Orange County observer., 1903-07-09
A SERMON FOR SUNDAY
A BRILLIANT DISCOURSE BY THE REV
: DAVID JAMES BURRELL. D. D., LID.
Subject: The Wireless Messages Of God
Man Who Would Hear the Word
Through the Scriptures Must Divest
Himself of Prejud

A Man Who Would Hear the Word
Through the Scriptures Must Divest
Himself of Prejudice.
NEW YORK CITY-"The Wireless Mes
sages of Cod 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: SsThe 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:
governs in the universal realm of truth,
to wit, the principle of mutual adjustment
Ii you strike a tuning fork which is keyed
to middle c it will awaken a 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 a common
point like an inverted cone. If the power
be applied to the apex of this cone, the
wires begin to tremble, and this current,
| oscillating at a rate of, say, 999, 900 vibra-
tlons per second, create series of CORE
| spending vibrations in the surrounding
ether; just as a stone cast into a pond
sends out concentric circles of water. This
ether wave speeds outward with incalcula-
BILE rapfdity in search of its receiver Now,
III
Cornwall, and the wires at Pol Dhu are
precisely attuned to the transmitter, that
| is, adjusted to an oscillation of 999, 900 per
| second, so that the message sent from the
station at Cape Cod meets no response un-
| til it finds its sympathetic station at Pol
| Dhu, and this welcomes it.
| The system of wireless telegraphy which
| is justly credited to Marcom is not an in
yention, but discovery. He has simply
lighted upon a process which has been
r0Ir, ll~~
the great source and centre of energy in
our solar universe is constantly sending out
messages of light. It 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 beam of
light intended to convey the color red is
sent out from the sun. 1t goes forth repre-
senting certain number of ether waves
per second and speeds through space until
it reaches the earth, and here, intent upon
its eager quest, it passes without pausing
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 heitrope being disposed to wei
| come it, until it finds rose, and here it
pauses and finds welcome, becase the rose
! has been precisely co-ordnated with it.
| Let US go a little further now, and we
shall find spiritual analogy For this
process, which has been discovered to be
| so prevalent in nature, has infinite field and
scope of operation in the province Of spir-
| ltual 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; it fol-
| lows, as an inevitable conclusion, that He
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,
s'Thero oare so many voices and none of them
| is without signifcation." Such persons,
though they dwell in the desert of indian.
| find ''every common bush afre with Cod"
| At night the heavens declare His glory to
| them and the armament showeth His ham
diwork This was in Bryant's mind when
| he wrote:
| @STo 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 feshy
! eyes, like Peter Bell, of whom Wordsworth
says:
"a primrose by the rivers brim
| A yellow primrose was to him
And it was nothing more"
Whence this difference? 1t arises from
fact nat not
| with God and others are not. There was
| Coleridge, who was so devouJly inclined.
| SO 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:s
| "God! Let the torrents like shout of
| nations
! Answer, and let the ice plains echo, God!
God! Sing We meadow streams with glad
-. some voice;
| Ye pine groves with your soft and soul
| like sounds;
| Ye living flowers that skirt the eternal
| forest;
Ye wild goats sporting round the eagles
Ye eagles, playmates of the mountain
Yc ightnings, the dread arrows Of the
| winds;
| Ye sounds and wonders of the elements
| Utter forth God, and fill the hills with
| 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
| the song which is within the song of birds
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.
It is the misfortune of all misfortunes to
| be thus bond slave to the five senses; to
see nothing beyond the range of physical
vision and the circumspection of the finger
| tips. This is to be agnostics, indeed; to
have. no clairvoyance. no spiritual appre-
hension, no second sight, no faith. It 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
claim to be a divine revelation. There is
| an attempt in some quarters to reduce
| them to the level Of other literature, and
| those who approach them in this attitude
will find precisely what they find in other
books and no more. Here, as elsewhere,