The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1903-04-08

And We should be stimulated in the di.
rection OF coming into closer quarters with
the sublime facts OF the spiritual world:
Cod. ,oul and all the eternals. il we would
keep Closer company with those impulses
Of ou,s. those spiritual appetites. that in
stinctively lean and extend themselves in
the direction of that suspected but un.
known world. There is not an impulse yet
detected ir our nature, whether physical
or mental. that . has not been found in
course of time to be correlated with some
thing outside that precisely matches it
Thirst means that there 10 water. and the
water is there waiting. The eye means
that there is light. and the light Is thers
waiting. The budding interrogation in the
child's mind means that there is truth, and
the truth 10 there waiting. So far rs we
shown itself to be an infallible prophecy
Of al outward reality that perfectly fits It.
And those great l~onginss Of the soul that
swell within Us in our best and freest mo:
ments. 90 IT at sometimes rs to be beyond
our power TO %articnlate, these, too. it ID
foolish and stupid in Us u treat a. less
Trustworthy and infallible than are the
auieter appetences OF the intelligence or
the coarser instincts Of the body. There is
no safe creed that docs not start in with
a confession Of faith in ones own superb
self-superb in the sense Of being gifted
with powers that put him in direct re!a-
ton with the rocks under him, the air
about him. the great God overhead, and
the eternal realm Of Spirit, human and di.
vine. And that gives a man something to
60 upon: i at once makes the farthest
! star in the heavens a proper object OF IN.
auiry. and lays out before him a highway
into the heat and centre Of the kingdom
spiritual.
But the highway into the heart and cen:
tire Of the kingdom spiritual is not a road
that is being nnmerously Travelled. We are
about as far along on that road as Co'up-
nent when he was still heaving anchor in
the harbor of Palos. But the road is az
feasible and pa.sable. rs the waterway OF
the Atlantic: And the world is going to
get there. The religious impulse, the pas.
sion Of IT,. divine is in US for a purpose.
God is movable and He is going to be
known. Spiritual things are discernible
and they are going to he discerned. There
is such a thing rs the life eternal and there
is such a thing as having a realization OF
that .:fe, having it here. too, as a matter
not saying anything just now az to the ma.
ture Of the highway that leads into the
midst Of the spiritually discerned realities
that compose that kingdom. nothing just
now aoout the steps o man takes in tread.
ing that highway. The only impression I
am. studying to leave this morning is thai
there is a continent Of reality as distinct
| from the continent Of every day interest
M the Western Hemisphere Of our globe
il distinct from the Eastern: that We are
endowed with faculties which to the de-
ercised make the matters OF that remoter
| continent az certainly d~istinguishable and
as confidently appreciable to the earliest
Spanish explorers: that spiritual discern
ment has lust as solid q meaning IN its re-
lation to things spiritual 40 ocular discern
| ment has in its relation to things material,
and that it is capable Of yielding results
tbst are just as convincing and satisfying,
and he as snlidly planted in the assurance
Of the man that has become spiritually cog.
| infant of them; that the soul is endowed
with the faculty Of a vision that is as tru:
a. the vision Of the body, independent OF
| bodily vision end n thousand times more
| richly and wonderfully gifted.
Men are interested in houses, lands,
clothes. money. markets. commerce. science
and art, but there is not much interest in
religion. There IN interest in the matter
Of being saved, whatever that may mean,
| but desire to be saved is no more religion
than the desire to be gotten out OF the
water when you have fallen overheard 10
| navigation.
This does not mean that there are not a
good many who have an mixing OF the
meaning Of the spiritual kingdom. some:
thing a. men at sea gain q suspicion OF
distant land by observing the impalpable
| blanket Of mist that hovers about it. 1t 10
| net much in itself, and yet it is a great
| deal, because Of the much that it is capa.
bic of widening out into. It is a kind. OF
| spiritual coast line which. seen from afar.
appears to be but a fimy thread, but
which il for all that the solid edge OF .
solid ointment.
Nor does that which we have been say.
ing mean that there are not those who
distance into the midst Of things, the spir.
itual v~erities, that make out the spiritual
world. In all departments Of life and in all
directions Of growth there have always
been men who have outrun their fellows,
| pioneers in the enterprise Of discovery.
giants in research who have stood high and
looked over the shoulders of their contem-
| poraries, who have lived in the same
wo:ld as they, but at the same time lived
in q larger world than they. In the world
of religious thought and experience we
call such men prophets. A prophet. prop
erly speaking, is not 90 mach a man who
III 0UtC " kCC "Hnt u WIN ~ ~ No w.
ono who sees more widely than Others the
things which are now. There 10 such a
thing, even in matters Of science, as coming
40 into accord with the spirit of scientific
| truth az to be able to see with q firm and
fast Vision where eyes less sympathetic
have failed. Exactly the parallel of that
| has been true over and over again in that
other world Of truth mysterionsly hidden
that is our special concern this morning.
And. as / say, we call such ones prophets;
And there are prophets now rs IN the OLD
days-men and women whose spiritual
| steps are more than abreast with their
own day. They know what they zee, they
realize what they feel, and it is as feeble
and inflntile for those whose eyes have in
| them a feeble light to deny the uncovering
that has been made to these prophets and
prophetesscs of a longer and purer sight,
as for you and me to slur over with iron!-
cal contempt the revelations brought ba'k
to Us by those who have climbed farther
heavens.
But that is the way history grows; that
is the way the world becomes larger--a few
prophets, pioneers in the van, and the rest
piodd:ng on behind-some not even Pod.
ding, some no nearer millennium than
when history started out. OF course, the
great prophet Of all prophets, the great
seer OF all seers, was Jesus Christ. IL
would seem that to His eye the things OF
the heavenly kindom were as near and as
distinct as were the long hidden mysteries
OF the solar system distinct to the vision
OF Copernicus. He did moi reason: Christ
did not, nor conjecture, nor guess; He saw.
When lie told Of God, OF the soul. OF the
life eternal, He spoke of that which He
knew and testified that which He had
seen. He came no. as a de,ineator. While
He was telling things to people He saw
the things that He was telling them. There
is nothing in the Bible about supPos'ng,
Int t,ere il n great lot i'm It abou seeing.