Orange County observer. [volume] (Hillsborough, N.C.) 1880-1918, 1903-04-02

pretable vision, the human mind up to Z
certain point .contemplates them to-day
with as assured and as steady thought as
that with which it marks the fight Of a
bird OF the futter of leaf
In the realm of the spiritual. on the eon-
trary, not a great dea! has been achieved
yet that the spirit of man can encourage
Itself with or that it can found great ex-
pectatlons upon and profound anticipa-
tlons. So lar as such matters are con-
cerned We are not much farther along in
the realities of the world spiritual than
| the w, rid was along geographically in the
days when Columbus was wondering IS
there were not more beyond the shores of
Spain than the fifteenth century yet knew
OF. or much farther than the world was
| herded his foeks and musing:y watched
| tie Stars lowering above the Judean hills.
And we should be stimulated in the dr.
| recrlon OF coming into closer quarters with
! the, sublime facts of the spiritual world
| God, soul and all the eternalss, if we would
! Of ours, those spiritual appettes, that in
| stinctively lean and extend themselves in
| the direction Of that suspected but un.
known world. There is not an impulse yet
detected IN our nature, whether physicas
or mental. that has not been found in
course of time to be correlated with some.
| thing outside that precisely matches it.
Thirst means that there is water, and the
water is there. waiting: The eye means
| that there is light, and the light is there
| waiting. The budding interrogation in the
| child,s mind means that there is truth. and
| the truth rs there waiting. So far as VIC
| have yet gone the inward impulse has
| shown itself to be an infallibe prophecy,
| OF an outward reality that perfectly fits it.
And. those great iongings Of the soul that
swell within Us in our best and freest mo.
| ments, SO great sometimes as to be beyond
| our power to articnlate. these, too, it il
foolish and stupid in us to treat as less
trustworthy and infalibie than are the
quieter appetences of the intelligence or
| the coarser Instincts of the body. There is
| no safe creed that does not start in with
a confession of faith in ones own superb
| self-superb in the sense of being gifted
with powers that put him in direct rela-
| ton with the rocks under him, the air
| about him, the great God overhead, and
| the eternal realm Of Spirit, human and di-
! vine. And that gives a man something to
go upon. It at once makes the farthess
| star In the heavens a proper object Of i'll
quiry, and lays out before him a highway
into the heart and centre of the kingdom
| spiritual. .
| But the highway into the heart and cen
| ire of the kingdom spiritual is not a road
that is being numerously travelled. We are
! about as far along on that road as Colun,-
bus was on the way to the Western Conti
|
the harbor of Palos. 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 the divine Is in us for purpose.
God is movable and He is going to be
and they are going to be discerned. There
is such thing as the life eternal and there
is such thing as having a realization OF
| that. afe, having It here, too, as matter
| of clear and definite experience. We are
not saying anything just now as to the ma
midst of the spiritually discerned realities
that compose that kingdom, nothing just
now ABOUT the steps a man takes in tread
| ing that highway. The only impression !
am studying to leave this morning is that
there is continent of reality as distinct
as the Western Hemisphere of our globe
is distinct from the Eastern; that we are
endowed with faculties which to the de.
gree in which they are developed and ex-
l ercised make the matters of that remoter
continent as certainly distinguishable and
Spanish explorers; that spiritual discern
ment has Just as solid meaning in its re.
lation to things spiritual as ocular discern.
| ment has in its relation to things material.
aud that it is capable of yielding results
that are just as convincing and satisfying.
of the man that has become spiritually cog.
infant of them; that the soul is endowed
with the faculty of vision that is as true
as the vision of the body, independent Of
bodily vision and 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 to be gotten out of the
water when you have fallen overheard is
navigation.
This does not mean that there are not a
good many who have an inkling of the
meaning Of the spiritual kingdom. some
thing as men at sea gain a suspicion OF
!: distant land by observing the impalpab!e
blanket of mist that hovers about it. It is
not much in itself, and yet it is great
deal, because Of the much that it is capa.
| BILE Of widening out into. It is kind Of
spiritual coast line which. seen from afar,
appears to be but filmy thread, but
which is for all that the solid edge Of .
solid continent. -.
Nor 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 verities, that make out the spiritual
world. In all departments of life and In all
| UlrCCLlOnS OI SEOWtu lIlcIC ldSC away
been men who have outrun their fellows,
pioneers in the enterprise of discovery,
giants in research who have stood high and
looked: over the shoulders of their contera-
poraries, who have lived in the SAME
world as they, but at the same time lived
in larger world than they. In the world
OF religious thought and experience we
, call such men prophets. A prophet, prop
erly speaking, is not so much a man who
is able to see what is going to be as he is
one who sees more widely than others the
!, things which are. now. There is such "A
thing. even in matters of science, as coming
so into accord with the spirit OF scientific
,, truth as to be abe to see with firm and
! fast ,ision where eyes less sympathetic
! have failed. Exactly the parallel Of that
has been true over and over again in tha:
other world OF truth mysteriorsly 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-n1en and women whose spiritual
steps are more than abreast with their
:, own day. They know what they see. the!
realize what they feel, and it is as feeble
T aud infantile for those whose eyes have i,
! them feeble light to deny the uncoverins
: that has been made to these prophets and
proohetesses Of longer and purer sight
Y as for you and me to slur over with iron,
e cal contempt the revelations brought back
{. ! 70 no bxy thosa who have climbed farther