The Olneyville times. (Olneyville [Providence, R.I.]) 1887-1917, 1903-03-27


the sublime facts Of the spiritual world
col. t0ul and al the eternals II we would
feep c.Cset company with those impulses
Oi oH's. those spiritual apDetites. that ia.
stinctlvely lean and extend themselves in
the direction Of that suspected but un.
known world There il not an impulse vet
detected n our nature. whether physical
or men Al. that has NOT been found in
course Of time % be correlated with some.
thing outside that precisely matches il
Thirst means that there is water. and the
water - there waiting The eve means
that there is light and the lizht is there
! waiting The budding interrogation in the
| chld's mind means that there Is truth and
! the truth - there waiting So far as we
have yet gone the inward Impulse ha.
shown itself 20 be an infa.iibe prophecy
Of an outwarl reality that perfectly fits IT,
And those great longings Of the soul that
| swell within Gs IN oar best and freest mo.
ments. 30 Zr "a sometimes as 20 be beyond
| our power 20 artcrate, these, too. ~ il
foolish and stupid in us 20 treat az less
trustworthy and lnfallib,e than are the
! Guleter aDDetences OF the intelligence or
the colrser instincts Of the body There is
no safe creed thar does not start i'm with
/ a confession OF fsltn in ones own sunerb
/ se'f-superb in the sense OF being gifted
| with powers that nut him IN direct rea-
/ ton with the rocks under him. the air
/ about nim the great God overhead and
| vine. And that gives a man something 20
/ 20 uDon. j. AZ once makes the farthest
star IN the heavens . nroper object of in
| quiry, and lays out before him highway
into the heart and centre OF the kingdom
! spiritual
But the highway into the heart and cen.
ire OF the kingdom spiritual Is rot road
that Is being numerOuslv travelled We are
about as far along on that road as Column
! bus was on the way - the Western COnti-
nent when he was still heaving anchor in
the harbor OF Pa,os. But the road is as
! feasible and passable as the waterway Of
the Atlantic And the world is going TO
get there: The religious impulse, the pas
sion OF tE2 divine i in Us for a purpose.
God Is movable and He is going 10 be
known Spiritual things are discer1ib,e
and they are going TO be discerned. There
u such a thing "a the life eternal and there
Is such thing as having a realization of
that lie, having 1t here, too. as a matter
of clear aud definite experience. We are
not saving ANYTHING Just now Al 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 man takes IN tread.
ing that highway. The only impression [
am Studying TO leave this morning is that
there u a continent OF reality as distinct
from the continent OF every day interest
as the Western Hemisphere OF our globe
Is distinct from the Eastern; that we are
endowed with faculties which 10 the de-
gree in which they are develoDed and ex.
erclsed make the matters OF that remoter
continent IA certainly distlngushabe and
as confidently appreciable 10 the earliest
Spanish explorers; that spiritual discern
ment has lust as solid a meaning in It's re-
latiOn 10 things spiritual "a ocular discern.
ment has IN its relation to things material.
and that 1t Is capable of yielding results
th. are Just as convincing and satisfying,
and he as soldlv planted in the assurance
of the man that has become spiritually cog
infant of them; that the soul IL endowed
with the faculty Of a vision that is As true
the vision of the body. indenendent Of
bodily vision end a 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 Is interest in the matter
Of being saved, whatever that may mean
but desire to be saved Is no more religion
than the desire 70 be gotten out o. the
water when you have fallen overheard is
navigation.
This does not mean that there are not
good many who have an inEling OF the
meaning OF the spiritual kingdom, some
thing as men at sea gam a suspicion OF
distant land by observing the imnalpable
blanket of mist that hovers about it. 1t ia
not much in itself and yet it is a great
deal. because OF the much that it Is capa
bic of widening out into. 1t Is a kind of
spiritual coast line which. seen from afar
appears to be but a fiimy thread, but
which Is for all that the solid edge of
solid ointment.
Noe does that which we have been say
ing mean that there are not those who
have already travelled a good stretch of
distance into the midst of things, the spir-
itual verlties, that make out the spiritual
world. In ali departments of life and in all
directions OF growth there have always
been men who have outrun their fellows,
pioneers In the enterDrlse of discovery,
giants in research who have stood high and
looked over the shoulders of their contem-
poraries, vino have lived in the same
wO,ld as they, but at the same time lived
in a larger world than they. In the world
OF religious thought and experience we
call such men prophets. \ prophet, prop
erlv speaking, y not so much a man who
Is able to see what j. going 10 be as he Is
ono who sees more widely than others the
things which are now. There Is such
thing. even in matters of science, as coming
so into accord with the spirit OF scientific
truth a. to be abe to see with a 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 mysteriousy hidden
that is our special concern this morning.
And. as | say, we call such ones prophets
And there are prophets now As IN the old
days-men and women whose spiritual
steps are more than abreast with their
own day. They know what they see, they
realize what they feel, and 1t Is az feeble
and intlntie 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 lronl-
cal contempt the revelations brought back
to Us bv those who have climbed farther
than we into the heights of the material
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
p.oddng on behlnd-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. 1t
would seem that to His eye the things of
the heavenly kndom were As near and as
distinct as were the long hidden mysteries
of the solar system distinct 20 the vision
ot CopernCus. He did not reason. Christ
did not nor conjecture, nos guess; He saw.
When lie told OF God. OF the soul. ot the
life eternal. He spoke OF that which he
knew and testified that which He had
seen. He came not as a delneator. w hie
He was telling things II people He saw
the things that He was telling them. There
ts nothing IN the Bible about supposlng,
but taere is a great lot in 1t about seeing.
Lik, all the great verltles, this one we
have been handling this morning grows
upon US with the handling. Ii has made
Us feel. some OF US that we are out az sea
still and that instead OF having yet planted
a firm foot upon the solid territory OF the
continent eternal We are only inspecting