The enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 188?-1899, 1892-08-31

the paths of God. Sometimes In paths
OF worldliness. Our feet, q divine and
glorious machinery for usefulness and
work, so often making missteps, 80
often going in the wrong direction. God
God knowing every STEP the patriarch:
saying: "Thou settest print on the
heels of my feet" Crimes Of the hand,
crimes Of the tongue, crimes Of the eye.
crimes of the ear not worse than crimes
of the foot o, we want the wings OF
humility to cover the feet Ought we
not to go into self-abnegation before
the all-searching, all-scrutinizing, all
trying eye of God? The seraphs do.
How much more we. "With twain he
covered the feet"
All this talk about the dignity Of hui
man nature is braggadocio and sin.
Our nature started at the hand of God
regal, but 1t has been pauperized. There
is well in Belgium which once had.
very pure water, and 1t was stoutly
masoned with stone and brick; but that
we'll afterward became the center of the
battle of Waterloo. At the opening Of
the battle the soldiers with their sabers
compelled the gardener, William Won
Kylsom, to draw water out Of the well
for them, and it was very pure water.
But the battle ragged, and three hun
dred dead and half dead were flung into
the well for quick and easy burial, so
that the well of refreshment became
the we'll of death, and long after, peo-
pie looked down into the well, and they
saw the bleached skulls but no water.
So the human soul was well of good,
but the armies of sin have fought
around it, and fought across 1t and been
slain, and it has become well of skel-
etons Dead hopes, dead resolutions,
dead opportunities, dead ambitions. An
abandoned well; unless Christ shall re-
open and purify and fill it as the well
Of Belgium never was. Unclean, un-
clean!
Another seraphic posture in the text:
"With twain He covered the face" That
means reverence Godward. Never so
much irreverence abroad In the world
as to-day You see 1t in the defaced
statuary, in the cutting out of figures
from fine paintings, in the chipping of
monuments for memento, in the fact
that military guard must stand at the
grave of Grant and Garfield, and that
old shade trees must be cut down for
frewood, though fifty George Morrises
beg the woodmen to spare the tree, and
that calls corpse a cadaver, and that
speaks of death as going over to the ma
jority, and substitutes for the reverent
terms father and mother, "the old man"
and 'the old woman" and finds moth
ing impressive in the ruins Of Baalber
or the columns of Karnac, and see no
difference In the Sabbath from other
days, except IL allows more dissipation,
and reads the Bible in what is called
higher criticism, making 1t not the
Word OF God, but good book with
some fine things in IL. Irreverence new
er so much abroad. How many take the
name OF God in vain, how many trivial
things said about the Almighty. Not
willing to have God in the world,
they roll up an idea Of sentiment
ality and humanitarianism and Inn
pudence and imbecility, and call it God.
No wings OF reverence over the face,
no taking off of shoes on holy ground.
You can tell from the way thoy talk
they could have made a better world
than this, and that the God Of the Bible
shocks every sense Of propriety. They
talk OF the love Of God in way that
shows you they believe 1t does not make
any diff erence how bad man Is here,
he will come In at the shining gate.
They talk Of the love Of God In such a
way which shows you they think 1t is a
, general Jail delivery for all the aban'
doned and the scoundrelism Of tho uni
verse. No punishment hereafter for
any wrong done here.
The Bible gives us two descriptions Of
, God, and they are just opposite, and
, they are both true. In one place the
, Bible says God Is love. In another
place the Bible says God Is consuming
, fire. The explanation Is plain as plain
I can be. God through Christ is love
, God out Of Christ is fire. To win the
, one and escape the other we have only
I TO throw ourselves body, mind and sou
I into Christs keeping. "No," say
4 Irreverence, 81 want no atonement,
want no pardon, / want no interven
; ton; will go up and face God, and
, will challenge Him, and | will defy
: Him, and will ask Him what he wants
9 TO do with me-" So the finite confronti
s the infinite, so tack hammer tries h
a break thunderbolt, so the breath o
q human nostrils deHes the everlasting
e God, while the hierarchsof Heaven bow
: the head and bend the knee as tn,
a Kings chariot goes by, and the arch
!. angel turns away because he canno
+ endure the splendor, and the chorus o
o all the empires of Heaven comes In will
: full diapason, "holy, holy, holyl"
Q Reverence for sham, reverence for tn
S old merely because 1t is old, reverence
g for stupidity however learned, rever
v ence for incapacity however finely in
8 augurated, have none. But we wan
+ more reverence for God, more reverenc
]. for the tents, more reverence 70
/ the Bible, more reverence for the pure
j. more reverence for the good. Reverence
, a characteristic Of all great natures
l. You hear II in the oil Of the master OF
l. atorios You see IL In the Raphaels an
IT Titians and Ghirla ndijos. You stud
Il it in the architecture Of the Aholiab
II and Christopher Wrens. Do not be fir
1. pant about God. Do not joke abou
ts death. Do not make fun Of the Bibl'
n No not deride the Eternal The bright