The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1896-08-16
THE VOICE OF THE PULPIT
A SUGGESTIVE DISCOURSE BASED ON
THE WORDS OF ST.. PAUL.
Rev. r. G. Murphy, Rector 81. Paul's
Church, ChfIIfcothc, o.. breaches on
the Topic ..Knovsfng I'm Part"

done away"
For now we see through a glass darkly.
but then face TO face: now / know in part;
but then shall I know even as i am
known."-I Corinthians xiii, 8. 10, Il.
The religious charIatan uses no such
words. This is not the language Of a man
whose chief resource Is pretension- I'M
posture speaks %vauntingly of what it knows
and sees-it claims to know everything.
The words Of st. Paul come TO US as the
words of a man whom we can trust. for he
confesses that he knows in part. prophesies
IN part.
We meet now and then the man who is
sure ~erywher and we find ii hard to
really trust him anywhere. He does vio-
lence to probability. Men. as we know
them. do not see so clearly. and the world.
as we know IL. is not read so easily. Il
would bs much pleased" said Lord Mel
bourne. eff / could be as cocksure OF any
one thing on earth as Macaulay IS OF every
thing"-a Judgment largely just. Loved
everywhere and read everywhere as a great
writer. MacauLSy. as a great historian, has
been put by, marked and discredited as a
victim to the intellectual vice OF always be-
ing sure.
Being sure Is not necessarily a crime.
and TO be insure is no essential mark of
virtue: but the man to whom the universe
II an a. b. c for simplicity and a multiple
cation table for coherency is not a man
who can lead the o~Den-minded and the
honest-hearted of the earth. Life is at
best a puzzle, and there is no use in say
ing IL Is not a puzzle. History Is a maze.
and the man who walks through three
centuries OF English life as you and /
would walk TO the postoffice is not a man
who. whatever the charm and dignity Of his
periods. can persuade US that he really
knows the world or which he speaks. Re-
serve in judgment is not only the part of
intellectual modesty. it is the mark also
of Intellectual discernment. The man who.
through any range OF this life's acreage,
claims to see all is below the mark not
only In what he claims. but in what he
sees. He fails. not in humility only. but
In observation The greater the mans
mind the nobler the heart. the more do the
real world which presses around us and the
real life which rises in us bring the as
surance that we know in part and that
we prophesy in part
But st. Paul Is very far from regarding
all claims TO knowledge as an intellectual
impertinence. Professions of certainty are
to him not altogether false. He knows
that there are problems which he cannot
EOINGf L&a+ tA1CLC - III AC
cannot answer: but he knows also that
there are truths which we may find, and
that through the massing shadows which
lie upon the worlds face are shot certain
lines Of light which have TRANSPORTED the
mystery of darkness into the mystery OF
love. He feels. as every honest man must
feel. that over us are unmeasured worlds
and that under us are unsounded depths,
but that none the less between the heights
above and the depths below he may keep a
measured pace upon the solid armament of
earth. He has somewhere to stand, he has
somewhat to teach The problems he cam
not solve have not unnerved him. The
truths he may not find have not robbed
him OF the truths which he may find, or
rather OF the truths which have come find
Ing him. Though we prophesy In part.
still we ~prophesy: though We know in
part-still we know.
Thus. st. Paul. while setting forth the
limitations Of knowledge. lays claims, i'm
the same breath, to the reality of knowl-
edge. In saying that there are things
which be does not know, he declares at the
same time and IN the same words that
there are things which he does know. In
refusing the pretension to all knowledge he
rejects the pessimism which houts the pos
sibility or any knowledge. The genius of
the practical man is his.
II Is not for the world. however, but for
the Christian that he speaks. First. then.
II Is as a Christian man that he recognizes
the limitations OF knowledge. 1t is as a
Christian man that he feels the weight
or problems which he cannot solve. IL is as a
Chrfst's apostle that he comes telling us
that the message which he brings is not
an algebraic formula for the reduction of
all mysteries TO him his message was not
Tor this reason false. There are some who
deny TO religion the right to explain any
thing because II does not explain every
thing; some refuse TO hear the Christian
gospel because 1t does not, for every mind.
bring some finished process of conviction.
some neat machinery of persuasion. The
presence OF some difficulties seems 10 ar
que the absence of all truth. Because we
say that we know in part they deny that
we know at all Because we confess that
we see through a glass darkly they assert
that there is on high no light which, fam
ing from sun to sun. from the unknowabIe
and the eternal breaks through the glass
OF time and mingles in the message of a
single life. movable AMI lovable unto each.
Such wass not st. Pauls conclusion. He
sees through a glass darby, but still he
sees, and the uncertain lines do not argue
the absence of all light there. or the ali
sence OF a true eye In him. That the lines
are on the glass proves the presence of
the light beyond. that he sees here and
there lines which are uncertain and which
he knows TO be uncertain, shows that the
eye Is true I'm part, IS potential master OF
its task. and that the seeing must. one
day. be face TO face"
Such a man is worth following. The
truth for which he stands is worth know
ing. worth fulfilling; for this truth has in
1t the authority OF life. the realness of ex-
perience. The Christian religion has not
come TO You and me banishing the dark
ness. but filling the darkness with the
presence OF God: il does not come ending
the difficulties. il comes finding God in
these and through these; it does not deny
the cross-but IL comes finding Christ upon
IT. The mysteries are here, are as real as
ever, but through each love speaks. Each
IS a mystery which attracts. upIifts-does
not -repel-because IL meets US through
loves TRANSPORTATION.
1 dare not tell you, then that there will
ever come a time in life when all clouds
shall roll away. when the burdens OF the
mind shall fall and pass. when the dark
ness which hangs its curtain through the
hearts distances OF hope, shall i'm the fold
ing Of those curtains scatter and melt be-
for some Eastern sun. But 1 dare tell you