The St. Louis Republic. [volume] (St. Louis, Mo.) 1888-1919, 1902-09-01
GLORY OF FAITH DUE TO
REVELATION OF CHRIST.
Editor of Central Baptist Delivers
Discourse at Delmar Ave
nue. Baptist Church.

The Reverend Doctor J. c. Armstrong. ed.
1tor of the Central Baptist, preached yester.
Gay morning at the Delmar Avenue Bap-
nst Church on the theme, Things Unseen
ana Eternal AS a basis for his them,
Doctor Armstrong took the words of the
Apostle Paul in II Corinthians, ~. IS: 1--WE
look not at the things which. are seen, hu,
at the things which are no: seen: for the
Things which are seen a-e temporal, but the
The doctor said, in part:
"A notion Is abroad that religion, or the
ology. Is hlled with intellectual difficulties
ana absurdities- Occasionally IL is intimat-
ed that IL you become a believer in God and
accept the Bible you must abjure reason.
discard common sense and swallow whole
chapters of intellectual contradictions.
Mental weakness and dishonesty we all
despise. A thoughtful soul hesitates to walk
out into q region where he will not be al
lowed TO maintain his intellectual dignity
ana self-respect II occurs 10 me that. in
this text, Paul opens up TO US a path of
thought which may help us in these mo-
ments Of confusion.
I'm the first place. these difficulties about
which SO much noise Is mane are not pecu-
liar to theology. In all the fields of human
thought - natural. physical. mathematical.
moral and theological-there are questions
is not the only man who has to say Il know
not Going a step further. / venture to say
THAT In nearly every case the mental trouble
arises over an attempt TO find the exact re-
iation between the finite and the infinite,
the temporal and the eternal. the seen and
the unseen, the human and the divine. the
natural and the supernatural.
These terms go in pairs, matching them
selves TO the distinct fields where they be-
long; but all Of them running along parallel
lines As Paul affirms. there is an unseen
as well as a seen realm, an eternal as wen
as temporal. The problem of the ages has
been to find the line where these two worlds
meet and where their forces interlace- 1t
is perfectly safe to say that they do not
contradict each other. If there Is any con-
tradictioa, IL is in our Interpretation OF
them
LAS old as human thought Is the debate
over fate and free will. The heather pic
ture of the three Fates IL but another phase
of the problem Ne study about divine SOW
ereignty and human agency. without a
Bible men recognized that from out an ad-
joining world there come suggestions and
forces and predeterminations which enter
into the course Of current events II IS no
reject the Bible is not to escape the trouble.
IS Natural science carries US a little fur
fther back in the processes OF nature than
We saw at first. but there ever remains a
somewhat that does not lie wholly within
the realm OF the seen. Chemical affinity
and forces of gravity and cohesion. laws
and forces which govern the propagation
Of species. these and a hundred other little
items come over from the beyond TO m'ngle
their purposes with what belongs here.
Just now men are studying the Blole
with unusual avidity. How much of Its
anguage and inquire ana spirit ana concep,
ton and assumed authority is divine and
how much human? We can do as some
have done. deny that there is anything d.
vine about if: or we can do as yet others
have done and make the inspired writers
scarcely more than mechanical Instruments.
mere unfeeling wires along which the d.
win thought was sent. Better than this.
we can do what Paul did. We can recognize
both the divine and the human elements in
the writings.
81 have mentioned these Illustrations of
the common problems which confront US
everywhere. There is no greater intellectual
humiliation in accepting the Bible than in
accepting the assured conclusions OF science.
In none of these fields of knowledge have
we been able to discover the line Of juno
ton. Here is the minds universal prob
lem. But the glory of our faith is that
upon these spiritual mysteries the revela-
ton of Jesus Christ has thrown a blessed
Illumination. sc that we know many things
which reason had not discovered. The only
supreme folly is to deny that there Is this
other. this unseen, eternal, infinite world;
that is the absurdity of intellectual degra-