The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1902-06-16
FROM THE CITY'S PULPITS
SERMON on THE HUMAN PUZZLE BY
REV. j. CUMMING SMITH.
The Journey from Simplicity Through
Obscurity TO SimpIicity-Other
Preachers Thoughts.

He said
Let us begin with parable. A certain
man Travelled over an open country where
scarce a grove varied the far sky lines
and scarce a curve in the path relieved the
situation. AL looked easy. After a while
the pathway dipped down into tangling
brush and oily marsh and the close bush
shut out the glimpse of sky and the trail
grew thorny and tortuous, and indeed very
often grew so faint as 10 tax the eye 10
follow 1t. Then, after long circuitous wan
dering, the man emerged once more into
the open, unfretted country. Again the
path kept straight on; again the breeZes
waited health and ozone; again the blue
sky bent benignantly over the landscape.
At a certain viewpoint, however, he looked
back and observed that the present level
on which he stood while like the level on
the other side of the marsh in its transpar-
ency and clearness, was unlike it because
higher. He had assembled unconsciously
wnlle trudging through the brakes ana
on which he walked he was grateful for
the difficulties through which he strug-
gled 10 attain il: nor would he exchange
the uplands for the first easy stretch of
country over which his path led
And now, dismissing the parable, let
US see life in its three epochs. First comes
simplicity, but IL is the simplicity OF sur
faces. To the child the sky is a blue roof
and the world is place for play and the
woods are for picnics and ghosts, and ev-
erybody is as he seems, and death is
trip 10 another part of the country, and
mother is viewed a protector. Every
thing looks simple as a coin. JOY, there
fore, comes dripping down from every ex-
perience. We see Jesus not alone loving
little children, but perceiving their deeper
native instincts. He saw their animations
and hereditary cruelties, but. He saw the
JOY, their cloudless trust and unsuspicious-
ness and unmasked propensities-all these
appealed 10 Jesus. While the child has
the simplicity merely of innocence.
Then comes that strange second period
In our human development. We look to the
sky and II stretches far away into the
depths or inf1nttude and we bow before the
appalling mystery or immensely. We look
at the evolution of history and its myriad
forces battle We look at men and
women acting out their part on the theater
and the completely of human motive over
comes and saddens US. We look at religion
and heaven. and To- God wells himself in
thick clouds and the Bible deepens into sin
gular problems and contradictions. and we
never gloomed our hearts. But no: time
wheels US along and we cannot go back;
nor should we want. for the best lies ahead.
The past is irrevocable, although not ire
trievable.
sKEPTICS OUT OF COLLEGE.
clothes behind forever as we press on TO
mature and manly life We must enter the
second period of cloud and complication.
Young men and young women know that
this is the period of peril to their faith.
They think down beneath the crust of
things and strike some hard facts. They
go TO college and the new science often
makes rough sport with their early and
Of Na wit ha
man leaving home a believer and leaving
college a skeptic, and we censure the pro-
fessor for wrecking young faith. This
seems hardly fair. Perhaps the faith was
crude and required change. At all events
the error often lies farther back when
minister catered TO the moment and mis-
guided the young people with sermons pious
in sound, but superficial, and therefore cal
culated to manufacture skeptics in the long
run. II a father gives bad counterfeit
money TO his son starting out in
prised if the son soon finds him
self tripped up. If a doctor drugs his
patient with liquids that have a sweet
taste for the moment, but are disguised
poisons, then we must not be surprised if
sickness increases. There is a superficial
gospel that is ultimately a cheat and
forgery. There is profound and magnifi-
cent gospel that is at first a little stern,
but finally it bears the choicest fruits.
And II our young people are prone 10 break
away, like fresh colts scorning the bride,
alone. Above all, let US not droop in de-
spair. Life has an immense fund of VI
tality and resiliency after all; and many
a son ventures off for awhile from sheer
exuberance of animal spirits and shocks
his friends, but he finds his mate some
bright day and things look serious with
our unhappy happiness and he settles down
TO be good deacon or the church and IA
Their of an irrepressibe family, who per-
pick him in turn as he perplexed his ia
Their.
1--WE then reach the third period when
we return from a complicated view OF life
TO a simple and child-like view of life;
but II is the simplicity not of surfaces, but
of depths and heights. Young theologians
mystify religion; mellow saints clarity it.
Young lawyers middle law; old judges
reduce IL to common sense. Budding poets
make life a riddle or a rainbow; old, sane
poets paint life as ii is The last art is
simplicity, as the brook is simple as the
birds child's voice is simple God
is simple. 1t is because we have grasped
the direction and tendencies of things and
do not let the mere whirl and multiplicity
of things puzzle and ensnare us. The whole
world would be simple to us if we were
able to get at its final secret.
EASY WHEN ONE KNOWS HOW
"A steam engine is just as simple to a
Watts and a telephone just as simple to an
Edison and symphony just as simple to a
Mendelssohn as wheelbarrow is TO the
ditcher or a bow and arrow to an Indian or
a toy to the nursing. 1t depends on our
level. after all. A statesman is a mystery
to the politician until the politician ascends
and becomes a statesman. People some
times complain about the religion of the
Bible being so difficult Why should il not
be? Does ii not emanate from COD, and
we in our infancy demand that God
shall never go too deep or soar too high for
US? Would we not have contempt for a
god we could understand and for "A Bible
that never outran our naScent wisdom? But
to God the Bible Is as plain as the alpha bet.
He dwells in the realm of simplicity that
companions omniscience, and men are ad-
vancing upwards towards the same master
terful comprehensiveneSs We understand
doctrines to-day which utterly befooled and
befogged the ancients. The church is ris-
ing to a more perfect understanding of
Gods providences and TO a more symmetri-
cal explanation in creeds.
Il venture To say that the young people
who skip and skim the surfaces OF things
Just now in schools may ran away with
some prizes. but back OF them are the
brainy fellows who won't say they under
stand a thing until they take il 10 pieces
and then put il together-these are the
minds destined 10 great achievement.
They are simple master minds always
are. l venture 10 say that the child-like
quality. being the regent md radiant quail
ity of genius. rules in every sphere more
and more; that government is getting
more practical every year; that science
grows more and more direct; that churches
are eager Tor what actually marks down
into life and makes man more like God
as Jesus strove to make God more like
men. And when we all graduate from this
world, with its thousand masks and trick
cries and slippery plausibilites and en-
tanglements, We shall enter another world,
one OF whose first surprises will be the
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