The herald., 1896-12-21
AMONG THE CHURCHES
Gospel Truths Handed
DOsn
themes FROM The HOLY WRIT
The Prophets and the Apostles
Drawn Upon
HOW TO LIVE RIGHT TOLD
The Ways Of Peace and Righteousness
Pointed Out
Mauy Men of One Mind Concerning the I'm.
The Ways Of Peace and Righteousness
Pointed Out
Many Men Of One Mind Concerning the Inn
portancs Of Salvation
II the People Will Do as Told Yesterday
They Will Be Better-The Theos-
ophists and Spiritualists.
Logic, Rhetoric.

Rev. B. w. F. Tayler preached to
large congregation yesterday morning
from ST. Matthew XIV, AZ: watch,
therefore, for ye know not what hour
your Lord doth come" A great deal of
the loose theological thinking of the pres
ent day seems to ignore altogether such
a doctrine as the second coming of our
Lord. The constant recurrence of day
after day. each bringing it's well-worn
and familiar routine; the constant rising
and the setting of the sun, the swift and
steady flow of days. months, seasons,
years and centuries, the rising and pass
ing of generation, empire. state and ma
tion-all these conspire to create in the
mind of the average non-ChrlStla1l-
if not, indeed, in the minds of many ac-
tual ChriStianS-the impression that the
world and all that is in it are under
obedience to some law which guarantees
it's permanence and assures it of the
same continuous routine. 1t stands to
reason that men who cannot accept the
simple Mosaic statement, that in the
beginning God created the heavens and
the earth" most naturally fail to grasp
the force and necessity of the advent
upon it of it's Creator. There are even
those who admit the beginning of the
world by a special creative fiat of AL
mighty God, and who believe that SEN
ltient human creatures exist by his Will,
land at last must return to him, but who
cannot and do not grasp the truth of the
Son of God standing in the latter days
upon the earth, making of this revolving
sphere his judgment seat and gathering
before him in the very home of their
labors and experience all the human be-
ings who ever trod its wastes or thronged
its cities.
Were we to analyze the causes which
undeie this lack of appreciation of what
Holy Scripture tells us is the dividing
line between time as we understand it.
and eternity. as we shall comprehend it,
we should find tnat the main cause is
the failure to recognize a personal God
to whom we are responsible for our NOR
al actions We may speak in general
terms of an "overruling Providence
am "omnipotent and omnipresent Deity"
Supreme Ruler of the Universe" but
these set phrases and expressions have
been perverted to such a degree by
loose and ill-regulated thinking-not by
sober and conscientious free thought
but by shallow and, crude conceptions
of the great majesty of God-that he
whom many of us delight to call Our
Father is, nevertheless, being so far
off, SO enwrapped in the majesty of his
solitary and unapproachabe grandeur,
so great in the vastness of eternal inf1n-
itude, that the sense of personal touch
and contact with him has been lost, and
we even throw aloft our prayers to him
as though we feared they might be lost
ere they reached his throne in yonder
space. Coupled with this false concep
tion Of him is that other conception-its
necessary corollary-that we are so lit
tie, so insignificant, so unimportant,
among the many manifestations and
energies of nature which demand the
oversight and guidance of God, that it
Co., ,.,,1- boz !,
gives us that personal attention and
oversight which he gives to the throb-
bing of the suns as they throw out their
flames into space or to the rush of the
planets as they sweep along the majes-
tic circle of their orbits, With the Psalm
ist, but in different sense, we echo the
cry: Lord, what is man that thou hast
such respect unto him or the son of
man that thou so regardest him?" And
this sense of the fairness of God, this
conception that he does not concern him
self unnecessarily about what we are and
what we do, very naturally creates in
us feeling that when we die, as we call
it-when this mortal body assumes the
rigidity of death and the immortal spir-
it passes into another condition of ex-
istence-it is of very little actual con-
Germ to God, for at that moment-aye,
every moment-from one to five souls are
passing through the same experience
currence it can make but little differ
ence to him; that the angel of death
simply makes an entry Of it, checks us
off, SO to speak, and so the process goes
on. 1t is not that there is no belief in God
There are very few persons who do not
really believe In the existence of a God.
But there is lack of perception as to
Just what relationship the individual
soul occupies to the Divine Majesty.
This loose and ill-regulated thinking
It is which invests the Creator with the
same attributes which we possess; which
imagines that he. like us. can only do
one thing at a time; which conceives
that the same limitations of oversight
and action which surround us actually
surround and fetter him. And yet moth
ing can be clearer. if we only think a
little more deeply, that If there be
God, If there be One dwelling in the vast
chambers of eternity who commanded
chaos to evolve into order and symmetry
and design, 1t is plain that he must be
possessed of faculties and powers of
oversight which immeasurably trans
cend the puny efforts and abilities of
mortal man. Apart from revela tion,
this is logical necessity. And If he
possesses such attributes of power. how
much greater the attributes of love and
care which are of all attributes the di-
vinest? Indeed, all through the books
and writings of those whose lives have
Deen most IN accordance With that law
of perfection which is Gods law, we
find series of splendid experiences and
series of magnificent testimonies that
God, in his infinite grandeur and great
ness. yet stoops down to take by the
hand the feeble sons of earth and as
sure them of his own personal interest in
them, watching their progress. noting
their failures, and helping them in the
bitter struggles and difficulties which
beset them. AT one glance his eye sees
everything. for he is omniscient his
hand is stretched out to help for he is
omnipotent his personal touch and ca
ress are assured. for he is omnipresent
He is always watching, guarding, keep
ing. Every action of our lives is i'm
printed with unimpeachable accuracy
upon the eternal mind of God.
The Advent season, therefore, bids
IN ho an tho nouet ant Uqtch fnr tha