Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-06-12
THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH.
1t Will Guide Into Right Thinking if
1t Only Be Encouraged.
PATIENCE Is ONE REQUISITE.
4 Great Deal Of the Doubt About Religion
Results From Haste.
PEOPLE WILL NOT INVESTIGATE

rushing, mighty wind, and Q sight As o.
tongues Of fire; and the Holy Spirit came.
God never forgets that We have eyes and
ears. Even the most spiritual truth Ii
taught by symbols, is somehow made to
have an audible and visible accompaniment.
Gods teaching is uniformly sacramental
that is, the inward and spiritual grace ha,
an outward and visible sign. Baptism is q
spiritual cleansing, and its symbol is water;
the Lords Supper is spiritual strengthen.
ing, and its symbol is bread and wine.
So the wind and the FIRE of Whitsunday
were meant for symbols, were intended not
only for assurance, so that men might be
certain of the benediction of the Holy
Spirit, but also for instruction. They were
designed to teach us something about the
Holy Spirits work. Jesus called the Holy
Ghost the Spirit Of Truth. See how we'll
these symbols and that name accord to-
gether Wind, which blows away the OBJ
scuring clouds of error, and fire, which
burns away the dross of falsehood-these
are fit representatives. of the mission and the
purpose of the Spirit of Truth.
He Lives in All Life.
This is one of the names of God. God Is
the Spirit of Truth. God is the Father;
that is, He is the source of all the life of the
universe. God is also the Son; that is, He
has manifested himself here among US so
that we may know His love and His will
And God is the Holy Ghost; that is, 1t is
His voice which speaks in the conscience Of
man, which spoke there ages before Christ
came, and speaks still now that Christ has
gone away into heaven. The revelation of
God which is contained in this part Of His
threefold name is that He is an ever-pres-
ent God. God guides the race. 1t is He
who lives in all life, and thinks In all
thought. Progress is but the consequence
of His constant urging of mankind onward
and upward.
The doctrine of evolution is a statement
in terms of science of this truth about God
which we emphasize to-day. The world is
growing better; man is continually learning
the secrets of the mysterious universe about
him, and the laws Of his own best life, and
SO is making marvellous discoveries, and
solving old hard problems. is getting slowly
civilized and Christianized. And the i'm
pelling force which lies behind all this is
God, God the Holy Ghost, the Spirit of
Truth. Jesus promised that God would
guide us into all truth. And God is doing
that, every day we live.
Heresy as Truth In tho Minority.
God is back of all the discussions He it
is who prompts the questions We think.
because God has set us thinking. God
speaks by the lips of men who stand in
pulpits; but he speaks also by the lips of
other men who scarce know what a pulpit
looks like. God is heard in the utterances
of the orthodox. but not in them alone.
Often the heretics have had the larger
share of the truth of God. Heresy, indeed,
is not unfrequentlv truth in the minority.
1t is accounted heresy because the great
body Of men have not yet learned it. Pres
emily 1t makes its way, and is stamped
orthodox. But true or not, orthodox or not,
all search after spiritual realities is inspired
of God. By stress of opposition, by sharp
ness of criticism, bv any discipline which
will makes us think, the spirit of truth
guides us into truth.
There is no conception of God which meets
more closely the sincerest longines of this
generation than this: That God is the Spirit
of Truth, the guide and helper of men to-
ward truth. Sin and sorrow are with us
now as always, crying out, in the prayer
hat never ends, for God the Father and
God the Redeemer, but never before has
INV generation so cried out for truth, so in
crested itself seeking after truth. And we
ouch the heart Of living questions which
living men are asking, and we teach that
God above us loves truth more than we do
md desires us to know the truth even more
han we desire to know it. God will guide
Is into truth.
Milton's Idea of Noble Poem.
Whoever, then, would know the truth of
God it is essential, first, that he loves God,
md then that he is willing to be guided.
Jesus said that knowledge of divine truth
depends on character, that the doctrine of
rod is to be discovered by following the
will of God. That is true Of all manner of
ruth. The most potent factor in all
bought is character Milton was right
when he said that he who would write noble
,oem must first live noble poem. Poetry
S not to be composed by rule; the high
ecret is not attained by any amount of
about .iambics or dactylics.
Poetry comes out of the heart; its roots are
er In science, too, discoveries are made
" men who have the character of the dis
'overer! They must live right and they
must think right before they can know
light.
This is evidently and pre-eminently true
n religion. Spiritual things are spiritually
liscerned. Only the pure in heart can see
Tod.
There is, then, first, close connection be-
ween truth and goodness We will arrive |
u all the truth we need to know, if we will |
nut begin by living the best life we know
low to live. If any man will but follow
he best religious light that he has, and do /
lis nearest duty with all his might, and fol- |
ow Just as much of the divine will as he |
,nows, he will attain the highest truth; he |
ay is true, whether it is true of God or not |
Incapacitated for Truth.
Behind much unbelief there is q moral |
eason. St. Augustine said that any man
Who suffers himself to be guided by his five |
enses has five strong arguments against the |
Christian religion. No man who is habitu- |
lily profane, unchaste, dishonest, SANDER |
us of speech, liar, fierce and unforgiv- |
ng hater, can possibly know spiritual truth.
such a persons pronouncements upon re-
igion have almost as much value as deaf |
mans opinion of the Ninth Symphony of |
Beethoven. He has simply incapacitated
limself for spiritual truth.
As much may be said, though little less
of anyone who lives foolishly,
uperfciallv, frivolously, who does mean
hings, thinks small thoughts, lives in the
over side of his nature, and looks down
ather than up. What such a person says
ither for or against any doctrine of re-
igion is to be classed with the comments
Fhich trequenter of the dime museums
hight make upon the plays Of Shakespeare
1t must be recognized that there is such
act in human nature as absolute incapacity
or judgment. He only can give right judg-
,ent who is capable Of intellectual and
piritual sympathy with that of which he