The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1898-01-03
Medium supplied the pulpit at diff

erent times for nearly g. year.
AT the close of yesterdays service,
MI. Soper was greeted by many in the
congregation who mad not met him at
the reception given him Thursday night.
During his address yesterday morning
taking his text from Deut. xxxlii., 81,
''The eternal God Is thy refuge, and
underneath are his everlasting arms"
Mr.. Soper said:
Critics of the Old Testament have some
times affirmed that Its conception of God Is
anthropomorphitic l. e., that it's authors con-
ceive of the Deity in human terms, as having
form and shape and local habitation, human
feelings and passions. 1t is absolutely impos-
sible for human beings to have any concep-
ton that is not more or less colored by hu-
man experience. But the prophets and poets
had a conception of the Deity that is as far
above the human as the heavens are higher
than the earth.
The last words spoken by a mother to the
children about her bedside are remembered
and cherished by them as long as life lasts.
The last words OF a brave general spoken
upon up the field Of battle, as he lies weltering
In his own blood, have stirred his followers
to deeds Of heroic action. The last words of
a great and trusted statesman are rehearsed
In the homes Of the people, in the shops,
on the streets, to the uttermost parts of his
nation The people say in their hearts,
Surely now on the borderland of eternity
he will speak elword which he regards in
his inmost heartllas important for us to
know" Our text this morning was the last
word of Moses, the great lawgiver of Israel,
to his beloved nation just before he lay down
to rest.
When Jesus was about to leave his follow
ers he rejoiced that they would not be left
alone, but that the Comforter" the good
Spirit of God, would remain with them to
work
So Moses, fifteen hundred years before,
about to leave the people who had looked to
him for guidance through those crucial years
Of their history after the Egyptian captivity,
rejoiced that he was not to leave them alone.
He knew that new leader would be raised
up to take his place.
1t is difficult to conceive how Moses could
have, spoken anything more appropriate
to their needs in this trying hour. What
could be more assuring? What could bring
greater comfort and courage and inspiration
than to have their great and trusty leader
tell them that the God of Abraham Isaac
and Jacob had underneath them His ever
lasting arms? ?"
Deep and abiding faith is never the product
faith that carries men through human crises
and sustains during the most trying ordeals
of life is never the product of a foot-loose
mind. When the living faith of the early
church had captured the Roman empire for
Christ there came at later period ire
mendous set back. BY reason of the inva-
sion of the barbarians the empire was deluged
in paganism. The church looked to an al
lance with the state to aid it in its efforts
But credulity, in large measure, took the
place of that reasonable faith which Jesus
taught and exemplified, and for which he
laid down his life 1t took long time for
leaven to so far permeate this soggy mass OF
ignorance and superstition and Journalism
as to bring about that revolution which we
call the Reformation.
The great teachers and statesmen and
prophets whose names enshrined forever
in the hearts Of q grateful people have al
ways been men of faith. They have never
been scoHers on the one hand, or credulous
beings who have abandoned their reason.
The greatest minds whom nations have de-
lighted to honor have never failed to feel
with them keenly every hurt and wrong and
loss. Sometimes the leaders highest hopes
his plans baffied and his purposes defeated.
At times he has been puzzled over the mys-
FERROUS providences, dsperplexed by signs
of the times. But in tho end every one has
fallen back upon THE rock of faith in the
eternal God as their refuge. This Is Gods
world Mighty changes have taken place
In the past. Volcanic eruptions have over
turned powerful and hoary institutions. The
coward and the weakl1ng and the croaker have
been frightened and have lifted up quer-
ul1-s note of fear and alarm. But the world
has not gone to smash. ION the contrary out
OF the atoms Of shivered kingdoms and en-
pres there have come new and better nations.
changes Will come in the future, as they have
IN the past. but they can never be perma-
nently fatal to the onward march of Gods
truth and mans right
The text contains a lesson that we need
TO learn and fix in mindyin these days. En-
crossed for the most part in small matters
day by day, matters that keep before the
mind the Jagged side ,of human life, matters
that sometimes engender strife and suspicion
and jealousy, we have need to go apart now
and then and hold fellowship with the his
torian and prophet and poet. and get
larger and truer view of life than is possible
frenl our little corner.
Underneath all the surface strife and con-
fusion and selfshnesss ard sin of human be-
lngs the great heart OF the human family
beats in sympathy Ewit1athe things that are
right. And you can get through the tough
layers of self-intorest, falsely so-called,
through the cowardice and Indifference thare
Is much of loyalty and love for the truth