The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1891-09-14

hat
dared to shape itself little out of the lines of
man made formularies aud csstiron confessions
lhere Is no place today for presenting as para
mount the narrow and narrowing doctrine of
the wrath of God. The religious teacher of to-
day must take his place beside St Paul on Mars
hiil' ana mold his own utterances into the form
suggested by that God taught man. "Thinkers
OF this age" We cry tive recognize in vour
studies sincere search for truth Truth is
unit revelation is the same truth II you saw
no. IL Is because you coufound revelation with
inah comments upon it. II you say no it il
BECAUSE you fail to realize the present partial
condition of your own results We are really at
one, you and we. The God you appreheni in
the universe is the God we appreheud still
more In the Holy Record. What your inteIli-
gence has found that the Record attests What
the RECORD states, that your intelligence does or
Will corroborate When science reaches its cui-
mlnation, and when religion teaches only what
revelation says, there viii be perfect accord"
seem to blot out the ages between as l read
81. Pauls sermon which followed this preface
ne sermon belongs chiefly TO his age and to
ours With the holiness of truth he at once
identifies the creator of science with the Creator
Oh Revelation. So likewise do We today In our
own time has been enacted the so-called struggle
between geological discovery and the sacred
record of the first chapter of Genesis. "The acts
now discovered agree not with the statements
oil the scripture, has been the claim. $50
much the worse for revelation" added the
scientist. adhere to the traditional interpre-
tatlon OF Genesis though all geology gansay it,"
mas been the lame and mistaken answer. But
this is past The 'ages'' of geology are the nat
ural explanation of the terse statements of Gods
oooK' The marvel OF creation grows more mar
veilous still, as science and revelation together
tell the slow and orderly processes of evolution.
NO Christian scholar lives who does not ioyfully
accept the new corroboration of the truth of the
scriptures. No humble believer lives who need
longer be frightened by the once seeming dis
agreement. Genesis and geology no longer
sound discordant in combination, but blend in
sweetest harmony as together they sound the
eternal truth of God.
Within our memories, too, has advancing
thought laughed at the commonly received idea
OF God, God who merely set the universe in
motion as II 1t were some vast machine, God
who since has set far off upon a distant
throne and watched the universe more
under so-called laws. Yet science has
here ridiculed not revelation, but par
tai human theorizing about revelation.
Modern thought boasts loudly of its discovery
That God is omnipresent, immanent in the
worlds of His fashioning. Yet St Paul knew this
ana preachedit. "God is not far from any one of
US, he said, "for in Him we live and move and
have our being" The thinkers of today, guided
by the Spirit, have thus thrown believers back
from theorzings to revelation itself. Believers,
IN return, thank thinkers for recalling the al
most forgotten fact of Gods omnipresenee. And
here, too, the two meet in full accord.
With increasing intelligence has come a fuller
realization of the dignity of man as man. The
exaltation of humanity in its own esteem is al
most the mania of the age. The divine in the
human is the theme of popular teaching and
preaching. Man recognizes that all his faults
and weaknesses are not worthy to be compared
with the innate desire for the good. the noble
and the true, which he unhesitatingly knows to
be of his real self
Man dscards the seventeenth century dictum.
that is altogether evil aud cries in the language
of the poet quoted by St Paul, ave are Gods
offspring" For moment he thinks himself at
odds with revelation here. But stayl being,
then, the offspring of God" says ST. Paul, in
dorsing the statement-and in the Endorsement
he but echoes all Seripture-"made in the image
of God" was first written of man, and the di-
vtnity of human nature was so inherent that
God laid aside the glory OF deity-veiled it for
a season in that same human nature-in order
to restore to man the immortality which his
own transgression of the laws of immortality
had forfeited. The incarnation, which wrote
above redeemed humanity, peace on earth,
good will to man. and Jesus Christ, the God
made man, proclaim, beyound the power of the
human mind to conceive it, the dignity and the
divinity of human nature.
And yet again revelation and modern thought
join hands. The proper position of good works
in the plan OF salvation is the point of unity
now. In recognizing his powers 10 learn, the
thoughtful man has seen his own accountable
ity to act upon what he learns. Hence comes
naturally a rejection of any artificial scheme of
salvation which hinges upon mere faith and
decries good works. "Whatgoever a man soweth
that shall he also reap has been the text with
which this age has assaled religion, seemingly
of its own srmory. But the quarrel has not
been with revelation at all. 1.-THE times of
mans ignorance God condones," says st. Paul,
but now Jesus Christ has effected redemption
and lived a pattern life The Redeemer and
Exemplar opens mans eyes to discern between
evil and good. In this knowledge, man is ac-
countable for what he does. Overcome the
weaknesses, strive for the noble, the pure
and the good is the sermon of advanced
thought. ''Now God commandeth all men TO
repent" says revelation. And repentance in
revelation is more than the mere technical and
sentimental thing of modern religious schools.
1t appeals to more than the emotional nature.
1t takes hold of the entire man, mental, moral
and physical. Ii is m6tGH0jd in the Greek,
change of heart aud soul and mind, a change
of conviction, of purpose and of life It is the
supreme demand for good thoughts and words
and deeds. which alone give life to faith, which
alone assure salvation. And in this revelation
outstrips the demand of modern thought
Now revelation takes the lead. Push science,
physical or mental, to its utmost bounds, and
yet the bounds are set No matter how much
man knows, yet in each and every direction he
reaches a limit beyond which he can know no
more, though painfully conscious of the bitter
ness of his requirements and the immensely OF
that which still remains to be known. Finally
comes the inexplieable mystery OF death 10 end
il all. Here revelation answers the aching
throbs of the soul, which knows itself i'm
mortal Here revelation opens the doors of
eternity, where 1--WE shalt know even we are
known" Ii is tradition, not revelation, which
has overlaid eternity with pictures of halos and
chords and songs. Revelation tells only that it
will be satisfaction in body, mind aud soul
That will he heaven. And to attest eternity, TO
suhstantiate the statement that death is not the
end. there stands the proven fact that Jesus
Christ very Man well as very God, rose from
the dead.
St Paul's sermon and the sermon of today are
finished Modern thinkers, your results and
revelations At one. In your researches We
find the altar with this inscription, TO I'M
known God This is the same God we preach.
Whom. therefore, We partially worship. Him,
only Him. declare We more fully unto you.
BRINGING BACK WANDERERS.
Rev. Levi Gilbert the Parable OF
the Lost sheep.
Rev. Levi Gilbert, pastor of the First
Methodist Episcopal church, preached