The Portland daily press., 1889-08-26
PULPIT AND PLATFORM.
STATE STREET CHURCH.

STATE STREET CHURCH.
Yesterday forenoon Rev. DR.. George Leon
Walker Of Hartford, Ct, preached at the
State street church, of which he was pastor
from 1856 to 1867. DIR. Walkers text was
Job XXI, 21; and John XVII, 8: SAC
quaint now thyself with Him and be at
peace; thereby good shall come unto thee; !"
and "And this is life eternal, that they
might know thee, the only true God, and
Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent"
1T might" he said. "seem an unreliable
ground for sermon in the words OF Eliphaz
the Temanite, who is on record as having
been reproved more than once for his utter
ances, were it not for the confirmation given
to his words by Jesus himself. Both state
the same thing, the knowledge of God. as the
source of mans good and welfare. 1t Is
good, he said, in this troubled world to find q
promise of peace and good, and life eternal,
and having it thus pointed out to us we
ought gladly to lag hold Of it. The text. ac-
quaint thyself with God, presupposes in man
the power to know. No division Of the
power into intellect, sensibility and will Is
made. 1t is simply used in the comprehen-
Sive sense, regarding man as person capa-
BILE of improving himself. No wonder, he
said, that the beasts recognized mans SUI
With thS passion f0t Kn0wiedge that e1Sd
lift him higher than he was when he started
How different Is man! What passion foE
knowledge he hasl From very infancy he
has an unquenchable desire to learn facts
regardless of their utility, and simply as
facts. 1t is necessary for human being to
know for him to live. 1t is said that man
does not live by bread alone. Man is made
in the image Of God, and he will not rest un-
til he knows as he Is known.
The text promises peace, welfare and eter-
nal life If one but become acquainted with
God. We know the Bible. Wego to church
and listen to sermons and we think we know
God; bnt the peace is not yet. What is the
eternal life, where are they9 The trouble is
that our knowledge of God Is second hand
knowledge. Our God is the God of philoso-
ply and the letter of the Bible. Philosophy
and didactic religion carried God back from
personal relations with man, and made him
the great first cause that ages and ages ago
created the world. Scholastic philosophy
gives nearer God, it gives him a personali-
ty. 1t argues what sort of being God must
be and how he must have arranged the
world according to plan, but long, long
ago. The Bible brings him yet nearer, II
tells Of Father who loves us, it tells Of a
Saviour who lived once; but so long as we
only know the Bible we do not know peace
The last page of the Bible was written more
than 1900 years ago. We need something
less remote II we want to know God, than the
Bible. Nothing but personal COM
munion with him in whom we
live and move and have our being will owing
us,peace. We must believe in God as pres
ent; not as dead, sleeping, or absent on a
journey. Now that the way Is pointed out,
we ask why is it that more do not avail
themselves of it, The answer Is that people
spend their time studying the mechanism Of
the means that are intended to bring them to
the ends, rather than using the means to
earrythem on to the end. The Bible Is
given as telescope through which we are
to see God, but most people spend their time
looking at the telescope. There are people
who spend their lives in trying to find ou
whether bee can reason, who never thinl
Of studying God. They are mortified IL they
are detected in a grammatical error, but they
are not mortified If they make an error in re-
gard to God. Such perversion Of the instru
ments that God gave to enable man to learI
about Him Is TO be regretted The case oi
Darwin, who after shutting his ears to mus
| ic for years, came to loath 1t, holds good her
/ too. The man who turns his back on God
| who closes the eyes that were given him Il
| see the ways of Providence will becom
| blind so that he cannot see them, for it L
| well known that powers which are neglect
| portunity to learn of God, to become ac
| quainted with Him. Let us embrace the op
| portunity and draw nearer to Him. Do no
| be satisfied with what the Bible says, but &
| to work and learn for yourself, for nothing
| but personal acquaintance with Him will
| bring the promised peace that shall brinI
| good with 1t, and eternal life.