths Sermon Before the
Peoples Ghurch---Poison of
Modern Life.

i'll the Grand opera house, yesterday
morning, the Rev. DIR. Smith discussed
the types of character represented by
Jesus and Faust, after one or the other
of which he said man must choose to
fashion himself, life being a union with
| God or the devil. His remarks were
based Oh Matt. iv.. 9: ''All these things
! will give thee if thou wilt fall down
| and worship me-" He said:
| 1.-The history of Faust is very brief
and simple. He was born German, early
III the sixteenth century-was scholar,
doctor. magician and quack. He led a
varied life with periods of gross disSi-
patton and died an obscure death.
HE, as well as anybody, would serve
| as the historical kernel for the myth of
| Faust. the man who sold himself to the
devil i'll order to glut his soul with the
world. The story mad been growing for
some centuries prior to the birth of the
historical Faust. Curi0usly enough it
was TheOphilus of Cilicia who was
first reputed to have sold himself to the
devil in order to have gained eccleSias-
tical preferment: and sadly enough, he
was not the first or the last whose
career might warrant such q suspicion.
Faust was product of the ignorance
OF nature out of which mystery and
| magic were born. and the exaggerated
| consciousness of the devil which has
always been Gothic characteristic.
From this myth four great poems have
been written. The Faustus of Chris
topher MariOwe was realistic. unre-
Elective man, breaking the bounds of
order and satisfying his passions with
all forms of qualification. The fierce
dramatic power of this poem is
tit expression of the unchecked ravages
OF human hunger. Goethe'S creation is
of different order. His Faust has
come to the conclusion, scholar as he is.
that the knowledge of truth is impossi-
! BILE So he fOrsakeS the study where
reason reignS for the outer world
phenomena. Even in a materlalistic
age this can breed devils and magic.
| Not hurried Oh by passion-Faust is too
Old for thls-but of deliberate choice
does he pass through all possible ex-
perlenceS. Each step is conscious. each
qualification is deliberately chosen, but
at length experiences are exhausted. life
is ranged over, and Faust is hurried
| down to hell.
Lord Byron in his Manfred presents
a hero who has upon him shadow of
some nameless sin. This issues in de-
Spair,. which would satisfy the conflict
by suicide; but human prudence, figured
| o, Ou hiplilC IiOluS Hill DdcK.
! Finally his strength sums itself I'D in a
supreme and dark-robed Will. which de-
bes life. mocks religion, challenges the
| strength OF devils, and yanisheS into
the uncheckered dark.
Robert Browning in his ParaceIsus
| presents man who would CONQUER life
and the world through power. Power
comes through knowledge, and rules
over the fears and passions of men. He
| seeks also by power the regeneration of
! society. Failing, he tells the cause of
failure thus:
In my own heart love had not been been
| To trace loves faint BEGINNINGS in man.
! kind
To know even hate is but mask of loves,
| To see good in evil, and hope
| In nl-succeSS; to sympathize be proud
| OF their half reasons, faint aspirings dim
| Struggles for truth their poorest fallacies.
| Their prejudice, and foarS, and cares, and
! doubts;
! All with touch of nobleness DESPITE
| Their error, upward tending, although weak
| Like plants Ill mines which never saw the
SCn.
| But dream of Him. and guess where He
| may be-
| And do their best to climb and get to Him.
| These poems are to q degree pictures
of the authors life, and in a larger de-
| gree the thought and life of the men of
| their generation. The Antitrust is
presented in Milton's Paradise Re-
gained" the song of the temptation
| in the wilderness. 1t is shallow criti-
clsm to say that the poets title ought to
have reserved for the passion. Atone
| ment, the way of salvation, was pre-
! figured in that wilderness struggle of
light and darkness as truly as it can be
found anywhere. To Christ. as to every
man, there came in his youth mount
ain vision of the Kingdoms of this world
and the glory of them. To Him, as to
all others, Satan says:
All these will give thee if thou wilt fall
down and worship.
Read Goethe Faust, with its tropical
luXurlance of imagination. its wealth of
learning, its pictures of desire satisfied.
| all haunted by the chilling, moeking
| sneer of Mephistopheles then turn YOU
| and read the simple story of Jesus in the
| Gospel by st. Matthew. Read the story
| of His Poverty, His self-sacriiice. His
| pain, His death. As Faust seiZes upon
| the affirmatiOns of lite, so Jesus walks
| gladly beneath the shadow of its de-
nlaiS. The poem and the history each
end truly. Faust vanishes from the face
of the earth, but
CHRIST CAN NEVER VANISH.
The negations of His life are over
flowed by the affirmation of heaven
which comes in His resurrection from
the dead. This is His moral vindi-
cation. This proves the wisdom of His
choice. Gather round about His tomb.
strong men of Gaul, representatives of
brute force: clOthe them with the in
sigma OF Rome, representative of
| organized power; arm them with
priestly hate, representative of social
institutions. He wars against the world
order also. But it is against it as the
manifestation of the finite. the earthly.
the partial: and that life in Him. the
life of God overflowed the tomb, struck
| down force, organization, institutions:
and coming up through great tribu-
latiOn, sorrow stands forever crowned
with the beauty and strength of eter-
| nifty.
Faust transformed the invisible
spirit into the visible possessions of this
world. Jesus transformed the visible
things of this world into things eternal.
As the apostle says, For the Joy set be-
fore Him. He endured the cross, despis-
ing the shame, and is set down at the
right hand of the Throne of God
After the one or the other of these
types we must choose to fashion our
selves. Life is a union
WITH GOD OR THE DEVIL.
'For much or little, each of us may
sell his soul. The Divine Word is for
ever true, Whose committeth sin is the
slave of sim
I'm the poems we have considered,
is depicted the failure of passion.
sense, will and power as mo-
tives and sources of life. And
these must fail. because they do not
take account of the abiding verities
which make man, the Son of God.
Faust began by denying that man may
know the truth. He must fail and dis
appear, for without truth man must
die. The pursuit of truth, both spec
ulatiye and practical, brings conference