The Birmingham age-herald., 1903-06-22
PASTOR BREACHES PRACTICAL SERMON Or. Stagg Applies Ancient Text
 to Modern Conditions, WHEN ISRAEL MURMURE0 Gods Manner of Dealing With Ills People-Formulas of the Truth
 Change But Truth Itself
 Does Not Change.
WHEN ISRAEL MURNURED


 children of Isreal murmured against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness:
 And the children of Israel said unto them: Would to God we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the flesh pots, and when we did eat bread to the full; for ye have brought us forth into this wilderness, to kill this whole assembly with hunger
 Dr. stagg said;
 The principle of sequence Is rarely understood, though 1t is everywhere pres ent It Is what the scientist means when | he declares there is a necessary connec- tion between what was and what is. Chance is thereby eliminated and nature moves according to a mighty but never- theless orderly plan. There is this se- auence, we believe, In the relation God has made of his dealings with the race. Events do not stand~alone and separate. Israers history is the history of man and | its lessons belong not alone to a race that once played on the great stage of human activity but belongs as much to those races that make the life of the world now. The failure to apprehend this has made mans progress slower than 1t otherwise might have been. There Is such thing as the experience of one man being profitably used by another man, and the truths learned by one race may be beneficent to some other race, and neither remoteness of time nor of place has anything to do with the profitable ness of the experience.
 | shall not stop long enough to discuss | the manner of Gods dividing the Red sea or to set out any of the difficulties in the way of his leading His people The simple fact Is stated in this scripture and the fact Is what we are dealing with.
 Dealing With His People.
 The record shows that God had dealt with the people with an outstretched arm for their deliverance and that when they come upon the new difficulties of the wl- derness life they were utterly bewildered and preferred the old life of Egypt to the larger and better purposes God had In mind when he freed them from bondage. So the principle now stands out in the clear that there was enough of a manifestation of God in the past life of the people to carry them safely through all new expe- riences. This is as true as 1t Is that Newton deduced from the velocity of the moon and the effects on the tides, se- quence in nature, which, when generaliz- ed, we call the law of gravitation, and we do our work anywhere in the world, knowing that the principle remains the same though conditions are constantly | changing.
 1 We are of necessity compelled to meet | each new day the unknown and to enter into that which has not happened to any other life in just the same way it is hap pening to us. If we enter the new life and take hold of the new duties conscious l that we are working under laws that give the same resultant under all skies, and conditions of life we are saved from be- wilderment and can do our work success 1 fully. No moment in the life of race, nor any experience In its history is any thing In Itself Isolation in events is un- | thinkable, and to wish to stay in cir cumstances after they have taught their l lesson, or to wish for a return of the experiences after they are gone, Is to be dead to progress and blind to the purpose of God.
 Conservatives and Ralcas. There is a conservatism that insists on things remaining as they are and thought keeping itself always in certain formulas, and there Is radlcalsm that insists on change for changes sake, and is marked by an enthusiasm gone wild with zeal and which is not according to knowledge. The one Is as bad as the i other, and both fall to govern by the great teaching of sacred history We pass from one age to another without losing truth; 1t becomes larger and shines all the clearer as we bring 1t from one con dition over into another. Conservatism, when 1t can give no reason for Its stand, 1 is intellectual blight and religious death l To Insist on certain forms for holding | the truth, when truth itself is demand l ing the forms for new conditions is to settle into that apathy that marked the l dark ages On the other hand to insist on changes that are subservient to truths own interest is to land in bold atheism.
 Present Day Issues.
 There are great many people now. especially among the young, who are per- plexed and bewildered for the reason that they have no certain beliefs about God and no definite rules about life. They are in this confused and contradictory life of the times, and they have not brought into life enough of certainty from the fathers to steady them in rough seas Consequently they have settled into that l comfortable condition of indifference to l spiritual interest that makes the tremen- | dous materialism of our day. Sermons, l they think, consist in pious platitudes, and the church Is an institution with dead | forms unable to state the truth so as to meet the new conditions. All the while, however God remains the same and the history of His imminence in human af- fairs may be studied by all who are se- rious and reverend.
 I am frank enough to admit that con- | ditions have changed nightly, and i- | lustratlon is nowhere better found than in modern ways of doing the ordinary work of the world. When Zola wrote The Ladies Paradise he stated the condi- tions of modern trade up to the time he describes all garments were cut by the | pattern of a previous day, and all goods | were ordered from fabrics already tested | but when the great building went sky ward and the display of goods increased | trade and developed new taste, wiidness was everywhere manifest, and wreckage was everywhere present. The new condi- | tlons had come to stay, and the world | found itself under the necessity of bring | ing the old principles of honesty and safety from the narrower limits of the | old life over to the wider demands of the | new life.
 The principles of trade had not changed and we are living by the old rules in our new life on all the streets and in all the business houses of this city.
 Religious Changes. There are mighty changes that mark | our religious life since the day Luthers l voice awoke Europe and Calvins an- | nalitic mind stated the old truth to meet ! th- xox,, foo,toa GHoro Ia dooHnaaa fin,