Phillipsburg herald. [volume] (Phillipsburg, Kan.) 1882-1905, 1892-01-21
Theme Natural and Dlv1ne Theol-
oRy Contrasted.


ell of the Christian Church, Monday
Jan 18th, 1892
Text Ger 81. ,.'rhe World by Wisdom knew
not God"
The Elder said: This is an age
OF wonderful religious inquiry; when
we read carefully the first and second
chapters of First Corinthians, we see
that Paul is contrasting between the
wisdom of God, and the wisdom of
the world. The wisdom that Is from
above is first pure. then peaceable,
gentle, and easy to be entreated. Solo
mon says, her ways are ways of pleas
antness. and all her paths are peace.
1t is evident when we look around US,
that there is something wrong in the
religious world; the church seemingly
loosing ITS power; it must be that the
obstacle IN the way is, our divided
state-.united we stand, divided we
fall When we look at the Corinthian
church. we see a state of confusion
and carnality, who, were walking ac-
cording to the wisdom of the world
Corinth, Ephesus, and Athens, were
cities of great men, of extensive learn
ing and wisdom Paul says the Jews
require a sign and the Greeks seek
after wisdom. But we preach Christ
crucified unto the Jews a stumbling
block, and unto the Greeks foolish
ness. 1t Is by the foolishness of
preaching, We save those that believe.
and not by foolish preaching. We
now call your attention to this Ian
! guage, the natural man reeeiVeth not
the things of the spirit of God, for
they are foolishness unto him. Thus
we see that the brethren of Corinth.
were trying TO discern spiritual things
| by natural philosophy, and caused
much hardness and contention, which
called for q sharp rebuke from Paul.
In his letter he said; i came to you,
not with excellency of speech or Wis
dom, declaring unto you the testimony
of God Here we pause. l am glad
Paul said he did not come with excel
/ lency of speech, 1 am glad he also
said, seeing we have such hope we use
great plainness of speech. l will tell
you; we preachers try to make too
much display of our language; the
pulpit is getting to be too much the
] place of entertainment, too much show
too much theatrical and not enough
devotional. ! often think OF the little
10Y Alldb GAtLlC4LGl l4lo
when she said, Tommy, run ont to
the wood yard and bring IN a load of
wood Tommy replied, 'Ah, grand
mother, the grammatical portion OF
your education was sadly neglected;
you should have said, Import to me
the recruitment collection OF combust ii
bic material, lying on the threshold
of edifice, to the eXcrescences o. a de-
funct log'' So much for Tommy.
Such use of language is all uncalled
for. Paul WAS a man of plainness,
but his words were the power of God
} unto salvation, aud were no elticIpg
words OF mans wisdom, bat IN DEM
onstration of the spirit, and OF power.
But says the apostle. We speak the
wisdom of God in a mystery, Tor which
was a mystery even the hidden wis,
dom which God ordained before the
world unto our glory. The glory OF
Christ Was kept hid, or rather yelled,
under the starlight and moonlight
ages OF the world, for In the days Of
Isiah it was written Eye hath moi
seen, nor ear heard, neither have en-
, tered into the herrt of man, the things
which God hath prepared for then
that love him. Some apply this Ian
guage 10 the future, and the ina
abode of the righteous. but 1t is wrong
If you will notice. Paul says, rs 1t Is
r written, showing that ut the time oil
Isiah, they did not know what was af-
| terward to be revealed, so Paul says
, il the next verse. but God hath re-
/ yealed them unto US by his spirit
> What was revealed2 The things that
l had not entered into the heart of man
: in Isiah's time. So WE HAVE heard
what God hath and Is preparing for
Us. through our mediator Christ
We now call your minds back to
the question of natural theology, as
contrasted with Divine theology. Ma
, ture, In the absence of Divine Revel-
alton, never produced the idea of an
/ Intelligent God Nature is blind to
the moral law, and is also blind as re-
speeding the future destiny of man,
hence no comfort, no consolation, to
, the natural philosopher in death.
The intidel looking on the pages OF
nature, denies the God of the Bible,
when nature alone never produced
the idea of an intelligent God. The
,, preparation of the moral law which
has existed in the world, since the
promise made to Adam in the garden.
True, we can see the handiWork OF
God in nature. assisted 10y revelation,
hut IF we did not have the two Dyes
in revelation, 1.-THE old and new testi-
!. ment) we could not arrive at an IN
B. Outstanding OF 4 God even then. Ma
ture portrays to our mind plurality
of Gods. Look at Athens with heI
! 10000 Gods. There is an example oil
nature. showing the result of natures
/ best efforts; every man having a GOD
of his own likeness, like people like
!, Gods; but revelation reveals one true
r Holy, and living God. Where die
: the prophets get the idea of this one
, God, in NATUREl No Sir. II they
: did, why doesn't nature cause the
; skeptics of our land to form the same
idea7 All, it is blind to such an idea,
without The aid of revelation. You
may ask how does the heather of to-
day form an idea of a living God
IL is a matter of tradition with them
= handed down from father to son. hav
ing its origen IN Hebrew tradition
which is the oldest in the world. So
I ion who hourished about 600 year,
I before Christ. was O great man. bu
a whose mind was frightened by thu
proverbs of Solomon. The glimmer-
ing Pickering lamp which gave lgh
2 to the philosophers of Greece, wa
kindled by the radiatious from a fir,
that God kindled on mount Sinai
S Arabia from mystic lamp that shon'
I in a tabernacle pitched by Moses ii