St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1895-08-19
THE DIVINE ATTRIBUTES OF
INFINITUDE, LIBERTY AND, y ),
ETERNITY. 80
THE CHRISTIAN MYSTERY.
NEVER WILL THERE COME "A:
TINE FOR 1T TO BE ra.,
SOLVED. I'M
ETERNITY THE ONLY soLUT1oo,
The Able and Thoughtful Sermon
of Father Layv1er Delivered
Yesterday. -,

Rev. Frank LaWler delivered a
very lucid and thoughtful discourse
yesterday upon the subject, Beyond
Our Ken" 1t is well worth a careful
reading:
Mysteries are inseparable from a SUI
pernatural religion. The truths of the
higher world cannot be subjected to
the Scalpel and the microscope. The
mysteriouSness of Christianity is not,
an objection to it, but rather a pre-
sumption in its favor. How could it
but be mysterious If it is messag
from a supernatural world? How could
1t be otherwise if it tells of the soul,
of eternity, of God? Christianity is
full Of mysteries. 1t is a grand Sc
rieS of them from the crib of Bethle-
hem to the throne of the august Trim
ity. What are mysteries? They are
not palpable abSurditieS. They are
not against reason, but beyond it.
A contradiction of reason Is not a
truth. Reason and revelation both
come from God and are not at war.
They are not doctrines wholly unintel-
ligible. An entirely unmeaning asser-
ton could not be the object of an in
tellectual act. They are religious
truths partly comprehended and part
ly beyond the grasp Of the mind. God
in His revelation has discovered their
existence to US, but by no process of
reasoning can we fully comprehend
how they exist. That they are we
know from Gods word, but how they
exist outmeaSures our intelligence
Other hidden truths may become clear,
but of religious mysteries we must say
that there will never come a time
when they will be solved. Though they
defy solution, they are not all dark
ness. What would we have known
without them? What would we have
known Of the future life, of mans des-
tiny, of eternity, of God? AS the tele-
scope aids us to learn something of
the realms above US so revelation af-
fords US glimpse of the realities be-
yond the stars. The
TRUTHS OF REVELATION
are so many rays of heavenly light to
guide man through the obscure path
ways Of life back to the mansions of
MS Fathers house. If God is so boun-
tlful as to give us such glimpses of the
world beyond why are weak mortals
SO thoughtleSs, so unreasonable as to
demand the full food Of heavenly light
Whlch they are a myriad times less
capable of receiving than the dewdrop
is capable of containing the ocean.
Are these mysteries? To ask whether
mysteries exist in religion is to ask
whether God knows more than man.
AS soon as God condescends to make
known facts about Himself, as soon
as we read in the Bible about the Di
vine attributes, about infinitude and
liberty and immensely and eternity
ana lmmutability, SO soon must there
be mysteries. Reason which is crea-
ted and limited can never be the meas
ure OF truths which are supernatural
and Infinite. Who will deny that the
scholar Is able to reveal hundreds of
tnlngS Which are obscure to the I'M
lettered. If SO, if one human intellect
Is capable of containing natural truths
which are hidden from another shall
not the Divine intellect contain truths
concerning the higher world which the
creature is unable to fathom? Mark
thls dlfference. Though the ignorant
man may dispel his darkness and see
clearly what was before inexDlicabIe
TO MIN, the true, religious mystery will
never be adequately comprehended
never cleared up, although the human
mind be raised to it's highest possible
development. Study as we will ad-
vance as we may, the number of mys-
ferrous supernatural realities will
never be decreased by a single one
Ihere are two essentially different
heids OF knowledge. There is the do
main OF natural truth. There is tho
order OF supernatural truth. The FIRST
IS the province of reason, the other
belongs to faith.
Inc assertion that Christianity is
iull OF mysteries may sound stranga
III view Of the fact that if has ca
much revelation, but it is profoundly
true. revelation, if it be supernat-
ural, implies mystery, not denies it IF
christianity had no mysteries it Womb
De raise. If the human mind could
IulIy grasp the divine nature. Cod
would cease to be God and man womb
no longer be a created being. Whv
mas Christianity so many mysterious
truths, II not for the simple reason
that 1t has so much revelation9 Mvs-
terry is the accompaniment of knoyvI-
edge. The more we learn the more
dlfflculties we will have. So in re-
ligioE. If we did not
KNOW FROM REVELATION
that there are three persons in one
Goa there would be one mystery less
put our knowledge would be less az
wen. 1t we never heard that Christ
became man for our salvation the
mystery of the incarnation would he
| a nonentity for US.
When you hear people boast that
they want no mysteries in their re-
hslon assure them that such a home
made creed would be senseless. and
soulless and Goddess. They are I'M
consistent to reject what the spark of
human intelligence cannot illlmindIi
Are they so exacting elsewhere? Their
reluctance to accept religious truths,
because they are impervious to reaa.
son would not be so surprising wera
they but consistent. Why, myriads of
things surround them, the fact of
whose existence they know and adj
nit, but whose mode of being thew are
poWerless to explain. In the material
universe there are mysteries in the airl
we breathe, in the sunlight which en-
Velops US, in the flower by the road
side, in the tiny drop of water and in
the little grain of sand-everywhere
true, reason may go far into the
realm of phenomena, but when IT
tries to explain the why and the how of
things it is often brought to a stand-
still even in the natural truth. Were
the physical world reduced to what
we can can completely understand
what an infinitesimal place it would
be! Who does not see the philosophy
of Bacon's language that the mind
so far as possible should be widened
to the boundlessness of Gods mys-
! terles and not the mysteries narrowed
to the limits of human understanding:
ana that the great minds of all the
ages unite in condemning a shallow
nteliectualism which pretends to ex-
plain catalogue. label and stow away
In brain cells Gods infinite works.
And in the little world called self can
al