The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1898-11-14
EV,ALFRED 4, HENRY'S SERMON
DELIVERED AT THE METHODIST
CHURCH YESTERDAY.
Mans Search For God the Theme-A
Pathetic Picture-God Invites All
To Come and Trust In Him.


text from Acts xvii, q: ''That they |
should seek the Lord if happy they |
might feel after him and find him, |
though he be not far from every one
of us
Mr.. Henry said in part:
"a There is nothing more pathetic |
than the picture Of mans vain search |
after God, unless it be the picture of his
God, unless it be the picture Of his |
equally delusive effort to do without !
him
We who sit in this comfortable place
CT worship, warmly clothed, well fed
and cared for, sometimes count our sor-
rows, and, 1 am afraid, grow fretful
over our disappointment.
Yet we are among the prosperous,
the happy, the fortunate. Listen at
the portals of society All around, US
are men and women, like children,
crying in the night-no light; troubled
N the darkness; nothing to live for;
tossed in the deliriuEn Of the fever of
sin and doubt. Do you not believe 1t
IS picture to awaken the compassion
Of the Infinite Father?
~ What is the outline Of the lives of
multitudes of those who have no
knowledge Of God or of future life,
with its compensations and inspira-
tions?
A needless rush into life; an uncon-
scious yielding to forces whose power
they are unable to measure. The
thoughtless abandonment to excitement
and sensation. The gradual loss of
zest and enthusiasm Innui, weari-
ness. disenchantaent. The elixir CT
worldly pleasures soon ceases to slim
ulate
'Ennui has made more gamblers than
avarice, more drunkards than thirst,
more suicides than despair
Soon comes awakening to disappoint-
Enent for the one who lives for this
N world. Prizes prove unattainable or
unsatisfactory. The words of the wise
man are echoed in many d heart
drained Of It's hope Vanity of vani-
ties, all is vanity and vexation Of
spirit"
Here and there is desperate plunge
into the darkness of the future, or
stubborn resistance, apathy or bravado
IN the face of death. Personal ambi-
tions are reiinquished to awaken again
IN their children; building houses Of
sand TO crumble. or fortunes to be dis
Slpated; walking the treadmiu OF ac-
customed employment.
a life without God or hope of i'm
mortality! What real satisfaction or
enjoyment does it offer?
go Man needs to have faith in God to
see the value of life. He can live with
hope if his efforts are consciously di-
rected to shaping and perfecting what
shall endure. The architect, at work
upon a beautiful fresco, knows that
the SCaffOlding, so labOriouSly con-
structed, and upon which he stands,
must corae down, but his real work
shall able.
LIES cIrcuElstances-the scaffolding
must ccne down. The workman can
stand upon it and work for a time,
but the character ne is shaping and
moulding shall abide-if God lives, and
If his word is true.
II is the man who realizes the care
and interest of his Heavenly Father
and the permanence of his life work,
who has heart for his task
4 There is a dim consciousness of in
completeness about life without God or
hope Of hereafter. that is" recognized
by the most primitive man. Witness
the red mans dream of the Great
Spirit and the happy hunting grounds;
the Persian dream of sensual delights
IN palaces OF the sun; the affairs erected
at the beginning Of every chapter in
worlds history.
1Does God honor this dim, even super
$utlous worship? VIII the Father well
come the child that gropes toward him
through the dark? Will not the Lord
Of all the earth do right?
1t IS only the deliberate turning away
from the light that is hateful to God.
The conscious strang!in of spiritual
impulse, the deliberate putting to death
of high convictions, the denial of clear
nature, the grievinS of the spirit that
would lead into the realms OF truth
this indeed, is hateful to God.
The rejection Of the testimony of his
tory, Of countless individuals of uD-
right lives and blameless regulations,
and the closing OF the heart to those
influences that tend to draw US above
the dead level OF sensual existence, the
wiilful alienation from GOOD, because
of the glare and dazzle and glitter of
evil, IS the sin that COG condemns.
90 Man may find God if he viii be
true 10 himself, obey his highest i'm
pulses and cherish his Hottest Ideals
He may not travel the same road that
some one else has Travelled. That might
be impossible, fOT heTedity, precon-
ceived opinions, education and environ
ment all play their part in shaping his
life. But every soul that struggles up
ward shall certainly emerge into the
light.
We constitute a community of be-
levers. We are often struck with the
conformity Of type" of certain expert
ences, but it only proves that in many
RESPECTS all men are somewhat alike
We have had our individual struggles
we have had our Individual tempta-
tons; your mount Of temptation wa:
not mine; your valley of sorrow yoi
entered alone; but one was with yol
VINO was with me, and who had hi!
NEdf is able to strengthen and comfoP
all, not because OF any sameness O
experience, but through virtue OF hi
kinship in suffering. Each DrodiSa
must tread his own pathway back t
The father
90 The thought 1 want to leave witt
you is this: Cod is waiting to be sre
cious. He knows your need and invite
you to come 70 him.
Men have sought for God in th
mazes OF metaphysics. in the mysterie
of science, in the closed book of nature
in religious rites and ceremonies, il
Hastings and self-mortifications IN Wig
lis and prayers. They have sought L
penetrate the veil by visions and costa
sizes, when he is near to every one O
US, regarding us as a loving mothe
seeks TO soothe the delirium of he
child, calling to US, BE still and know
that 1 am Cod.
I have an old print that contains
hidden picture" Upon the. surface
troubled sheet of water a rugge
mountain, some storm tossed trees
Hidden among the lines of this land
scaDe, the heart and meaning of tn
picture, is the face of a majestic o.
man with long, flowing beard.
So, hidden among the features Of tn
universe about Us and the lines c
hard human experience, toll. tempta
ton, struggle and sorrow, is the fac
of our eternal father, to be recognize
by the loving eye of faith
If we could but trust him and rel
upon his love, how our burdens woul
be lifted, how our sorrows would ceas,
how sin would lose its hold UPON u.
and we would be glad and safe in tn