St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1893-01-09

tue Oxygen ny ltSfil or Tue hydrogen Dy
itself, or any other element in nature
by itself, it will stay there alone for
ever and ever, and nothing will be
caused; that it is only when they are
brought tOgcther,,In given relations.
when they are properly combned-hear
it-when they are properly combined,
that you get any resultant. Now then,
that is all ask. Who combines them?
Give me some chance to come to Him,
to the Great Combiner, and l shall be
rcontent.
| have seen no theory anywhere that
by any chance embarrasSeS me III the
last analysis in this work of conscience
when L think about Him, for, take any
5ttring you please and go back along the
line of the order of our being, take any
Line of yonr ancestry you may select,
whether you may say of yourself that
you.were not the son of Seth, and you
was not the son of this one and that one
and the other, all through the long line
till you come to the great Adam (which
was the son Of Adam, which was the
son of God;". or. you can take that other
line. which was the son OF an ape, which
was the son OF polliwog, which was
tire son of prOtoplaSm, back to the last
analysis Il prefer the first). but take the
last laughter you come always to a
point where, somehow, the Great Com
biner must come in to help you over the
gulf and out of the chas M; for you will
not tell me that you have seen this
protUplasm, this first form, that you
have seen this wriggling before is ex-
listed in order that it might wrigge
itself into existence. Laughter You
will not ask me to think of it. But,
somehow, always we come to
This Infinite Chasm
over which nothing but the arm of Al
mighty God can lift us, back to the Great
Combiner; and the thoughtful and great
and scholarly men who have gone astray
in this thought, anxious above measure
concerning the truth in the universe,
have come up to this and staggered and
fallen; trained on another side, giving
all their energies TO one particular de-
partment of their being, they have not
been poised for its best adjustment, and
so they stagger away from the fact. but
there forever is the gulf. They might
cry out and find relief if they would
adopt the wall or shout of that old Rus
sian poet.
Il am, @ God, and surely Thou must
be-"
Somehow we have come over the
chasm, and nothing yet discovered but
the arm of Almighty God can lift us
over-the Great Combiner brought out
by the very forces of science.
James Martineau-not exactly sound
in his theology, but with a good head
and some magnificent thinking machin-
cry inside of it, has i'll substance said
that it is Ditiful to see these men along
the borders Of the chasm CRYING out and
saying, ''Grant us some tiniest granule
of power, with even an ininitesimal
tendency toward increment, and out
of that little thing, too small
to make case Of cause. and
altogether too small to object to laugh
teri. out Of that we will show you the
sum of the universe" This inHnitesimal
tendency to increment is treated III
their thought after this fashion,: 1t is
simultaneously equated backward to-
ward the cause into nothing, and for
ward toward the effects into the sum of
things, Then he says: ut is mean
device for the philosopher to equate
causation with hairs breadths, and put
it out at compound interest through all
time, and then deny the debt" Laugh
ter. And it is vain, after all, for,
while for the purpose of logical theft
it is easier when dOled cut through
endless ages than when it is condensed
into one stroke, yet the power that
eyentuated the universe IS nothing less
than infinite and nothing lower than
idiylne-back to the Great ComDiner.
1t is comfort, then. for me, out of the
very depths and in the very midst of our
best thinking, concerning this great and
'eyerlaStngly practical work going on
about us by possibly our taller and more
industrious brethren. that yet we do
come back to God. Why, as a practical
question getting hold OF the Combiner
settles many difficulty. Just across
this strip OF land, over yonder in Lake
Superior, some little time ago, d craft
was beaten by the tempest and got out
of the hands Of the pilot and went, bow
forward,
Toward a Tremendous Reef,
in the night. with all overwhelming tenn
pest and boiling sea. and the captain
said, ''She'S gone; we're lOst!' But a
poor widow woman, over yonder in Jer-
sey, in q little quite town, had her only
son on that craft. and that night she
was awfully oppressed for the lad and
could not sleep, and on her knees she
got hold of the Great Combiner. and she
said SO Thou that didst stop the bier
VI tllC sui vi lllC NlNON vi ~ UiIls CdlC
for that craft" And He struck little
new combination i'll the elements, the
tempest smote the craft astern,she gave
a QuIvering leap over the reef, and
rocked and righted in cove of safety.
She had gotten hold of the Combiner,
that was all Over wonder on the New
England coast, IN one of those little
whaling town, just towards evening. a
whaling craft from tilree-yearS' voy-
age, pushed round and tried to make her
way in, but gale had come UP and the
storm was on. and the Whaler was
driven back. The poor people of the
town who were specially interested in
it, whose sons and husbands were on
board, went out and lined the shore
and looked and watched, but she did
not land She was driven back and
seemed to struggle as thing of life for
a single moment OF existence. One poor
woman went away in the dusk into a
little one-StOry, one-roomed cabin, III
which she lived, and there OH her knees
she reached up to the Great Combiner.
and there she stayed through the weary
night. And just at dawn stout, burly
Young man bounded into the door and
caught her up in his arms, saying,
"Oh, mother, knew you would pray
me ashore" She got hold of the Great
Combiner. Now, if he does not answer
prayer, we had better give up the whole
business. A voice: That's SOL Let
US not be deceived about it. Full, full
to the brim is the book and the history
of the church and the lives of men of
the gentle and 5leepless interferences
of the presence of the King. Let us
not be afraid of Him. l am afraid of
some things. / should be afraid of get
ting into hot water if l undertook TO
preach to you gospel that did not have
any power in it, or to give you religion
that did not have in it the liberated
forces of Almighty God, so you may re-
member that we have the fullest conf
idence in the religion of the Bible.
!, Now, let sus look moment at this
other antagonism of a different type al
together great and wonderful in its
scholarship and think Enough it IS
not nice thing to pass severe criti-
.ciSm) good deal less noble in its char
=acter than this other one, | mean the
higher critics, who clothe themselves
with the sacred veSture Of the holy of
holes by calling 1t Biblical scholarship.
They have a great train behind them
and q danUernuS train Thew take the