St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1890-09-22
ADVANTAGES OF BEING GOOD.
Rev. S. G. Smith Shows the Profit
as Well as Conscience.

AID OF BEING GOOD.
Rev. S. G. Smith Shows the Profit
as Well as Conscience.
Rev. S. G. Smith preached yesterday
morning from L. Timothy, 4:S: "But
goodness is profitable unto all things,
having promise of the life which now
is. and of that which is to come"
No religious genius was ever bound
by the limitations of race, or time, or
civilization. The prophetic conscious
ness i'll every age deals with the divine
vision in such manner as to reveal a
brotherhood of seers. Enoch is lifted
out OF all the misty traditions of his
time and comes into clear recognition
as the man who walked with God.
Abraham may have been a primitive
emigrant, a tent dweller, perhaps the
first of Monotheists, but that which
makes him a permanent personality i'll
the world is the fact that he was the
father of the faithful, and the friend of
God. Elijah was the greatest of the
hermits, the story of his career sparkles
with miracles. but he possesses an UNI
dying interest, because he too heard the
still small voice of the Eternal amid the
majesty of his lonely mountain peaks.
Ezekiel OH the banks of the Che
bar, Daniel in the kings court.
Paul in the desert of Arabia,
John on the Isle of PatmOs, the con-
feSsors aud martyrs and leaders Of every
spiritual age, are all one in their ~realiZa-
ton of the divine, and because of their
common attempt to put their experience
into the form of a permanent revelation
10y declaring to men the oracleS of God.
There have been changes in phiIoS-
Ophy which have modified the concep-
lions of men. Theology is a flowing and
changing stream. In our OWL time, the
advances of science and the broadening
of knowledge make impossible to us
many of the positions which were i'm
~pregnable to the fathers. Historical
criticism has changed facts into myths.
and Biblical criticism has changed proof
texts into another meaning or has taken
them out of the sacred record altogether.
But neither philosophy, science, or any
other of the intellectual achievements
of men have transformed in any degree
the spiritual struggle of the race. The
search after God which stimulated the
patriarchs is still the %unceaSing quest
of all earnest souls. Not content SIM
ply with seeking the knowledge of God,
be like Him. When Christ came to
show us the Father. He also added, "Be
We perfect, as He is perfect" This
order i%nterprets the longings of the race
and becomes an everlasting religious
ideal. To pursue this ideal it is not
needful that men should in the first
place settle their questions or satisfy
their doubts. The Apostle Paul does
not wall on Herbert Spencer, nor can
Martin Luther sit at the feet of Thomas
Huxley.
The Necessities Growing
out of the spiritual nature of man are
luslstant, memorable, prophetic. My
theme asserts that this human struggle
after goodness has the promise of
the life which is, and of that
which is to come. TO show how this is
SO l affirm that goodness brings man
into harmony with nature. The old
prophet declared that when God came
1.-The eternal mountains were scattered.
the everlasting hills did bow" This
was only a poetic way of stating that
there is nothing so stable in the uni
verse but that it makes way for the vic
torious approach of that power not
ness" All physical history, all his
tory of life cries out, Prepare
for a moral order" AS the waters
of the deep rolled back that the
dry land might appear, the sullen
roar of the defeated pillows, as they
fastened away called back, 1--WE must
make room for the kingdom of God"
The ice glaciers crushing stone into
soil also have a voice, I'VE are servants
of God preparing a world for the dwell
ing place of righteousness" The wild
beasts of the forest, the birds of the air
and the fish of the sea stood back in
wonder &C their nh1pf onnaarpd fbn
image of God with intelligence, leaping
out of conscience and vo%lition; while
the great God greeted His Son and heir
with a voice that
All Flesh Might Understand,
minion over the fish of the sea and over
the fowl of the air, and over every liv-
ing thing that moveth upon the face of
the earth" 1t has only been as man
has worked in harmony with law, with
law at once physical and moral, that he
has manifested his kinglineSS and has
governed the earth.
Goodness brings man into harmony
with society. Indeed. society is only
possible In so far as man is godlike, and
is only strong in proportion as man is
good. Sin eStranges: love cements.
Imagine a nation which. in its organ
lied capacity, should establish saloons
and not school houses: brothels and not
libraries: gambling houses and not art
galleries. Such a nation would be i'm
possible in this world. Goodness brings
a mar into harmony with himself. Man
was made for goodness. Only in so far
as he is Obedlent to law can he have a
sound body. Goodness brings MAJ into
harmony with his eternal Father. Good
ness is the godlike life; by it we become
partakers of the divine nature. The man
in whom struggle for goodness has risen
into communion with God has found the
key OF all things. The thunder
of Niagara and the roar of the
storm are voices of the divine
power. The secrets of field and wood,
the half-read mysteries of nature, and
the quiet beauty of the far-off stars
speak to him of the wisdom of God.
Goodness brings man into harmony
with the future. We wander even here
through the labyrinth of unutterable
mystery. Our knowledge is but guesses,
and our thoughts are only the shadows
of the things which are. Mau himself,
with his hopes and fears, with the shin
ing heights of kinghood within him ris-
ing Over against abyssmal DEPTHS of
weakness, is a problem even 10 him
self. If we know not fully what life is.
how can We fully know what death is?
Ii we are
Not Able to Comprehend
this world, how can we have perfect
conceptions of the world that is to be?