The herald., 1897-10-11
THE REV. HoWARD's SERMON
REV. L. N. HARTLEY breaches
AT SIMPSON
First Of a Series Of Lectures by Rev.
A. c. Smither-SundayS Sermons
and Pulpit Talks


they shall be done away with; whether
there be tongues, they shall cease;
whether there be knowledge, 1t shall be
done away. But now abideth faith, hope,
love; these three, ard the greatest OF
these is love-"
"There are but few things which are
made Of such stern stuff that the tooth
of time cannot devour them. The world
grows old and, one by one the institu-
lions, the schemes, knowledge that
men had tested tapping them with the
puny mallets of their poor fallability
and upon which they had placed their
little seal of permanence have dropped
away into the dust of forgetfulness. The
old order changeth and giveth place to
the new. We live our insect life. swarm
ing like aphidae upon the stalk Of ex-
istence, then suddenly slip into the great
silence, carrying OUR petty systems and
philosophers with US. Prophets, CULVER
ing with intense conviction. thunder
their message in the dull ears Of their
age, but their voices cut only little way
through the din and riot of life and
speedily become no more than muf-
fled echo. thinning into stiffness. With
the multiplied liabilities and contingen-
cies of human experience the divine
gift OF prophetic insight is itself spent
and exhausted. Earths mighty seers
have given place to mere statisticians.
In the slow process of human develop
ment the languages Of earth wear out.
The vestment in which the thought Of
men has clothed itself grows thread
bare and insufficient, and like garment
that has waxed old, is laid aside. How
many tongues In which men babbled to
each other, in which the heart Of hu-
manity uttered its plants and peans
its loves and hates, its worship and its
blasphemy have shriveled into shreds of
parchment and tattered papyrus or
etiffened into stone. Whether there be
tongues they shall cease. The story Of
the ancient peoples is told today in
words they could not understand and
the very language in which Paul proph-
esied has been dead for ages. The lit
erature Of long ago is saved only by
being born again. The language has no
general resurrection.
Whether there be knowledge, it shall
be done away. Nowhere have such
pronounced changes been recorded as
in the thoughts Of men. Opinions that
were declared with dogmatic assertive-
ness to be final truths have. withered
under the tests Of later researches
Theories confidently set forth as root
and branch of an ultimate philosophy
have been proved nothing more than
parasitic air plants. In science, so
rapid have been the new discoveries
and so swift the adjustments OF old
faiths to new facts that the knowledge
OF generations ago provokes only our
amusement, while in some branches text
books but ten years published awaken
our distrust. The path of the race Is
strewn with the shells Of cast-off theor-
des and beliefs. We have today a new
astron omy, a new theology, new geol-
ogy, a new sociology. new economics,
new therapeutics and surgery. a new
theory Of education.
The mental world is In state OF con-
slant f1ux. However stable may be the
facts Of life, nothing is more unstable
than the deductions we draw from them.
The experience of the past ought to
make US intellectually meek ard ex-
ceeding tolerant. Our boasted knowl-
edge is pitifully evanescent. The chill
dren of the mind are as Esphemeral as
the children of men. The mental store
which any age leaves to posterity is
an Inheritance of shrinking values. 1t
does not take long for knowledge 10 be-
come dead lumber. curiosity.
In the evolution of society in the on
ward march of the race, the enduring
factor does not lie in the Intellect. That
humanity Is developing no reasonable
man can doubt. The world Is rot a dis
mai failure nor Is God too stupid to
devise scheme that will succeed, or
too weak to carry out His own pur-
poses. There is every evidence to prove
that the world and the race are adj
vancing. But it seems to be patent that
In this development the energy that car
rles humanity farthereSt, the force that
is most potent and most persistent. is
something other than mere meDtality.
1t appears to be true that whether
there be knowledge it shall be done
away" or that sheer force of intellect
is to be superseded by some other force
in human evolution.
Are there any forces released into the
life of the world that are growing
steadily and have been growing stead
"
There are. And strangely CROUCH, per-
haps, the apostle with marvellous ixA-
sight has named them. "Now abideth
faith, hope, love, these three. and the
grea test of these is love" We might
combine his trinity under one term and
say that the enduring factor in human
development In the evolution Of society
is religion. For true religion is woven
out Of these three threads.
To the careful and unbiased student
OF history nothing is more apparent than
the growth of the faith Of mesA There
has been from all recorded time divine
instinct, feeling after God, if haply
they might find Him. And in no age
has this movement of the race after God
been so marked as in this age in which
We are living. On all sides there is
gathering of wistfu seekers after the
divig,e 1t may be true that in, many
Instances this yearning is hardly more
definite than, a blind cropping after
better and boiler adjustment of human
life, but whatever form it takes it is
essen TALLY a search for God. This is
noble age and in spite of the seeming
awfuluxess OF sin and the multiplied
miseries and woes ard wrongs OF men,
there is trembling all Through It a
mighty conviction of the ultimate VIC