Catoctin clarion. [volume] (Mechanicstown, Md.) 1871-1940, 1903-07-02
WIRELESS MESSAGE OF GOD
Sunday Sermon By the Rev. David
James Burrell, D. D., LID.
A Man Who WOuId Hear the Word Through
the Scriptures Must Divest Himself
Of Prejudice.

|
receiyeth not the things of the Spirit OF
God for they are foolishness unto h,m;
neither can he know them, because they
are spiritually discerned" DIR. Burrel said:
A great principle is here laid down which
governs in the universal realm OF truth,
to wit, the principle of mutual adjustment,
If YOU strike tuning fork which is keyed
another if keyed to the same pitch, but not
| otherwise. This is the basic fact in wire
| less telegraphy. On Cape Cod there Is
transmitting station, consisting OF 1our
steel towers with bunch of wires suspend
| ed from the top and meeting at a common
point like an inverted cone. II the power
be applied to the apex of this cone, the
wires begin to trcmble, and this current,
oscilhtng at a rate of, say, $685. 600 vibra'
| lions per second, create a series OF core
spending vibrations in the surrounding
| ether; Just as a stone cast into pond
sends out concentrc circles of water. This
ether wave speeds outward with incolcula'
bic rapdity in search of its receiver. Now,
there is such a receiver at Pol Dhu, IN
Cornwall, and the wires at Pol Dhu are
precisely attuned TO the transmitter, that
Is, adjusted to an oscillation of $4,000 per
| second, so that the message sent from the
| station at Cape Cod meets no response un,
til it finds its sympathetic station at FOL
| Dhu. and this welcomes it.
The system OF wireless telegraphy Which
is Justly credited to Marconi is not an in
vent;on, but a discovery. He has simply
| lighted upon a process which has been
going on perpctually in space. The sun as
| the great source and centre of energy IN
our solar universe is constantly sending out
messages of light. 1t is scientifically
demonstrated fact that beam OF light Is
! simply an electric message; that Is, vlDra'
| ton OF ether. And here the principle holds
| lat hp pycent
some object which is alphabetically at
tuned to welcome it. Let us suppose as
Professor Pupin suggests, that a beam oil
light intended to convey the color red IS
sent out from the sun. 1t goes forth repre-
| senting "A certain number OF ether waves
per second and speeds through space until
It reaches the earth and here. intent upon
its eager quest, it passes without pausing
through all the meadows, since no grass
blade is adjusted to receive it; passes over
all gardens. no daisy or bu,tcrcup. no mig
nonettc or hehtrope being disposed to vel
come it, until it finds a rose, and here 1t
pauscs and finds welcome. bccase the rose
has been precisely coor1inated with it.
Let lis 90 little further now. and we
shall find spiritual analogy. For thus
process. which has been discovered to be
| so prevalent in nature, has infinite field and
| scope OF operation in the province OF spr'
itual things God. as the great transmitter
of truth, bears to the spiritual world re-
laton corresponding with that OF the sun
in the natural world, Let us assume that
there is a God. and that We are created in
| lows a. an inevitable conclusion that lie
will somehow reveal Himself to Ills chill
dren and hold converse with them. But
| here is the application of the principle re.
| ferrcd to. The man who would hear the
wireless messages of God must himself be
attuncd. or adjusted to the nature and
character of God
Let us begin with nature, for this is the
universal medium through which God com.
municatcs with the children of men. Now
there are some who look through nature to
natures God and hear Him speaking IN
everything about them, as it rs written,
"Therc are SO many voices and none OF them
is without signihcation.' Such persons,
though they dwell in the desert of INDIAN.
find every common bush afrc with God
At night the heavens declare His glory TO
them and the armament showcth His han
diwork. This was in Bryant mind when
! he wrote:
"To him who in the love of nature holds,
Communion with her visible forms, she
speaks
A various language
But there are Others who hear no voices,
and see nothing that is not visible to ilcshy
eyes, like Peter Bel, of whom Wordsworth
says:
"A primrose by the rivers brm
a yellow primrose was to HIM
And it was nothing more
Whence this difference? 1t arises from
the fact that some souls are sympathetic
with God and others are not. There was
! Coieridgc, who was so dcvOutY inclined.
so open to the reception OF spiritual truth.
that, walking in the vale OF ChamounlX, he
| heard the snow capped mountains and ice
falls cchoing His name;
God! Let the torrents like shout Of
nations
Answer, and let the ice plains echo, Cody
Cod Sing We meadow streams with glad
Ie pine groves with your soft and soul
like Sounds
Yc living flowers that skirt the eternal
forest;
Ye wild goats sporting round the eagles
nest;
Yc eagles, playmatcs of the mountain
Ye lghtnings, the dread arrows of the
Winds
We sounds and wonders of the clements
Utter forth God, and fill the hill! with
praise'
The wiscst Man that ever lived got les,
sons in theology from the ravens, the lhes
of the field, the growing wheat. But, alas.
| there are those who have no ears to hear
the song which is within the song of birds
and the visions which are within the beauty
of the natural world. They are bound down
to things material, dreaming no dreams
and seeing no visions; of the earth, earthly.
Great God, I'd rather be
A pagan, sucked in a creed outworn;
SO might |, standing on this pleasant lea,
Have glimpses that would make me less
forlorn,
Have sight of Protcus rising from the sea,
Or hear old Triton blow his wreathed
horn"
Ii is the misfortune of all misfortuncs to
! be thus bond slave to the five senses; to
see nothing beyond the range Of physical
vision and the circumspecton of the finger
tips. This is to be agnostics, indeed; to
have no clairvoyance, no spiritual appre-
hension, no second sight, no faith. 1t is
an eternal and immeasureable calamity To
stand in the midst of a universe where the
ether is vibrant with messages of truth and
be so deeply absorbed in our little plans
and pursuits and physical sciences that
we hear no voice of God.
Let lis turn now to the Scriptures which
claim to be a divine revelation. There is
an attempt in some quarters to reduce
them to the level Of other literature, and
those who approach them in this attitude
will find precisely what they find in other
books and no more. Here, as elsewhere,
we find what we are looking for, and hear
what we are listening for. The mere stu.
dent of literature finds in the Bible myths
and parallels, songs and chronicles of sur,
passing beauty, but there are others who
listen as at divine oracles and hear the very
voice of God.
How are we to account for this difference
of estimate as to spiritual value and vera
cious integrity of the Scriptures? 1t is
due, as before to a difference of relation
with God. In some cases men hold them.
selves in readiness to hear, as Samuel did
in the early watches of the morning. when
in answer to the heavenly voice he said
Speak, Lord, for Thy servant deareth!
In other cases they stand in critical or
pkeptical attitude, as Theodore Parker did
| ,,hen hn remnrlnd ~ am not willing to re