The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1897-06-13

Ills DIVINE pFdllS Vl SdlNdeioh, ny IA SNi'
ignoring the supernatural in religion ana
thus dragging it down to the low level OF
mans sad. because futile. effort to UNI
derstand the supernatural by the employ
ment of purely human and natural fac
tors. seems never to have occurred To
these disciples of the Higher Criticism.
Donot all these, staggering back from the
great truth of the exact hteralness Of the
Scriptures Of a supernatural God, evince
in kind il not in degree. the same weak
ness which characterizes the 1nfdel:
namely. the determination to go on and
on--down, down, in the abortiye effort
to work out great spiritual problems by
the employment of intellectual factors
alone-rashly, ruinously, and ofttimes
roughly. rava ging the fair fields of calm
repose and vanta ge- ground of splendid
work for the dispatch of the Kings bus
mess tnow as ever requiring haste SO
fully enjoyed and utilized by the Church
Catholic in the brightest days of her
most telling work for humanity's veal
and Gods glory, by, antagonizing the
Pauline conclusions, hammered into hui
manity's head aud heart by the more
resistless than Gamaicl logic, because
it is the logic of God-spiritual truths
are spiritually discerned? May it not be
said with due Difference to some of the
most intellectual men Of both Europe
and America. that their keen. subtle.
processes are aliunde to the plan divine,
which so often illustrates the useful, yet
humbling fact, that the learning of the
schools. the pride of human intellect. the
knowledge Of the creature. naturally
aud lot spiritually led, is as foolishness
with God. the Supernatural? The great
American Bishop Nottingham, of whom
Bishop Atkinson III his memorial SER
mon of this distinguished prelate, said
his mind was far too masculine 10
he taken up by the femia:nltieS of Ritual
isnl--certainly. of all her scholars, the
greatest scholastic. if not of all theolo-
gans the greatest divine-if not of all her
prince in the -.ouse of Bishops the most
princely, surely very, very princely-onc
said. that after long. long years of pa
tient searching for the truth. he had
clearly ascertained the fact that the
highest loyalty on mans part toward
God was TO receive Holy Scripture in its
literalness and fullness, with the same
unquestioning and simple faith as that
of the supplemented, loving and obedi-
ent Swiss peasant woman, who in some
large measure understands God with her
heart, while utterly failing to compre-
bend III i'm by the misleading processes of
human reasoning. Looking in another oil
rection do we not see still second large
company, perhaps more numerous than
the two bands of Infidels and Higher
Critics combined, who Will not answer
10 their true name of Indifferentists, but
10 whom. this term is n misnomerI How
influence them? They twill laugh at you.
without in any sense becoming angry, if
you were TO barely intimate what You
can roundly assert concerning them, that
although Epicurus was Il pagan. and not
even a nominal Christian, yet his phllos-
ophy found so much and such genial soil
in the human heart that in all the CEN
turtles and in all the chimes of this earth,
this animal God. this creature, who IN
grained upon the conduct and character
of his devotees his favorite maxim OF
LET us eat and drink, for tomorrow we
de- and over the doorway of whose
temple is monogrammed the Syrenlc
word. Pleasure. Pleasure. Pleasure".-
the God of this world. has large, large
following at the closing up of the nine
teenth century.
WHY is this large company indifferent
to the Religion of the Nazarane? The an
swer is so obvious. If tne vase of beauti-
full Bohemian glass on your mantepiece
at home be full of mud, what room in it
for diamonds? If these people be preoccu-
pied with the love of the world and them
selves. what love can they bear to the
Christian religion, the philosophy divine,
Il nt- nc q n q ~
not serve two masters.
In the physical world only one body can
occupy one and the same space at one
and the same time. How do we know
they love the world? "By their fruits ye
shall know them" Where is spent most
OF their time, in the service OF the klng,
or of the world, the same world which
slew the King? Does the major, or even
a respectable part of their income go INTO
the Kings treasury, or is it wasted large
ly on the veriest things of time and sense
which perish with the handling and the
handler? Does one see the impress of the
divine image when looking into the face
of one of them, or rather, has it been lost
by close contact with the defilements OF
pleasure? Physiognomists tell us that the
bloody business of the butcher is written
in the butchers face, so that, oftener far
than his apparel, does mans every day
thoughts, acts, aims aspirations, charac-
ter proclaim the man. With these intense
/. ly worldly Indifferentists there has as
yet been no displacement of the heart
contents, aims and purposes, that the
gentler and wiser regime Of the Kings
law may be put in their place; as yet the
determinations of the Epicurean's heart
and life have not been followed by the
wonderful transformations of divine
grace, and the poor, blinded follower OF
the pagan god shows in face-in fact, in
daily fife-that the startling question OF
the text finds him dreadfully drugged
with the circean spell of pleasure, and he
goes drifting on and on, day by day, tide
by tide, nearer and nearer to the great
ocean of eternity, where he will be judged
by the deeds done in the body!
But are there not other lines OF
thought which we can proftably employ
Are there no questions which come home
to us, and which we cannot safely put
away from us, as we stand today and