The New South., 1893-06-17
EXPERIENCE AMp LIFg.


/ The Late Philips Brooks on the Way by
Which God Leads us.
II ~ truth which we have oil learned
from some experience through which
we have been led. that any great ex
periencc, seriously and greatly met and
/ passed through. makes the man who
has passed through Il always afterward
purer medium through which the
highest truth may shine on other men.
Have yon not seen it3 Here j. some
man whom yon have known long. You
| have seemed 10 have reached the end of
All that II II possible for you 10 get
from him, al that IL Is possible Tor him
10 do for you. Nothing has come
/ through him from behind 10
you Yon have seen him. You
have seen sort Of CLINT or giIm-
mer of reflection Of Gods light
upon The urfaec of His life, as the sun
might be reflected on plate of steel
But nothing Of God or Gods truth has
come through Him to you ns the sun
shines through a lens Of glass, pouring
its increased intensity upon the wood
| II sets in ilame.
But some day you meet that man,
and he is altered Tenderer, warmer,
richer, he seems 10 be full Of truthsand
revelations which he easily pours out
TO you. Now you not merely see him;
you see through him 10 things behind,
As you talk with him. as you look into
his face, you see with new surprising
clenrness what God Is, what man Is,
what great thing II Is TO live, what
t.. c4.s4.f
and pathetic are sorrow and happiness,
and fear and hope, You can not begin
to tell the change by merely thinking
that the man has learned some new
facts, and is telling them to you, as
book might tell them from its printed
page The very substance of the man is
altered, SO tina. he stands between the
eternal truths and you no longer MS a
screen, which shuts them from your
sight, hut as an atmosphere through
which they come 10 You all radiant.
You asls what has gotne 70 him, and
YOU hear az you arb near enough for
him to tell you HIS most sacred history
of some profound experience. He has
passed through an overwhelming sor-
row. He has stood upon the brink Of
some tremendous danger He has spent
i dny and night IN the deep of some
hewilderinR doubt, He has been over
mustered by some sudden joy. IL may
have been one of these or another.
The result has been in such change OF
the very substance of the nature, that
whereas before Il was all thick and
muddy, SO that whatever light fell up
on IL was either east aside or else alb
sorbed into II and lost, now II makes
truth first visible, and then clear and
convincing TO the fcllow-men who see
truth through It.
And when yon try TO analyze this
change, do you not find that II consists
In an impregnation Of the nature which
he has had this new experience with
two forees--one love for truth, the
other love for man? and il is in the
perfect combination of these two in
any life that the clarifying Of that life
into power Of transmission and ir-
radiation truly lies. What man goes
worthily through sorrow and does not
come out hating shams and pretenccs,
hungcring for truth; and also full OF
sympathy for his fellow-man whose ca.
pacity for suffering has been revealed
20 him by his own, 1t is the perfect
blending of those two constituents in
the new nature Of ycGr tried and pa
tieut friend have given him this won
drous power Of showing God and truth
TO you.
What man goes bravcly and faithful.
ly through doubt, and does not bring
out soul 70 which truth seems to be
infinitely precious, and the human sonl
the most mysterious, sacred thing ii
the world Out Of the union Of those
two persuasions has come the prophet
ship OF this life which now You can not
look at without seeing the infinite be
hind il made clear by It.
Surely. II he can believe this ther
the way in which God let's His children
encounter great, and sometimes terri
bic. experiences is not entirely mex
plicable. Surely II these souls which
now are deep in sorrow, or are being
/, east up and down and back and forth il
, doubt. are being thus annealed ant
purified that they may come 80 be re
vealers, nediatorS between God ans
their fellow-men, then into our wonder
!. at the existence of doubt and sorrow
in Gods world there comes d little ray
Of light, Who would not bear amy
thing that could refine mis- life into tit
ness for such privilege as that9