The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1891-05-25
ARE LIVING SYMBOLS.
Emblems With the Significance OF
q Higher Truth Than They
Bore Before.
The Very Purpose of Revelation Is
to Make Certain Truths
Clear.
Rev, Frederick r.. Webb, of st. Peters
Episcopal Church breaches Of Tho
Book of Revelation.

A characteristic of the Book of Hevela-
tions is that the truth designed to be con-
veyed is represented by symbols. Leaving
out all that is grotesque, the inspired writer
has gathered together emblems quite IA
miliar in the times when he wrote and in
vested them with the Significance of n
higher truth han ever they bore before.
And a new quality is added. Before, they
were dumb signs; now they are all alive.
The popularity of st. Johns use of them
is that they are living symbols. Let US in
quire what bearing a representation by this
means has upon the doctrine of the Holy
Trinity, and 1irst of all with reference to
the mystery of the doctrine. Does it clear
away? Not at all. For life itself is a mys-
terry. Men are no longer ashamed to &C.
knowledge that there are things
they do not understand. "The move
ment of events" said P~ericles, long
before the Christian era, sis often as way
ward and incomprehensible as the course OF
human thought; and this is why We ascribe
to chance whatever bellies our calculations"
That is chance to which we cannot trace
the causes. Chance is mystery. And what
mysteries there are in human affairs; mys-
teries because human affairs are affairs into
which the element of life enters!
Not understanding our own little life and
what concerns it, how can We hope to un-
so, the infinite Being, God, the very
fountain and sustainer of life? In Ian
guagea a great deal may be told about Him.
A thousand emblems and all the varied
forms of nature, the flowers and the bar
vests and the sunsets, give us their varied
= H. 1A Ill., --~.
not tell us all. Do not St. Johns very
symbols, being alive, bring with the ex-
plantations they impart the great mystery of
their life? Designed to exhibit tho agencies
by which the Almighty works. to comfort
the prosecuted church with the assurance
that the risen Lord knows her works and
her patience, to give her a glimpse of the
ing, do they not leave many an anxious
query yet unanswered, except in the great
general response of providence? You have
looked across our valley IN days when here
and there a point in the long range of noun
tains hid itself in mist or storm. You do
not doubt the unity of the whole in spite of
the loss now and then of a towering sum-
nit in the clouds. Such a continuity there
is in tho chain of doctrine and conduct in
revelation. TIL mystery that exists does
not spoil what we know. Let us be con-
tent with what we can under
enough the tasks that belong
to righteous living? The doctrines of re-
ligion are the theories of life. Take even
as much of the doctrine, which the church
to-day emphasizes, as stands in sight, and
have you not the elements at hand to make
the character you ought to own? The
fatherhood of God, to take away all fear,
the example and redemption of Jesus. to
inspire you with the sense that s~elf-denial,
that compassion, that an earnest reaching
forth to better things is quite worth your
while; the indweliing of the Holy Spirit to
transform the very body into a temple of
holiness?
For further explanations we are looking
all of us in one direction. We think of
death as a great darkness. Is it not more
like the morning sun that drives away OBJ
structing shadows? Where else can we
look for the solutions we await? What
were death?" and the query represents the
standing.
What were death, if with to-day
Life's great problem passed away.
. All unsolved and still a mystery"
Not clearing the mysteries, these symbols
can represent the truth only in part. God
IS greater than any words which are used to
portray His character as any of the signs
which represent His attributes. What a
truism we utter! Would We worship a be-
ing whom our minds could compass? You
would call the earth a small affair, if the
horizon which marks the limit of our Vision
all around, comprised its whole extent.
The circle where the human understanding
stops, like the apparent meeting of the sea
and sky, how little it circumsoribes of all
that is to be known of God! What would
our Christian experience amount to if there
were not every day unexpected disclosures
to be encountered of His kindness, new
proofs of His wisdom, fresh tokens of His
lnuar Man yunorv nf chair bIooui,rp frhov
may walk with God. But is it q falsihca.
ton of human NATURE to say that ii would
tire of the divine companionship, if His
goodness were not unreachable and His
ways past finding out?
Nor is the mystery of the Godhead dimin-
ished rs the race advances. Otherwise, an
end would come to the joy of Christian liv-
ing. Indeed, mysteries increase with edu-
cation. How simple the universe is to the
savage! -Four elements: earth, air, fire
water, are his classification Of all that he
can zee or upon which he can put his hands
He believes, perforce' In the grave. Amons
the things unseen he counts the spirits
chiefly evil, and a Supreme Being, generally
angry when it is his main business to pro-
pitiate. But the elements multiply al
mans power CT analyzing enlarees. Anc
into what q complexity of balanc-
ing forces among the suns and plan.
cts, OF conflicting interests among
ihVis Va StSn''h ahN tiSJaNANVs
tending to chaos and of overruling provi-
dences does the vast order of things evolve
itself as knowledge increases. So it is witt
the child. Human nature presents NJ
mysteries to him. He has no difficulty IL
classifying individuals. He likes or dis
likes; he knows each person only az good OIL
bad. as kind or unkind. But take one tt
whom the soul lies open, as it did to the
great dramntist or to any great delineatol
in fiction, and to him what n piece OF
mechanism does each character offer. A
simple net resolves itself before a mastery
analysis, into the resultant of 4
thousand elements. What one does or Is
has been determined by conditions that OK.
listed II century before ho was born. BY the
neighborhood in which he was raised, by
the scenes he looked upon. by tho food he
ate. by tho air le breathed ho has beer
made; his life has taken its color, his char
aoter its shape. You go on tracing motives
questioning here tho bearing of human
agency and there tho pressure of circum'
stances, until you find that each little lift
is bound by tangled skeins to the whole
Such is the course likewise OF our compre.
hension of Deity. We may know much %
Him. The very purpose of revelation il t,
make certain truths concerning God, which
are of interest to mankind. clear. But let IL.
not be disturbed by mystery. The wore