Grand Rapids herald. [volume] (Grand Rapids, Mich.) 1892-1959, 1892-03-13
FEW OF Us BELIEVE
In the Old Idea Of the Devil.
Herns, 0edy and All.
YET The DUAlIsM Of NATURE
Is stin ThoseughIy Mlnslsl in the Web
and Wool Of Our Nssions-
Progress Il Dsvsaopneas

ciatsve congregation the following pow
erful sermon. which - publlshed upon
the request OF many who were inl-
pressed b. lts potent logic.
''Betsold will send my messenger,
and he shall prepare my uay before
me; and the Lord whom ye Geek shall
suddenly come 70 the temple, even the
messenger Of the covenant, whom We
delight in; behold he shall come sasth
The Lord Of Hosts"
When an age ripeus, II ripens IA .
man or = group Of men, and in that
man or men 10 the seed OF coming
ages. Pewel az.
The devil 10 not wholly out OF mod
ern thought yet. Few people believe
IN him. horns, body and al. but very
few OF Us. II any. have him entirely
out OF our miuds. The dualism OF
naturc--tEe idea from which the devil
sprunG. in still thoroughly mingled ia
the woOf and web Of our general no.
tons. A good spirit does not seem to
satisfy us; We have 70 think Of = bad
spirit. or of gross matter in order 10
throw this idea Of good irte proper re-
lief. We reject the idea of total de-
pravity. and .alk easily of the
Divistsy % nunan aassrs,
But still continue to have . rather gen
eral contempt for it after all; but even
alter VS. have come to believe pretty
thoroughly in human nsture, We still
feel that there 10 eoparet,ou between
human nature As4 ~ sest sof nature.
We have not cOne4 - oon6dently be-
lievc in the divinity q I'll nature. yet
this Of course We must reach. unless we
own ourselves mistaken in our belief IN
the one universal god.
We show this dualIsm in many ways,
and especially In our distrust Of the
theories that tend to show that man 10
directly related 70 all other forms of
natures life. Many people who are
thoroughly convinced that Darwin WAS
right in his theory ~ to the way in
which all the species of the lower an
imals have originated, are inclined to
revolt ~ the thought that man comes
in, too, under the same law; they feel
that the Divinity is somehow lost out
of MIN, If man must own direct kin
ship with the lower orders. and 90 they
claim that . special interference WAS
required when man came upon the
earth; that the creative life must have
interposed in him an entirely new ele-
ment, radically different from any,
Thing that had existed before. So, too,
as regards
The Origin 81 Csnscfsacs
To many people, it seems to overthrow
all reason for believing in moral obliga-
ton, to show that our sense Of right
and wrong has been derived from eie-
nents that had already been found ia
nature; il seems 40 IL there could be no
divine authority in the sense of
fought" unless 1t came into the soul OF
man by mIracuouelv direct revelation.
1t IL often . serious moral crisis when =
thoughtful person becomes convinced
that ethics have been developed under
the same laws of natural sequence
that reign throughout all nature. At
first 1t seems to he handing ell that is
sacred in life over 10 the custody Of
Satan or matcrialism, aud the new in.
SEPARATION only comes when one dis.
covers that there are no barriers Ia ma
ture; that If there be no Satan. there ID
20 reignipg power of evil. aud that II
God really has power everywhere and
in Ill his laws, that 1t docs not matter
hy what voice the Eternal has spoken.
He will believe the Law of duty that has
been forced upon the experience of
arimalss and man, ~ being quite q
Divine Is If spoken in audible tones
from Mt. Sinai. In fact. - more d.
vine. When the law of Ged has been
written with finger ON tables of stone,
the stones may fall, and she law shat
tered. On the other hand il the Gem.
mandmsnts of the Lord have been
learned by
cesturies ef struggle
And stumbling. but Rave always grown
more and moro clear to mans mind
then We may surely feel that they rest
not On the caprice Ut . desty's nat. but
upon the eternal, unchanging will OF
an everything God. In the same way
= remnant Of the supernatural max e.
ne feel that oil great souIf--and their
experience -are special providepces,
more or less miraculous interferences
with human lives; the new thought
would make ne see that every expsr.
icnce is woven into the whole ~ vitality
important to il all. and that the Infiults
Llfe works in one, no more than in ell.
Some lives and SEINE epochs embody
apparently the working Of the divine
Law, but il - always present IN equal
force, even ia the obscyue and darg
corners of history And human life
Conversions are regarded ~ euperna.
tural, quite ~ much b. maLy People,
~ il they had No belief in an evei
present God.
In this weeks Chrissisn Union there
| il q story OF remarkable trAnsfoIma.
ton in character. IL l. tire life ct Nj
chaeI Dunn. whose funeral occurred IN
Brooklyn . fortnight s.nte. Tins mar
/ had been cfimlnai. or II ieast il
prison. during thirty -hse years Of I'M
life. lie had been isehind the bare ID
almost every country in the csvillzed
world. IIis parents had been vicious
| he had bad no training IN e5fher hene
school or church, and only learned bss
alphabet when - yeafs Of sgs while ID
| jail. He had heen in jail five fimes -
fore Ire was Il years old. and later he'd
The n>oqt varied experience N
An mssss ~ pssfssssty.
Finally he drops into Jerry Nc
Auley's one day, and Jerry felss hin
that re can BE happy and ~ bonee
man il he will. 81 locked II him kln<
Of dazed ike, reported Nailaei after
ward. NE honest or hapfy: me. thei
had never had home ner aueht bu
| from hand 10 mouth IN the few msnth'
| I'd b. out.
But Jerry's prophecy came true. apt
| fer these later years tise old 1sI bird
| has been raint. whose cossecrecate<
life might well shame many . cult
|. waited Chsistssn child If an earnex
home asd msny prayers. he cstae
| iished Industrial homes m New York
Chicago. sAn Frareisoe. rhils1<sphss