The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-04-17
THE VOICE OF THE PULPIT
IMPORTANCE OF RIGHT FEELING IN
MORAL AND SPIRITUAL LIFE.
short Sermon by Rev. Edward Will
Episcopal Church, Cleveland, o.


Who being past feeling.-Ephesians iv. 10.
OF what great Importance it is both to
society and to the individual as well, that
right feeling shall be maintained in ali mat
tiers pertaining to the moral and the spirit
ual life!
There is growing tendency. in this in
tensely practical age, to separate action
from feeling do not refer to the man of
duplicity who feels one way and acts an
other. but rather to the man who makes
light OF what we may call the great field
of inward consciousness, saying to himself
and to others: Why trouble ourselves
about how We feel? Let us rivet our whole
attention upon the weightier consideration
of what We Go.
This seems practical, but it is funda-
mentally unsound. Life most generally is
from within, out. Back of conduct lies the
ethical determination within the heart of
what we shall permit ourselves to do.
Many people are of the opinion that the
life within is mere play; that the heart is
a stage; that the emotions are actors. who
play their part ofttimes amusingly, but not
with any serious result
No conclusion could be further from the
truth than this. 1 would remind you most
seriously-appealing to your own expert
ence for confirmation of the fact-that what
we do in the outward life is first done in the
heart. Conduct is but the echo from this
theater, this battlefield within. If we are to
regard our life. actually lived. as the final
production of amusing comedy or sorrowful
tragedy let US not forget where the play
was written. where it was rehearsed, where
all things were made ready for it's final
presentation; not outwardly beneath the
gaze of men, but inwardly in the heart,
where feeling reigns and does its faithful
or fatal work in determining what the con-
duct shall be.
And so we come to the message of the
Son of God upon this subject Mark well
His words: THAT which cometh out of the
man defileth the man. For from within. out
of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts,
adulteries, foundations, murders, thefts,
covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lascivious-
ness, evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolish
ness; all these evil things come from within
and defile the man.
If there is anyone who heretofore has
made light of feeling, or underestimate it,
hoping to shape his conduct Alright uninflu-
enced by feeling, it will be well for him to
Tecast his position.
Feeling. according to the Christian con-
all that we mean when we say the inward
consciousness of principle. This is the great
reality of every mans life. for this is the
parent of his conduct We must cherish 1t.
We must allow God to mold it within US
and make it strong. If it's vigor be gone,
we are as dead men and shall so remain.
unless and until it again be quickened into
life.
st. Paul in our text speaks of certain OF
the genties of his day and age as past feel
ing: who being past feeling have given
themselves over unto lasciviousness, to
work all uncleanness with greediness." No
words so inexpressibly fearful as these, and
yet they are words which our luxurious and
seIf-indulgent age needs to fear
What a picture! Trace it's onward devel-
opment in the life, nos of an ancient gentle,
but of your own contemporary. the world
ling of to-day; the rehearsal of each days
play in the heart, and afterwards its pre-
sentation in the life. Childhood, when good
spirits held sway, and the play was inno-
cent. yet real. The hour later on, when
another kind of spirit, partly good and
partly evil. came, asked an entrance, and
was admitted on the ground that he was
not wholly bad. The ugly train that fol-
lowed-each one a little worse than his
by the good spirits and then silenced. The
even balance for awhile, when it seemed
a matter of doubt whether the final fruitage
would be good or evil. The hour of rapid
decline, when at its close the good spirits
came together and whispered to one an
other: In such brutal company we can
no longer remain" Their subsequent f1igh.
leaving naught but the coarsest comedy in
the heart, working itself out in every kind
of evil life. who. being past feeling, have
given themselves over to work all unclean-
ness with greediness.'
Past feeling. What fearful words are
these. Thoughts coursing through the
heart with no power to awaken the emo
tions of either fear or love. Men untouched
they behold the arms of Christ out
stretched upon the cross and listen TO His
gracious words, Il, if / be lifted up from
the earth, will draw all men unto me-"
There is even q darker side than this to
the picture. And it is a part of Christ's
message which men of to-day seem bound
to silence and eliminate. Past feeling-to
sin with an utter insensibility of what it is
that we do, to sin and not to care, to give
ones self over to work all uncleanness with
greediness, lust and infantieide, the utter
indecencies of advertised wickedness that
meet the eye of our innocent children as
they walk along the public highway; these
things do but betoken an age in which many
men and women, too, are bringing upon
themselves the fearful condemnation of St.
Paurs words, Past feeling"
The world believes in the boundless love
OF God: but the world has come so little to
feel the reality Of the gulf that is forever
fixed between good and evil that it has al
most fallen into the daring outrage of pic
turing God Indifferent to the moral dis
tinctions that flow from the perfection Of
His own nature and being.
God can, and will to the uttermost, for
give the sinner who ~epents. This is the
message of the gospel; not that God has
ceased to care, but that God will forgive.
Are we by this encouraged to suppose that
He plans the unconditional coronation of a
life of willful and unrepented sin?
Out of these thoughts, and turning now
to the other side of the subject, let US en-
deavor to construct a lesson, not so much
OF warning as of positive helpfulness for
the guidance of our lives.
What we call feeling, giving the word its
best application. is inward consciousness of
right principle. If we have this. let US keen
it If we have it not. let us implore God TO
give it TO us. If it has grown weak within US