The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-06-21
At THE STATE NORMAL
ELDER Y. It. SWEENEY breaches
THE ANNUAL BACCALAUREATE.
Argument Before PedaEogues on Di-
Vfnity of Christ-LarGest ENROLL
ment in the School.


TERRE HAOIE, InQ., June Zu-Ine
commencement exercises of the State Nor
NAL School will begin Wednesday, ending
on Friday, on which day seventy-five grad
yates will receive certificates and about
thirty graduates who have complied with
the law by teaching satisfactorily in the
public schools of the State for two years
will receive diplomas. The haccalaureate
sermon was preached to-day by Elder z.
T. Sweeney, at present state fish commits
sioner and at one time consul general at
Constantinople. The following is synop-
sis of the baccalaureate:
THE God idea, Christ idea, Bible idea and
church idea are the four pillars of the
Christians faith. Prophecy history and
miracle have been used in the past to
propagate them. Science is beginning TO
whisper through iron lips these ideas which
are destined in the future as never in the
past to make the blood of our race leap
with new life. These pillars must exist
until the nature of things shall be no more
and the framework of the universe shall
fail into ruins. The God idea we never can
comprehend. The part cannot contain the
whole. But We may apprehend it. l be-
lieve that God is for the reason that some
thing is. If there be something, something
always was or that something that is came
from nothing. But out of nothing nothing
can come. That which always was must be
matter or mind. 1t was mind, for mind
can account for matter, but matter cannot
account for mind. That mind which al
ways was we Christians call God We all
have the idea of a god. Here all agree.
Does the idea inhere in itself? Here all
do not agree. The idea of God came from
external nature, internal nature. or it was
revealed These the only possible
sources from which it could have come. If
It came according to the Locke school OF
thought, from external nature, it is an idea
in the nature with the harmony of things,
and therefore. in harmony with che truth.
If Il be in harmony with truth 1t is true.
The idea of God evolved from external ma
ture is, therefore, a true idea. But true
ideas do not stand upon false pedeStalS,
but inhere in realities. The idea of God,
therefore, inheres in reality. Almighty God,
therefore, is a reality in the universe. The
same conclusion we are logically forced to
form If we should argue according to the
Kantian school, or German philosophy; that
some Of our thought comes with the plan
of the soul or from internal nature. In
ternal nature is but a part of the great
nature of things. The idea of God evolved
from It, Is, therefore. true idea 1t there
fore inheres in reality.
THE OTHER SOURCE.
1.-The only possible source left to US from
which it could have come is revelation, and
revelation declares that God is reality.
Either Of these possible hypothesis lands
the idea of God within the realms of
realty. NOW the CHRISTIAN nOiQS tndt aDSO-
lutte power, thought and the moral quality
inhere attributes in this reality. There
cannot be an inner without an outer If,
therefore, L prove an inner l have proved
an outer In the same sense | hold that
there cannot be dependent being without
an Independent being. There cannot be
thought without thinker. In the universe
there Is q plan. Plan involves thought.
There is, therefore, thought in the universe.
This thought must have a thinker. There
IS, therefore, thinker OF the universe. a
thinker is person. God Is the thinker OF
the universe. He is, therefore, a person.
Man has moral sense, and is adapted to
it. He believes that in everything there is
elthef right or wrong. Consciousness
attests mans obligation to the moral sense
or his adaptation to the right These prem
Uses are not only metaphyscaiy true, but
hlstorlcally they are true. Drs Kane,
tranklin and all the explorers attest the
ruin OF the premises abroad, and our ex-
perience confirms it at home. There is a
moral sense and adaptation of man to it,
There is a moral designer OF the universe
to account for moral adaptation He must
nave a mind to conceive his design free
VIII TO choose between this design or that,
and consciousness to take cognizance
moral design The union of mind.
free will and conscience makes a person
Ihese are united in the moral designer of
the universe He is therefore a person
here then, in the light of automatic GER
tainty We apprehend God and the essential
attributes OF His nature. Far above the
Il believe He will speak to me- / be-
lieve in revelation from God. His nature
necessitates Him TO speak to man. He is
not wanting in thought or what TO say to
man. and He has the moral quality to
prompt or to propose it, The nature of
man demands that God speak to him God
made man to desire it. If the revelation
has not been made, then God has failed TO
keep His word with Us. He mocks the cry
OF mana cry for light and truth that God
made in man. If no revelation has been
made, God has turned a deaf ear to His
child The preparation of such deed is
scarcely worthy monstrous demon. God
would not do it. What the divine necessi-
tates and the human demands has been
made. revelation therefore. has been
made to man. The Bible l hold is that
revelation which has been made to man.
Experience has taught that the teachings
God and himself When book, with all
its cuts explains a machine and success
fully compliments the designs of the va
rious parts, we conclude that the mind in
mind involved in the book that explains it,
Now / claim that the same common sense
The mind involved in the machinery of man
is the Divine Mind. The mind, therefore
that is involved. in the New Testament must
be the Divine Mind. The author of the ma
ture of man is the author of the book that
compliments that nature The New Tesla
ment is the browning glory of that which
God has spoken unto man. The Bible is
that revelation, for Christ affirms it, He
Endorsed essentially the Old Testament and
apostles who wrote il. If Christ were divine
and he Endorsed the Old and New Tesla
ments as what has been spoken TO man. We
should hold them as the revelation of God
MIRACULOUS CONCEPTIONS.
But they object to Christ's divinity on
the miraculous conception. We answer
that such objection equally holds against
everything, for the productive or miracu-
lous laws have obtained in the initial steps
of all creation. We should reject all Gre
alton false for the same reason that we
deny the divinity of Christ 1t is true that
Christ had a supernatural origin. Should
we reject Him therefore? If so, consistency
demands that we reject humanity. Human
ity had an origin in the earth or came from
a power extraneous. to the earth. Humanity
could not have come by evolution, for there
is no evolution without involution There
was no involuton of human life in the
earth. The fiery mist theory precludes the
possibility of it; the intidel being the Judge
humanity could not have come, therefore, by
spontaneous generation evolution The
first pair of human beings were put here
therefore, by supernatural power or a
power above the natural forces. If We re-
1ect the divinity OF Christ on the ground of
the supernatural origin we should reject
reason. An objection to the divinity of
Christ that contradicts facts must be in
sufficient as an objection. The objection on
the grounds of miraculous conception or
supernatural origin contradicts the facts,
and is. therefore, an insufficient objection.
The weightiest objection that has been
brought against the divinity of Christ is
found in the mythical theory of Strauss.
Historical criticism, most severely applied,
cOmpelied that great German dOubter to
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