The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1903-07-15
A SERMON FOR SUNDAY
A BRILLIANT DISCOURSE BY THE REV
DAVID JAMES BCRRELL D. D.. LID.


Subject: The Wireless Messages of God
A Man Who Would Hear the Word
Through the Scriptures Must Divest
Himself of Prejudice.
New YORK C1TY.-"The Wireless Mes
eages of God" was the subject of the ser
mon preached by the Rev. David James
Burrell, D. D., LID, in the Marble Col.
legiate Church, Sunday. he took his text
from Corinthians ii:l4: "The natural man
receiveth not the things of the Spirit OF
God, for they are foolishness unto him;
neither can he know them, because they
are spiritually discerned." DR.: Burrell said
A great principle is here laid down which
governs in the universal realm of truth,
to wit, the principle of mutual adjustment.
If you strike tuning fork which is keyed
! to middle it will awaken response in
another if keyed to the same pitch, but not
otherwise. This is the basic fact IN wire
less telegraphy; On Cape Cod there Is a
transmitting station, consisting of four
steel towers with bunch of wires suspend
ed from the top and meeting at common
point like an inverted cone. II the power
be applied to the apex of this cone, the
wires begin to tremble, and this current,
oscillating at rate Of: say, $685. vlbra-
tions per second, create a series of CORE
spending vibrations in the surrounding
ether; Just as a stone cast into pond
sends out concentric circles of water. This
ether wave speeds outward with incalcu!a-
bic rap;dity in search of its receiver. Now,
there is such a receiver at Pol Dhu, IN
Cornwall, and the wires at Pol Dhu are
precisely attuned to the transmitter, that
is, adjusted to an oscillation o. 600 per
second, SO that the message sent from the
station at Cape Cod meets no response un,
til 1t finds its sympathetic station at FOL
Dhu, and this welcomes it.
The system of wireless telegraphr which
is Justly credited to Marconi is not an IN
vention, but discovery. He mas simply
lighted upon a process which has been
going on perpetually in space. The sun as
the great source and centre of energy IN
our solar universe IS constantly sendlng out
messages of light. 1t is scientifically
demonstrated fact that beam OF light is
simply an electric message; that is, vibra-
ton Of ether. And here the principle holds
that no message can be received except by
some object which is sympathetically at
tuned to welcome it. Let us suppose, as
Professor Pupin suggests, that a beam OF
light intended to convey the color red ls
sent out from the sun. 1t goes forth repre-
senting a certain number of ether waves
per second and speeds through space until
it reaches the earth, and here, intent upon
ALB cdReE QuSSI, ~ PaoSSo "teA4Oe PNAS
through all the meadows, since no grass
blade is adjusted to receive it; passes over
all gardens, no daisy or buttercup,. no mig
nonette or helitrope being disposed to vel
come it, until it finds a rose, and here 1t
pauses and finds welcome, becase the rose
has been precisely co-ordinated with it.
Let US go a little further now, and we
shall find spiritual analogy. For this
process, which has been discovered to be
~ fr,ra hoo infinite field and
scope of operation in the province OF splr-
itual things. God, as the great transmitter
of truth, bears to the spiritual world re-
lation corresponding with that OF the sun
in the natural world. Let us assume that
there is God, and that we are created in
His image and after His likeness; 1t tol-
lows, US an inevitable conclusion, that be
will somehow reveal Himself to His chill.
dren and hold converse with them. But
here is the application of the principle re-
ferred to. The man who would hear the
wireless messages of God must himself be
attuned, or adjusted to the nature and
character of God.
Let us begin with nature, for this is the
universal medium through which God COM
municates with the children Of men. Now
there are some who look through nature to
natures God and hear Him speaking IN
everything about them, as it is written,
IA without signification." Such persons,
though they dwell in the desert of Midian:
find "every common bush afre with God"
At night the heavens declare His glory to
them and the armament showeth His han
diwork. This was in Bryant's mind when
he wrote:
"To him who in the love of nature holds,
Communion with her visible forms, she
! speaks
"a various language"
But there are Others who hear no voices,
and see nothing that is not visible to teshy
eyes, like Peter Bell, of whom Wordsworth
says; o ,u .h0 ,;u.r,. \,
A yellow primrose was to MIN
And it was nothing more"
Whence this difference? 1t arises from
the fact that some souls are sympathetic
with God and others are not. There was
Coleridge, who was so devoutIy inclined.
go open to the reception of spiritual truth,
that, walking in the vale of Chamounix, he
heard the snow capped mountains and ice
falls echoing His name:
"God! Let the torrents like shout of
nations
Answer, and let the ice plains echo, God!
God! Sing ye meadow streams with glad
some voice;
Ye pine groves with your soft and soul
Ye living flowers that skirt the eternal
Ye wild goats sporting round the eagles
Ye eagles, playmates of the mountain
stream;
Ye ightnings, the dread arrows OF the
winds;
Ye sounds and wonders of the elements
Utter forth God, and fill the hills with
l. praise!"
The wisest Man that ever lived got les
sons in theology from the ravens. the lilies
of the field, the growing wheat. But, alas!
there are those who have no ears to hear
and the visions which are within the beauty
of the natural world. They are bound down
to things material, dreaming no dreams
and seeing no visions; of the earth, earthly.
"Great God, I'd rather be
A pagan, sucked in creed outworn;
So might /, standing on this pleasant lea,
Have glimpses that would make me less
Have sight Of Proteus rising from the sea,
Or hear old Triton blow his wreathed
horn"
It is the misfortune of all I1isfortunes to
be thus bond slave to the FIVE senses; to
vision and the circunspection of the finger
tips. This is to be agnostics, indeed; to
have no clairvoyance, no spiritual aPpre-
hension, no second sight, no faith. 1t is
an eternal and immeasureable calamity to
stand in the midst of universe where the
ether is vibrant with messages OF truth and
be so deeply absorbed in our little plans
and pursuits and physical sciences" that
we hear no voice of God.
Let us turn now to the Scriptures which