The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1903-04-05
Bishop Wilson Lectures or
the "Natural and
Spiritual. "
Continued from Ninth Page)

of theology. This arises from miscon-
ception of theology. Such systems are
merely the outgrowth Of an Intellectual
necessity and we are not required to put
our belief in them. Our faith must be
in the things to which theology seeks
| to give expression. our belief as the
| belief Of the early church, which had no
theology or New Testament, must be in
Jesus and His Gospel
I'VE have in the revelation of the spir-
! itual the Old Testament Scriptures lying
back of the New. In the study of these
sacred writings we are told in this mod
ern day by higher critics that we must
| give up belief in the supernatural and
that all things must be reduced to ac-
cord with the scientific idea of evolution.
Although there are some phases of this
| teaching that may be safely accepted we
cannot believe that all life evolves from
some original germ and that the Bible
must be put into such a system. We
! believe that the first thought of God was
not produced by man, unaided by super
natural forces. God himself spake to us
through a developing order of man ana
we must believe that in the beginning
! God revealed himself to man"
| I
My purpose in these lectures has been
| to indicate the rightful and universal
| supremacy of the spiritual over the ma
| tural, and the processes Of the rightfui
and NORMAL adjustment of the two. In
whatever form the natural may come to
US it is in some sense the revelation of
| the spiritual, matter having no indie
| pendent existence in the eternal order
i0,f txraN find in,
all the manifold forms about US, in the
gorgeous tints of the heavens, in the
very air that breathes upon us, and in
every flower that gladdens our eyes some
expression of God. Nature is one vast
system of symbolisms that must be read
as an illustration of Gods work. 1t is
our business to untangle the riddle and
to read it out clear and true. The old
| testament scriptures make this divine
use of nature, and human nature itself,
weak and imperfect is there made the
medium of spiritual revelation. Isaiah,
for instance in his weakness, touched by
! the divine consciousness, has left US a
record of spiritual revelation unparalleled
in the literature Of the world. Through
ali forms of life and literature, in bio
graphy, psalms, proverbs and prophecies
God gave some CLEAN of himself to man.
| Human personality is therefore the medi-
um of the highest expression of Gods
will. Man is the top of the order of crea-
| ton. No other eye can read the story of
! the stars and no other heart can answer
back the message of the heavens. The
highest point of this humanity is reached
| in Christ.
Nineteen centuries ago there came into
the word a man who occupied an exclu-
sive position. He was of the race of Abra-
| ham and belonged to the royal line. He
was born of a woman who had the faith
to dare any thing till the time of mature
| life. After baptism and wilderness temp
! t8tions he went forth to a life of unpar-
| alleled activity. He was gentle and kind
| and although he denounced the tradition
alism and hypocracy of the Pharasees he
| always answered an appeal for help. He
| finally came to his death because of his
exalted character
| The Interpretation of this life has been
| task of the ages. He was more than
prophet or law giver. he asserted his
| own authority over this natural world
OF ours What place shall we therefore
give him in human history and how are
we to class him? BY common consent he
| is the first among men with that mighty
| force of person that has never been eX-
| hibited in the previous or following his
| tory of the world. His character has been
made the standard by which all things
are tried and judged, An explanation of
this has been sought in the Jewish
thought and civilization Of the times, but
no one who knows that period of history
| can believe that he is merely a result of
! his age. neither can We account for him
| by the theory of evolution. There was
no force or form of life that could pro-
| duce such development. Al we were to
| take Moses and Abraham and Isaiah and
| Elijah and blend them into one great
| character. still reaching far above them
| with his head among the stars, with his
| face alight with a glory that never
| shone on Carmel or Sinai would be Jesus
| Christ. the Alpha and Omega of all hu-
man thought, towering by right of his
| personal character over all men and over
all things How are we to account for
| this? Did ever man live and speak like
! this man? Was he truly man? OF his
| humanity we may be certain; he hunger
| ed and was tired; men cursed him and
! put their stripes upon him; he was ac-
| quainted with grief; his life was filled
| with experiences of our poor humanity;
| men in all conditions came to him, and
| his presence hallowed all the places and
| incidents of earthly life. In the fullest
! sense he was human and lived our hui
man life. though such man IS the
world has never seen before or since,
| giving the world it's only adequate eX-
| preston of God. he was man for all that
| He was, however, more than this. He was
| the consistent union of the human and
| the divine he was God manifested in
| the flesh. So fully was this true that he
| could say of himself: HE that hath seen
| me hath seen the Father"
| The first truth we see in the life of
| Christ is that he was the assertion of
the universal relation between the natur-
al and the spiritual, between man and
| God He shows the possibility of the
| bringing of man in the flesh into the
| closest and most intimate relations with
| the eternal God. The belief in the early
| church that the difference between man
and God was so wide that they could not
Re united, made 1t impossible for many
to see the possibility of the union OF God