The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1900-02-26
THE LAST INCARNATION
SUBJECT OF A DISCOURSE BY REV.
j. CUMMING SMITH YESTERDAY.
Large Congregation Heard the Ser
Notwithstanding Of the Lenten
Season Next Wednesday.

Rev. J. Cumming Smith delivered SER
mon at Tabernacle Church yesterday
morning to a large congregation. on the
Last Incarnation" He said in part:
1.-The language of religion is apt to be
vague and will be vague until it is clothed
in life. Life is itself the last interpreter.
Light is a vague term to a child until a
crystal or diamond carries the sunbeam
into its heart and flashes IL back upon the
eye. Our social life Is a vague, hazy term
until we see it as 1t actually is in our
homes and evening pleasures. All words
that are great are Wrapt in mist until we
see their realities in the concrete. The
terms God, faith, holiness, immortality, in
volve so much cloudiness that the COM
mon people are befogged by them and the
scientific mind plungeS into hopeless ag-
Mysticism. The only cure is the interpre-
tation in actual life charged with. these
real Respondent forces. Better than a
thousand sermons ON holiness in the alb
stract is one admittedly holy man. Bet
ter one forceful God in the heart than a
dozen correct Gods in the head only. Bet
ter even than the Bible, which we hallow
as the revealing of God, is the
authoritative and irresistible life of
Christ. He does more to illuminate
the Bible than the Bible does to glorify
Him. The Bible is but book, document.
a literature that calls for a supreme inter-
prefer. Therefore we Christians have Oft
en- been misunderstood by caustic critics.
Our supreme authority on religious life
and thought is not book, but sinless
life that far outgoes the book. We need
a life to reveal and simplify truth For
this reason the millions OF Rome feel lost
without a human voice to lend. warmth
and finality to spiritual truth. They err
when the vest any Infinite dogma In the
lips of finite human; but they only err
by carrying to an extreme the safe, sane
cry of every human soul for religion that
CLOVIS in real life. The church. therefore.
shows clearness when she uses the Bible
as a guidebook to a Christ who honors
and outsoars the Bible just as the guide
book, which summer tourists handle with
careful respect, Is itself pointing TO the
Alpine scenery that deties descriptive art
This is the whole secret OF the incarna-
ton. God made man in order to ensphere
God. Gods messages came not 10 brutisE
men, but to holy men wooed by the Holy
Spirit The Old Testament is nothing but
ing TO the fullnesS OF time when Christ
came God manifest In the flesh The
long tumult of these rasping centuries
is the God love, into the heart OF our race
as the prophecy of the browning conditions
yet to be. / am an optimist or optimlsts
world call void and stale is tipped with
new light like cloud that hangs ashley
and gloomy in the east till the burst OF
ment you vivifv il with your growing man
hood. The cure for so much sincere ag-
Mysticism is not to be found in our books
that often speak wild, but in the real life
OF men who bask in the high love Of God
BE Bibles yourselves Be polyglot Bibles
II you can. be little pieces OF the infinite
in your homes and offices. Hence the in
terpreting power of great men who have
as IL We're attempted the love of God and
given birth 10 large emancipating move
ments. Whatsoever is love horn Is Goo
born, for ITod is love. Booker Washing
ton who spurns away all hysterical plan:
of lowering up the negro race and launche.
industry. such a man is full of God. He
acts as we believe God acts who proceed,
along the line of deep evolution and begin:
improving the outside environment of &
man by sowing the magical seed germ!
in the heart. Inspiration is normal Law
between an cverfIowing God and an evei
open soul Too often the hottest interpre
tiers of a live. loving God are not found II
churches where cramped, artificial visior
of God may be held. but in men who view
the world as the theater of Gods busy
place and work in league with God"