The Washington times., 1895-04-08
He Said Human Hearts Want
More Than Philosophy.
AT NEW YORK AVENUE CHURCH
he Declared That the Eoblest Part of Life
Is Not to Be Found in splendor. but in
sacrifcs-Jesus' Socialism Is the Only
Hope for the Redemption of society-Ths
Supreme Qusstion-An Able Address.

For his first sermon in his new pas
torate, Rev. Wallace Radcliffe. at the New
York Avenue Presbyterian Church yester-
day morning spoke of the need Of the human
heart for something higher than mere phil
osophical doctrine and of the sufficiency of
Christianity to meet that need A great
crowd was present, filling the auditorium
and gallery and the entrances, and many
were turned away
The text was, 'Sir, we would see Jesus
the words of certain Greeks, who came to
hear when Jesus sat upon an ass colt and
taught the people at Bethany five days be-
fore the passover.
The Greeks" said DR.. Radcliffe, rep
resenting the consummate flower of ancient
thought than which no human philosophy
had gone farther, were skeptics But theirs
was an honest skepticism which, seeking
truth, advances from doubt to knowledge" :"
He condemned that skepticism which rests
in the same old doubts, repeating its ques-
tions over and over and never attempting
to reach solution of the problems of exist
ence. He stated that in material things, as
ness, mencontinually act upon uncertainties,
taking the chances and achieving noble
works, but in spiritual things many demand
absolute certainty or they will do nothing.
But the honest skeptic takes the risk, achiev-
ing out OF his doubts certainty aud out of
his efforts strength.
ANSWER TO THE GREEKS.
The supreme question always finds its
answer. To the Greeks it was. behold
the Lamb OF God" 1--WE try to answer the
needs of tie human soul with the aphorisms
or organization, with the formulas of phil
osophy, but the soul protests. Botany has
existed since there first were flowers, but
botany never yet appeased a guilty con-
science or soothed a troubled heart.
We are tempted to reply with creeds
and the categories of doctrine We study
the genealOgies and the geog of the
Bible. We analyZe the Paul and formulate
systems, but there always remains some
thing which our categories cannot answer
There are needs which they do not reach
The heart yearns for the personality of the
Savior In Him is the light, is the life,
of mankind.
The soul thirsts for God. A dominant
power, a living presence, that is Chris
tianity; looking into the human eye and
touching the living soul, a life pulsating
with love, not from the Divine lip, but
from the Divine heart. These words are
not only the cry Of the honest skeptic,
but n cry OF every human soul, in which
the nineteenth century answers to the first
1t is the call for deliyerance from the body
OF this death, an escape from sin. The
Greek had sought an answer in vain in the
groves OF the academy, in the philosophy
of the Epicureans, in the highest ideal OF
perfect, nawless beauty of surface and
appearance.
''The schools of all the centuries go
back and plagiariZe from the achieve
ments OF Greek philosophy, but we find
the Greek still looking away for some
thing TO be added to make life complete
The Lords answer to them was, And /,
If be lifted up from the earth, will draw
all men unto Me-
And in this he dashed to the ground their
hope of adding something to self; for His
highest message was thus that the glory
of man is in forgetfulness OF
self and in service and self-sacrifice even
unto death