The Penn's Grove record., 1903-07-03

Himself of Prejudice.
New York CITY.-''The Wireless Mes
sages of God, was the subject of the SER
mon preached by the Rev. David James
Burrell, ID. ID, LID, in the Marble Col
legiate Church, Sunday. He took his text
from l Corinthians lila: 'The natural man
receiveth not the things of the Spirit OF
God, for they are foolishness unto him
neither can he know them, because rtley
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 a tuning fork which is keyed
to middle G it will awaken a response in
another If keyed to the same pitch, but not
otherwise. This is the base fact in WIRE
less telegraphy. On Cape Cod there is a
transmitting station, consisting of four
steel towers with a bunch of wires suspend
ed from the top and meeting at a 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 a rate of, say, 999, 900 vibra-
lions per second, create a 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-
bic rapidity 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 of 900 900 Der
second, so that the message sent from the
station at Cape Cod meets no response UNI
til it finds its sympathetic station at Poi
Dhu, and this welcomes it.
The system of wireless telegraphy which
is justly credited to Marconil is not an in
vention, but a discovery. He has 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 sending out
messages of light. 1t is a scientifically
demonstrated fact that a beam of light is
simply an electric message; that is, a yibra-
tion OF ether. And here the principle holds
that no message can be received except by
some object which is alphabetically at
tuned to welcome it. Let us suppose, as
Professor Pupin suggests, that a beam of
light intended to convey the color red is
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
its eager guest, 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 helitrope being disposed to wei
come it, until it finds a rose, and here it
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 a 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-
itual things. God, as the great transmitter
of truth, bears to the spiritual world a re-
lation corresponding with that of the sun
in the natural world. Let us assume that
there is a 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,
There are so many voices and none OF them
is without Specification" Such persons,
though they dwell in the desert of INDIAN.
find EVERY common bush afire with God"
At night the heavens declare His glory to
them and the armament shoyeth His han
diwork. This was In Bryant's mind when
he wrote:
ITO him who in the love of nature holds
Communion with her visible forms, she
speaks
"A various language"
and gee 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
the fact that some souls are sympathetic
with God and others are not. There was
Coieridge, who was SO devouLiy 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:
"Godl Let the torrents like a 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
nest;
Ye eagles, playmates Of the mountain
Ye lightninga, 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 lines
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.
Great God, I'd rather be
A pagan, sucked in a creed outworn;
So might |, standing on this pleasant lea,
Have glimpses that would make me less
f~orlorn,
Have sight Of Proteus rising from the sea,
Or hear old Triton blow his wreathed
horn!"
1t 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
nave no clairvoyance, no spiritual appre-
henslon, no second sight, no faith. 1t is
an eternal and mmeasureable calamity to
stand in the midst of a 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,
we find what we are looking for, n hear
what we are listening for. The mere stu
dent of literature finds in the Bible myths
and parallels, songs and chronicles of sur
passing beauty, but there are Others who
&stEn as atdwine oracles and hear the very
Voice Of God.
How are we toSaccount for this difference
of estimate as to spiritual value and vera
cious integrity of the Scriptures? 1t IS
due, as before, to a difference OF relation
With God. In SOM cases men hold them.
selves in readiness to hear, as Samuel did
in the early watches of the morning, when
Ia answer to the heavenly voice he SAID,
Speak, Lord, for Thy servant heareth.'
In other cases they stand in a critical or
skeptical attitude, as Theodore Parker did
when he remarked, Il am not willing to re-
ceive this statement upon the authority OF
any such person as God" There is moth
ing in the world that can so destroy the
rcceptivity of the soul as this pride OF