The morning times., 1897-01-25
INTELLECT AGAINST FAITH
The Two Contending Forces in
the Christian World Today.
DIR. SUNDERLAND'S SERMON
Human Reason, Mere Intellectuality,
Is the Raven That Dries Up the
waters Of Reliance Upon Higher
Power-The Soul Is the Dove
Whose Ark Is the Church.

In the absence of the Rev. T. Dewitt
Talmage from his pulpit at the First
Presbyterian Church, yesterday morning,
the Rev. DR.. Byron Sunderland delighted
many OF his old friends by consenting
to preach. He took his text from Genesis,
Willis: And he sent forth a raven
which went forth too and fro until the
waters were dried from off the earth;
also he sent forth dove from him to see
if the waters were abated from off the
face of the ground"
THE question of questions DR.. Sun
derland said, lis not so much about our
origin, or our development, but more
about our final destiny. What is our
future to be? The souls OF men have
been stirred by it. The fountains of the
great deep of human thought have been
broken up. The firmament Of human ut
terance has flung wide its wiadows. There
is deluge OF opinions now, rs there then
was OF water. This flood assails every
stronghold Of human sentiment and convic-
tion. The fortresses are undermined.
Masses of human beings are swept hither
and thither on the raging surgeS OF doubt,
speculation, and discussion. Many old
beliefs and many new ones have sunken
out OF sight. But on the troubled waters
an. ark is floating, the ark Of truth and
reverence for the right. Ii is bearing up
the germs of a new society. the sons and
daughters of God-the people Of the new
kingdom the new heavens, and the new
earth.
Christ, the second Adam, and second
Noah, is in the ark. He built it The
Church of God is in it. 1t rides the waves
which engulf all else. 1t is the ark OF
human hope. Yes, it is the deluge now.
The state of the world opinions was never
more tumultuous. Great questions are
seething around the globe, but it viii
when these mighty surges of controversy
will be asSuaged. The ark viii rest on
tie Eternal Rock, and the ;ew world ap-
pear. There are those who profess to
think that this ark is already sinking;
that it must go down under the weight
Of the storm; that ii nevermore can he
what it has been;that it viii perish beneath
the sea of unbelief.
There never was a day since the
world began when the human intellect WAS
so self-conScious and so applauded as
now. 1t has become the Diety OF great
multitude. They worship the intellect OF
the soul in its restless ever daring flight:
such breadth of freedom; such a sense
of release from the prison house; the en-
forced bondage of the ark of God. Wei, it
is brilliant! We cannot wholly suppress
a certain admiration for ii, even in its
cruelty and cunning. But when men are
drunk with its worship, as in the French
revolution, and as they seem to be grow
ing now, when they laud it under the lur-
ing titles, Doubt and Skeptcism, and
Unbelief and AgnosticiSm. when they
SO affect a science and philosophy Of
pure intellect, and denounce all outside
of it as bigotry, hypocrisy, or peTsecu-
ton, then we part company and say, there
is nothing more perilous to human happiness
than the mercileSs raven Of intellectual
reason.
But how Is it with the dove principle
of the soul, the feeling. the heart of man?
This, too, goes forth from the ark, and
wanders over the wild waste, always
with the yearning instinct OF Home But
when lit finds no resting place for the
sole OF its foot, back it fluttcrs to the
windows, pleading to be taken in. Gods
ark, Christ's ark, is found to be the only
resting place of the human heart, while
the wild waters of this worlds tumlts
are rat ging And this dove of the soul, with
all its GentieneSs, and deep Sensibiity, is
bound evermo ore to seek its home of
rest, or in its flight to find some olice
leaf of peace, a token of the storms
cessation. Let such a feeling as this
come into any human heart, and the pride
of man viii be scattered, and become as
little child, to receive the kingdom of
God 1t is human pride that shuts men
out. Pride is the rayen-meekness is the
dove