The evening herald. [volume] (Shenandoah, Pa.) 1891-1966, 1892-06-13
"THH FOLLY OF FOOLS"
Rev. Powick's Sunday Evening DIscours
on the Above Subject.

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Rev. Powici1's Sunday Evening Discourse
on the Above Subject.
The theme of Sunday evenings dis.
course in the Methodist Episcopal church
was furnished by Prov. XIV-8, THE folly
of fools is deceit" No one wants to be
fool, and few think they are fools. Usually
men are fools only because they are
deceived Deceit is the raw material upon
which folly feeds. We hear much abou,
the wickedness Of the human heart, but not
so much about its deceitfulness. We are
told that ''the heart is deceitful above all
things and again we read of the deceiva
bleness of unrighteousness" and "thc
deceitfulness of sim
From all this we learn that sin beclouds
the intellect so far at least, as JUS
apprehension of spiritual trut tn is con-
cerned, Three stages of spiritual blindness
are described in the word, which account
for the folly of fools who exclude God
from their thoughts, viz; what we may
call the original, the ethical and the
judicial, The natural man receiveth not
the things OF the Spirit OF God neither
can he know them for they are spiritually
discerned." Again, If our gospel is hid
it is hid to them that are lost, in whom the
God of this world hath blinded the minds
of them that believe not" Again it is
said of them that receive not the love of
the truth "For this cause God shall send
them strong delusion to believe lie that
they all might be damned who believe
not the truth, but have pleasure in un-
righteousness"
God hardened Pharosh's heart, but not
until after he had repeatedly hardened his
own heart; then he was judicislly hardened
by God as penalty for his own folly. 1t
is eternally true that when men know God
and glority Him not as God, their foolish
over to reprobate mind. These things
show us the peril of trifing with the truth
of God and of tampering with the con-
science. A "single eye" is the price of
moral illumination. Jesus himself laid
down the law Of spiritual insight when he
said, "he that is willing to do. shall know"
We also learn from these things that
men may sincerely hold false views and
conscientiously persue wrong practices.
This is sufficient to account for the strange
freak of the New York clergyman who
. wants the churches to promote the cause Of
temperance by going into the saloon busi-
ness and conducting it upon christian
principles. Such a suggestion has been
impossible but for the deceivableness oi
unrighteousness. This also explains how
J it was that good men could ever
! justify human slavery. 1t is also
sufficient to account for the hellish inquisi.
f ton without assuming that every inquisitol
A was friend incarnste. These men may
have been conscientious In the belief that
l they were right, but they were neverthe-
r less deluded. Many of the strange incon.
sistencf Of life result not so much from
r hypocrisy as from the deceitfulness of sin
5 But it ought ever to be remembered that
we are responsible for being deceived. The
cause is clearly revealed and the cure il
r within easy reach. Our moral notions are
our own product, and if they are not cor
rect it is our own fault. AS to essentia
saving truth, absolute certainty is attainablC
? by the wayfaring man though fool Un.
aided human vision has never been able tC
: discover the deep things of God, "but Goo
3 hath revealed them unto us by His spirit
= And He that is spiritual judgeth all thing
3 vet he himself is Judged OF no man,