The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1900-05-06
THE VOICE OF THE PULPIT
SEEING AND HEARING, ESSENTIAL
TRUTHS AND HOW TAUGHT.
BY Rev. Alexander Nackny-smfth, ID.
d., Rector 81. Johns Episcopal
Church, Washington, ID. G.

The hearing ear. and the seeing eye. the
Lord hath made even both OF t~hem.-Prov.
Xxx, II.
The difference between man and man in
the world is largely the difference between
those who keep eye and ear open. and those
who keep them closed. II never see in the
sky the cloud color which you put into your
pictures said a friend to the great artist
Turner. And l." replied Turner, never
can put into my picture half the colors
which I see I'm the sky"
We might define true life as the harmoni-
Gus development OF the twin powers Of
acute hearing and acute vision. For the
power Of vision is the power 10 push back
the walls which surround our physical
state. and see further than others, or TO
see more accurately those things which
both they and we see together; the power
of hearing is to make audible to US either
voices which others hear not. or to inter-
pref more accurately than others the voices
we both hear. Let us take a few ~illustra-
tons of the hearing ear. and the seeing
eye. as well as their oppesites. and notice
where they lead us.
And, first, in regard to our knowledge of
God. Here. for instance, is a skillful sur
6COn, " q Hctul dlASl, wiz bcHo oS Nhoe AN
has been studying natural law for years,
and has never found God. He sees only
brute force and matter in the universe, and
probably the force come from the matter,
so that the spiritual, as far as he can see,
does not exist. Nor can obligation or duty
really have any binding power, while con-
science is a nursery word TO scare a child.
One great naturalist tells US that the con-
science merely corresponds to the sense of
pointing in a pointer dog and means no
more. There you have blind and deaf
science so blear-eyed, and hard of hearing.
except in the things directly under it's at
t~ention. that II declares, "the only message
1 have to deliver is one of passive despair"
But there is a science which looks fur
Their. and sees and hears more. 1t speaks TO
US. for instance, in the words of Lord KEEL
vim (Sir William Thompson), the greatest
living authority on natural forces, In Eu-
rope or America to-day. He says: "Over-
poweringly strong proofs of intelligent and
benevolent design lie around us, and II
ever p~erplexities turn us away from them
for a time, they come back upon us with
irresistible force, showing to us. through
nature, the influence of a free will, and
teaching us that all living things depend
on one everlasting Creator and Ruler"
This is the difference between one who
sees a landscape where another sees but
a blank wall, and hears music sounding
where the deaf man says only "silence!'
LECOMPTE'S ARGUMENT.
Or here, again. is some great authority
who tells us that although he has been
dissecting the human body for years. he
has never come upon the soul. Nor indeed
does he see any spirit running through ex-
ternal nature. and directing and inspiring
1t. If there were another world of spirit
around us, why has he not felt and come
in contact with it? And to him comes a
scientist like Professor Lecompte. one of
the ablest writer's of the day. and among
it's acknowledged p~rofoundest thinkers,
too, and pierces him with this striking ar
gument:
'If 1 could remove your brain-cap. and
expose your brain, / should see only GER
tain agitations and vibrations of matter.
But you. the subject of this experiment.
you perceive an entirely different set of
phenomena, for you are. so to speak, inside
IL. looking out, and you feel thought, emo
ton; and within fact, your own conscious
| ness, your own Il am where none else can
see it," The observer would never dream
of all this. He would go away, If he
knew only what he saw. declaring that
there was no God in that temple.
Now, take external nature in all that
the word implies instead of the brain, and
apply this illustration. If you observe
nature only from the outside, you see, as
i'm a mans uncovered brain, only certain
agitations and vibrations, phenomena.
nothing more. But since, in the case of
the brain. which is the one place in the
whole world where we can go behind the
veil of matter, we find
emotion. within a word, a self, a person
atty, a person. yet all invisible to the OBJ
servers IL not reasonable to conclude
that behind nature we should find the great
personality. the infinite one, of whom our
little personalities are but feeble copies?
Here. YOU observe, is only a little instance
of the seeing eye and the hearing ear,
acute beyond a multitude of other OBJ
servers, who are trained TO believe only
i'm what can be touched or measured. In
itself il proves nothing conclusively. of
course. but the argument OF the Christian
| believer is cumulative, /. e., not conclusive
in any one part. but in a thousand rays
converging toward one point. Irresistible.
Thus il Is all over the world that the
strength of faith is sustained by myriads
of observations made by those who go
deeper. or climb higher, or watch more
profoundly the constitution of nature and
of man. The results of all this have
passed into a striking proverb regarding
one branch of science. which tells us, IAN
undevout astronomer is mad"
ANOTHER APPLICATION.
1 must leave this part of my subject
thus undeveloped and pass on to APP
ply the thought of the hearing ear and the
seeing eye TO our study of our own souls.
What separates God and man? Chiefly
sin. There is a great wall of transgres-
SlOn pelNctl uS anu INN, VI AdthcA sOu
and 1 have our characters so saturated
with yielding TO temptation that it keeps
us not only from knowing God. and caring
for holiness, but. also. from caring much
about il. Have you ever tried 70 imagine
how you, or any one of US. would feel If
we were suddenly TO stand before Jesus
Christ? Think for a moment OF the things
We really love most, and how much We
love them, and then of what life with
Him i'm heaven without these must mean,
/: we are really TO reach it-and then how
overwhelmed we are at the difference-at
that long. long road we have got TO jour
ney before We learn TO forget this world
OF the complete revelation we have got
to make before we could find that heaven
iy life ~tolerable?
There are undoubtedly certain things
which make ND the lives of nine out of
ten people, which will be utterly nonex-
istent in the future world. The thought
OF. or the enjoyment of money. or social
distinctions, or pride in our position, or
ambition TO get beyond others. the Civ
ing way to dislike or prejudice, the in
diligence Of Incidence or selishness-all
these will be absolutely unknown there.
II these things take up the greater part of
our interest here las so often they dol. and
II we cannot learn to be something nobler,
then the heavenly life would be a great
blank to US.
What you and / need then, dear friends,
is a seeing eye. and a hearing ear in such
a case. TO realize that our whole ordinary
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