The Fulton County news. [volume] (McConnellsburg, Pa.) 1899-current, 1903-11-18

on one surface; sometimes of silver, but
usually 1t was round piece Of metal poi.
ished as well as they. could do it, to which
was attached handle. Now, You can see
our splendid mirrors do, the images that
were before it. Now it is that furnished
the Apostle Paul with this striking illus.
tration: "For now we see in a mirror, in a
riddle"
Why, the gospel itself, is as a camera OBJ
scura! in which we see reflected the things
Of eternity. What we see is not the thing
itself, but only the reflection of it. What
we see, cannot be the thing itself, but only
.he reflection of it, That Is what the gos-
pei is. The fourfold gospel does not give
Is the living Christ; It only gives the i'm
,ge. of the living Christ. j. is imperfect in
10 far as man has had part in it, and in so
lar as the reflector will give only an i'm.
perfect image of the reality, and we must
aeyer forget the fact that what we are
boxing upon in spiritual things is not the
objects themselves, but only the reflec.
lions. Nor must we forget that the def
lltlon is made enigmatic, that the objects
'ook like riddles to us also, because the eye
VI the soul has not clear vision. What we
zee, depends on what our heart is. How
,ften we are troubled by the mists and
:ogs that arise from the lower levels of our
>wn lives. How often you and / know
What it is to be lost in the fogs that settle
town upon us as the racing yachts were
ost the other day in their final reach for
:he goal; utterly lost, hidden themselves
md hidden from all about them and like
The challenger, we are apt to get out of
,ur, course and lose time in the race for the
goal. So we must not forget that both the
mirror and the eye that sees contribute to-
ward the enigmas of our life and the enig.
mas that surround us.
Let us look for a moment or two at
ife's riddles as they relate to God Him
ieh. Now, | have a deal of sympathy for
:he multitudes of men who find it hard to
zee God. They hear from the pulpit .of
Gods omniscience, His omnipresence, His
,ternity, He fills immensity, God is spirit"
from these descriptions of the Eternal?
And he hears, You must love God" that
the sum, total of the gospel in a word, SO
tar as duty is concerned, is this, Thou
shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy
heart, and with all thy soul, and with all
thy mind" And he says to US, 'How can
love Him? He is inconceivable to me. l
see Him to know Him, to love Him"
=, Now God understands this heap better
than many theologians do; So He said,
the "Utterance of God" the Word, shall
come into human relations; He shall take
on Him: the nature of man; He shall de-
scend the ladder of divinity, emptying
Himself, until He reaches the lower rungs
OF humanity, until He shall move in the
valley of human life so that men can touch
Him, so that men can hear His voice, SO
that men can look upon His face and in
hearing Him and in touching Him and ii
seeing Him, they shall hear and touch and
see the living God.
God cannot be seen by any eye; there is
non no mirror large enough to reflect Him, and
of His person." the Christ l have been
talking about, we have been seeing, as L
said only moment ago, only the reflection
Of Him. We do not see Jesus; we only
see the image of Jesus in this fourfold or
hvefo.d mirror, the New Testament. / am
saying this in order to relieve skeptic
minds of real difficulties. l am saying this
to relieve Christians OF real difficulties.
The one thing we need to cultivate above
all else is sincerity. We should not say
that We see God when we do not. We
should not pretend to have larger visions
than we possess. When it is impossible
for us to have a c,ean, clear cut definition,
we should simp.y wait and realize with the
Apostle Paul that what we see is really in
Us very often.
We are puzzled over the mystery of the
incarnation. How could God come down
and clothe Himself in an infant of days
Our unenlightened friends are trying hard
to eliminate the miracle of the incarnation
from theology. They had better realize
their limits; there are lines in the image
we cannot understand. The mystery of the
doctrine: We must simply wait. There
are SO many things we cannot compass
that if we try to we shall find ourselves
hopeless,y landed in the fogs. We Just
want to remember that what we have, even
in the Bible;'is only a mirror in which we
see. as only in a riddle, the realities.
Now let as notice again life's riddles as
they relate themselves to ourselves. What
strange creatures we are. What strange
thrngs you and l sometimes do. How un-
eccorntab,y we sometinesgact! What rid
dies We are to ourselves! Can you under
stand why you took a given course the
other day? lou,step aside from your own
Ideals and your own predeterminations, as
understand why you said those things the
other day? Why YOU were so blind as to
do those things? How often men hava said
to me, II cannot understand myself; | do
not understand why | did that thing, Why,
really, | cannot explain it," You cannot,
pnSaved person, You cannot explain why
you remain in a state of alienation from
Is pending over you an endless hell, or
there 10 aveiling for you IA endless life of
Bliss. Now, would you not think that such
alternatives, "a kingdom or wrath" open
to you, you would settle the great Iues-
ton? Why, some of you have lived for
SIXTY years with the greatest problem in
my privilege to deal with great many
men who had lived until they were thirty
or forty or fifty years old, and many OF
tnem have said, l cannot understand WHY
I did not yield before. What riddles we
are to Ourselves! How strangely we act!
How often men fail in their strongest
point! WHY, you would say, for Instance,
guaking coward, whining under a juniper
tree; man who could defy the king and,
what is worse, DEFY the woman, the wife
Of the king, falling down and asking that
be might die. Elijah is not the only one.
Some men that you know have failed, when
they failed, in their very strongest point.
san understand himself! I would give
more to know my own self than oil elso
beside, save God and Jesus Christ.
But look at the enigma Of SO many lives.
Take, for instance, the problem of personal
suffering. Why is it that there is so much
suffering? Why is it that some OF the best
people are crucifed SO awfply? Why is it
that some OF the most refined souls have
the arrows driven furthest into their quiv-
ering beartsy Do you know why? Can!
you explain it! Can you explain the re-
verses that come, and come to the very
best Of peoples Do You know why some
of. the noblest of men and women are .re.
duced from comfort, from affiuence,
through the meanness of their own chill.
hren or through the rascality of trusted
friends. to almost penury?
know woman Of refined, sensitive
spirit, who has been for more than third
OF century crueihed to a wooden man.