The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1901-01-14
THE POISON in THEOLOGY
PRINCIPLES OF sWEDENBORGIAN
CONCEPTION OF BIBLE.
They Are Set Forth In a Sermon by
the Rev. w. l.. Gladish, of New
Church Chapel.


in a sermon preached yesterday morning
by Rev. w. L. Gladish, minister of New
Church Chapel. Mr.. Gladish's subject was
Theological Poison" and he took as his
text the ~fortieth and forty-frst verses of
the fourth chapter of Second Kings: And
It came to pass, as they were eating Of
the pottage. that they cried out and said.
o man of God. there is death in the pot
And they could not eat. And He said.
Then bring meal And He cast it into
the pot: and He said, Pour out for the
people that they may eat And there was
no harm In the pot The minister said IN
part:
THE word of God keeps earth and
heaven united, and upon this depends our
salvation, yea our life. Men read the word
and their thoughts are lifted heavenward
and their affections kindled for something
above this earthly life, and as sure as mind
acts on mind. the angels feel and respond
to this; they draw near; they lift maj up
for a time into a purer atmosphere. But
IL must be understood that this takes place,
rot when one reads the Bible as literature,
not when he searches its pages TO prove
some preconceived opinion, but only when
he reads 1t as the holy word of the living
God. when he reads in humility of spirit
for the sake of learning how to lead such
a life as will be acceptable to his heavenly
ly Father.
IGNORANT MEN.
but how could men, as wholly ignorant
as we are in the things of this world, be
led to read of spiritual things? How can
we be Interested in the high abstract
truths that angels love? What can
= - --s-l "a n.,+x How nnrlI
| little children be initiated into a love for
| the heavenly Fathers book? How, but b.
setting forth abstract truth in concrete
| form, weaving 1t into history, having. 1t
acted out and recorded In most interesting
story form? And. believe me, In. no otner
way can the truth be Impaired by an in
finite being to a finite mind, but by some
sort of parable or picture which can De
understood very simply by the beginner ana
more and more wisely and interloriy. 10
eternity. For this reason, our Lord when
here in the flesh always spoke In parallels
For this reason He speaks to men In
PARALLELS throughout all those books or our
Bible which are really His word. For this
reason He selected the children or lsraei
and led them to act out In their nationai
history the whole story of mans saliva
ton and Their He selected and filled with
His spirit and so guided the scribes VINO
recorded that history that what was re-
corded should be a perfect paraDie or
II we will but lift our thoughts a little.
we can see that the Lord teaches us in the
incident of the text what He is always
seeking to do for us and for all men. 1t Is
only necessary to think of food for the
spiritual or eternal nature instead oil
food for the body, and then we shall see
the meaning of 1t all.
How often there are times of famine in
the church. There is no open vision. The
Lords presence Is not felt. Those VINO
teach or %prophesy in her pulplts are unable
to speak with authority and in providing
food for their hearers they unknowingiy
mingle what is poisonous with what Is
good for the souls nourishment. and men
cry There is death in the pot and / can
not eat thereof And then, II the Lord Is
present He leads 10 the Introduction or a
new element into the pottage. He leads
men, both preacher and hearers TO grind
out between the upper milestone OF new
doctrine from the word and the neither mill
stone of common sense a new grist, and this
new grist is truth understood. and when
this is added to the unpalatable food, be-
hold there is no harm In the pot.
CRY OUT AGAINST 1T.
1--WE read in the Bible of the cruelty.
anger, vindictiveness of God and we cry
out against it. We can read no more. But
after a time. perhaps after a long time and
many trials and much hard grinding of
our intellectual mill, we learn that to the
froward God must ever appear froward.
and that the letter Of the word was given
through a froward and hard-hearted peo-
pie: that He appeared to them to be alto
gether like themselves; that when we read
o. His wrath We must remember that II is
the only form His mercy can take with the
disobedient. When we nave ground out this
meal and cast 1t into the pot then all is
sweet once more and we can read the word
again to our souls great nourishment.
but there are prominently two times
when the Lord comes TO His church in time
OF famine, even as Elisha came to the
school of the prophets at Gilgal. There
hoxo haop nra-apninaptIv .uo tiu aS union
those who wished to learn the way of life
could no longer eat with safety of the
food provided for them by the church. And
both times the Lord has provided a new
understanding of His ways and cast it into
the pot that all who would might eat with
no more fear of being poisoned. These two
times have been the times Of His first and
second coming.
when He came the first time He found
the Jewish church teaching that one should
love his neighbor and hate his enemy;
teaching an eye for an eye and a tooth
for a TOOTH teaching that certain washings
observed and sacrifices offered prepared
one for heaven without regard to the life.
But mankind could no longer accept such
doctrines as food. Largely because of the
heather philosophers of Greece-but we
must remember that Ii was the Lords
spirit moving and teaching through those
philosophers-humanity could no longer ac-
cept these doctrines Of death as the way
of life. They were crying out there is
death in the pot and they could not eat
thereof. But the Lord cast meal into the
pot. He showed that an eye for an eye is
a law of mercy; that in spiritual things Ii
means that whatever we give we receive
a. law as unalterable as that of the Modes
and Persians. If from our hearts we wish
good to others, we shall receive good: If
we wish evil. we shall to that extent re-
ceive evil. He showed that our only enemy
Is the power of evil and that every man is
neighbor to the extent that we can help
him TO be better or happier. 8
DIFFERENCE IN THE CHURCH.
Again. there is a time of difference in
the church.
Priest and sage,
Like lost guides calling right and left.
Perplex the age
Again. men are crying out-many honest
men-that they cannot accept as true the
teaching of the churches. They Insist that
there is death in what Is offered for the
souls nourishment. They cannot accept
the doctrine of eternal punishment, the doc
trine of instantaneous salvation without
regard to the life. They cannot accent IL
as true that We are saved by the blood OF
Christ: cannot accept the absolute in
fallibility of the word nor the doctrine that
they cry out to the teacher. % man OF
God, there is death In the pot. and they
cannot eat of such fare. - With the
hard doctrine of the eternity of hell God
mingles this meal; first. that all who have
not irrevocably confirmed themselves in
hatred TO the Lord and the neighbor are
saved: second, that those who cannot be
destroy the happiness OF the angels IL adj
mitted TO heaven, but would themselves be
most miserable there: third. that there
fore OF His tender mercy the Lord pro-