The Camden chronicle. (Camden, Tenn.) 1890-current, 1903-12-11

says. ~ .wad frae mony a bludeF free o.,
and foolish notion"
Not until man has been touched by
the finger Of God win HE ears be opened
20 the harmonies OF the third kingdom;
not until his eyes have had the vision of
that kingdom and his heart made capable
of receiving that kingdom-not until there
transformations have come % him, can
man know spiritual realities 40 all SO
affirm that there Is n time in the life Of
every man when there Is absolutely no Wis
ION Oi God and no vision OF spiritual real
tiles.
Let me now notice in the second place
that there ID O time when The vision Ct
God and 1lrltual realities Is cnigmltical.
| Tor now re see In a mirror darkly." That
word "darkiy' Is q translation of a Greek
| phrase meaning, lin a riddle" and thus
| you, who have a revised Bible, viii find
| that the phrase I'm n riddle" Is placed in
the margin, for what Paul meant is this,
| For now we see in a mirror, in a riddle"
| Oi course, they did not have the mirrors
which we have now in the apostolic age.
/ Him forevernore.
Beloved, we will never all meet together
/ here, but we may all meet together yon-
/ der. We viii never all see each other,
| therefore, here. Let us so live that we
/ shall all see each other yonder when we
/ have come up, like Him, to meet the hosts
out Of great tribulations, it may be, having
/ our robes washed and made white IN the
blood Of the Lamb. TIL then, goodbye.
| That which they had was a metal polished
on one surface; sometimes OF silver, but
/ usually II was a round piece of metal pol
/ ished as well as they could do it, to which
! was attached a handle. Now, You can see
such mirror would not reflect clearly, as
/ our splendid mirrors do, the images that
/ were before It. Now IL is that furnished
the Apostle Paul with this striking illus
/ traton: For now We see in a mirror, in
! riddle"
Why, the gospel itself, is as a camera OBJ
scura, in which we see reflected the things
/ Of eternity. What we see is not the thing
/ itself, but only the reflection Of it. What
! we see cannot be the thing itself, but only
I the reflection OF it. That is what the gos-
! pei Is. The fourfold gospel does not give
us the living Christ; it only gives the inn
/ age of the living Christ. i is imperfect in
/ so far as man has had part in it, and in so
far as the reflector will give only an inn
perfect image Of the reality, and we must
never forget the fact that what we are
! looking upon in spiritual things is not the
objects themselves, but only the retiec-
tions. Nor must we forget that the def
milton is made enigmatic, that the objects
look like riddles to US also, because the eye
of the soul has net clear vision. What we
see, depends on what our heart Is. How
often we are troubled by the mists and
fogs that arise from the lower levels of our
own lives. How often You and | know
what it is to be lost in the fogs that settle
down upon US as the racing yachts were
lost the other day in their final reach for
the goal; utterly lost, hidden themselves
and Hidden from all about them; and ike
the challenger, we are apt to get out Of
ouF course and lose time in the race for the
goal. So we must not forget that both the
mirror and the eye that sees contribute to-
ward the enigmas of our life and the eniq.
mas that surround US.
Let US look for moment or two at
life's riddles as they relate to God Him
self. Now, | have deal of sympathy for
the multitudes of men who find It hard 10
see God. They hear from the pulpit OF
Gods omniseisnee, His omnipresence, His
eternity, BE fills immensely, God il spirit"
Now, what sort of an idea can man get
from these descriptions of the Eternal?
And be hears, You must love God" that
Che SAm total of the gospel in word, 90
far as duty is. concerned, Is this, Thou
shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy
heart, and with all thy soul, and with oil
thy mind" And he says to us, 'How can
love Kim? be is incOnceivab!e to me.
cannot form an image Of Him. cannot
see Kim to know Him, TO love Him"
Now God understands this heap better
than many theologians do. So He said,
the 'Utterance of Cod" the Word, shall
come into human relations; He shall take
on Him, the nature of man: He shall de-
scend the ladder Of divinity, emptying
BlmseR, until He reaches the lower rungs
, OF humanity, until He shall move in the
valley of human life so that men can touch
/. Him, so that men can hear His voice, so
that men can look upon His face and in
} hearing Him and in touching Him and in
} seeing Him, they shall hear and touch and
} see the living God.
God cannot be seen by any eye; there is
no mirror large enough to reflect Him. and
, even in that which is "the express image
; OF His person. the Christ / have been
J talking. about, we have been seeing, as
said only moment ago, only the reflection
OF Him. We do not see jesus we only
: see the image of Jesus in this fourfold or
; fivefold mirror, the New Testament. am
saying this in order to relieve skeptic
, minds Of real difficulties. | am saying this
to relieve Christians Of real difficulties.
The one thing we need to cultivate above
Z all else is sincerity. We should not say
that we see God when we do not We
l should not pretend TO have larger visions
. than we possess. When it is impossible
I for us to haveVa Clean clear cut definition
2 we should simply wait and realize with the
! Apostle Paul that what we see is really in
, a mirror, and makes it look like riddles tc
e us very often.
We are puzzled over the mystery of tho
incarnation How could God come down
and clothe Himself in an infant Of days
l Our unenlightened friends are trying hare
to eliminate the miracle of the incarnation
Q from theology. They had better realize
= their limits there are lines in the image
3 we cannot understand. The mystery of tht
! Trinity. Who can comprehend that august
t doctrine? We must simply wait. There
: are so. many things we cannot compass
g that if we try to we shall find ourselves
i hopelessiy landed in the foes We JUS
. want to remember that what we have, ever