The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1901-11-18
LIGHTSWENT OUT
INCIDENT ADDED TO THE IMPRESS
sIvENEss OF SERVICE.
No Hint of H~eterOdoxy in the Sermon
of Rev. Joshua Stansfeld at Me-
ridian-Street Church.

f
question relative to the possibility of a
man having a chance TO accept Christ after
DEATH, a short circuit occurred in the cleo
trio lighting system of the church, and
every incandescent in the edifce went out
simultaneously. plunging congregation and
minister into Stygian darknes without 9TH
er warning than the slight hiss of the burn
ing fuse. The minister showed no embar-
rassment, but completed his interrogatory,
and then led the congregation in singing
Jesus, Lover of Ny Soul" The incident
threw over the services an air of unusual
sOlemnity, as if the sudden conversion of
light into darkness were a supernatural
answer TO the minister's earnest interroga-
ton.
Those who went to hear Mr.. Stansfeld
last night in the expectation that he would
add to his alleged step into heterodoxy
of the preceding Sunday night were disap-
pointed. They listened to an eloquent dis
course marked by originality of thought,
but a discourse untainted by a breath of
heterodoxy. The subject of Mr.. Stansfeld's
sermon was Human Destiny-Whither and
What? He took as his text several pass
ages from different parts of the Bible read
ing as follows: I'm the day that thou eat
est thereof thou shalt surely die "And
sin when 1t is finished bringeth forth death;
the sting of death is sin, but thanks be
to God who giveth us the victory through
Jesus Christ our Lord HE that is unjust
let him be unjust still, he that is filthy
let him be filthy still, he that is righteous
let him be righteous still, he that is holy
let him be holy still"
ALLUSIONS TO MORAL DEATH
The speaker devoted considerable time
to showing that the scriptural illusions
to death are for the most part to moral
and not physical death, and that, accord
ing TO the sciences the latter form of death
instead of being a misfortune or a curse
is a necessity to physical life. He agreed
with science hat man Is the highest type
of physical organism. and then ~propounded
the queries: is God who through all the
processes of evolution in the past has been
leading up to the highest in the human,
going to begin in a point of departure in
a higher realm? Is God to go forward for
fifteen, twenty. thirty or seventy years and
then stop? Is God through nature to lead
on by sure and steady processes till He
can produce for the worlds advantage a
wesley, a Lincoln, a Gladstone, and then
drop him In a box? Our whole moral sense
is shocked"
And So" continued Mr.. Stansfeld. 'the
mar who can think largest and feel most
with the growth Of the years and who
hopes for the future is not suddenly to be
richest, deepest, highest. hottest life of
man. that marvellous power so near to the
Eternal and so closely akin to the Infinite
that the more marked il is in any person
the more divine and heavenly we consider
him or her-the power and passion of love,
do you want to put 1t in a coffin? What
is the burden of Tennyson's In Memoir
lamg Nothing more than this, the absolute
inconcetvabfIty of the power of love to
end with death. And the choicest in liter
allure and the choicest in your own hearts
ana hopes, aye, the best in your own lives,
husband and wife and lover and child and
friend have all demanded a larger life than
this These are limitations only. We do
not base our faith on. these. We are
helped by them. 1t is only as | said a little
while ago, when Jesus Christ, the Goldman,
steps upon this earth of ours revealing the
dignity OF our nature in all its largeness
and granduer, showing a love that was
utterly unselfsh, a gentlenesS that was
sublimely human, a patience such as man
feels he ought to have and a concern for
the interests of others that made the Mas
ter called a humanitarian, yes, yes, it
was when He came that we understood the
truth. He was the truth. The truth of
eternal life is in Him, the truth of immortal
existence is in Him."
LIFE IN RICHEST MEANING.
In discussing the fate that is in store for
those that have known Christ, the minis
ter declared they are to have life in it's
fullest and richest meaning, and then he
took up the subject of what is to befaH the
ancients, the heather and the irreligious
of the present time. On this point he said
that Revelation gives a suggestion I'm
Paul's assertion, "They that have no law
are a law unto themselves" but does not
answer the question satisfactorily.
1--WE ask, or rather call attention to this"
said the minister, that death is not an
infliction. but an outcome; it is in the nat
ural course of events, and God has pro-
vlded Tor every person according to the
rich provisions of redeeming grace. We
must also remind ourselves as to how God
does feel toward the sinner everywhere.
God has so loved as to give His only be-
gotten Son that whosoever believeth in
Him should not perish, but have eternal
life; but even that grand message only re-
wives the question again in our hearts, and
men turn round and say If God, the Eternal
One, so loved as to give His Son. will He
cease to love after that little incident i'm
life called death? And we can only answer
that God loved and so loved as TO make
provision by the dying of His Son here
here and now. In this life was the great
field of human redemption, and there is
at least a suggestion In the words of Scrip
ture, in the book of Hebrews: There re-
maineth, therefore,, no more Offering for
sim Brothers, our own hearts have asked
questions, and our own reasons have given
answers to those questions again and
again that / am not here for a moment 10
cOntrovert, but let me say to you. in all
these questions we are in the realm of
speculation and not OF revelation. If a per-
son comes to me and says Ii is not lust
that man should have full opportunity of
accepting the Christ here or lsewhere, L
will answer out of my own reason
CONCLUDING WORDS
AT this point the lights vent out. and
when an electrician had been summoned to
the church and made the necessary repairs
the preacher resumed:
I'm view of the inequalities that there
are in life and its opportunities, we were
Just asking if God should nOt-mark the
word, it is a questiOn-if God should not
give persons opportunity TO know theNsav-
ing Christ there somewhere. as well as
here. 1 can only answer out of my own
reason; am no authority, neither is any
other man authority for another, but /
can say 10 you this out of my own reason:
acter of God, if He should He will. The
Judge of all the earth will do right, but
who knows as to whether He should? That
question grows out OF imperfect knowledge,
and IL is at least suggestive that God, in
the scriptural Revelation, has given no
such intimation.
And so there are a hundred other ques-
tons about the redeemed; do they know
US. do hey see what we are doing. shall
we know each other. when will the judg-
ment be. will the righteous ever be judged
after they leave this earth or will they
judge the wicked and a hundred other such
questions of these inQuiSitiVe souls of ours.