The Olneyville times. (Olneyville [Providence, R.I.]) 1887-1917, 1904-07-15
A SERMON FOR SUNDAY
AN ELOQUENT DISCOURSE ENTITLED
''uNFINlshEp THINGS"
The Rev. A. II. c. Morse Bases an Inter
esting Address Upon the FIRST and
Last Words In the scriptur es-Ee Not
Impatient, God Has q Plan.

tor. the Rev. A. II. C. Morse. preached
q strong sermon On Unfinished Things.
lie said:
Ny sermon this morning is based upon
the hrs. and the last words IN the Scrip
t. iare; In the beginning God God sreated The the
Lord Jesus And between these texts
there Is an immeasurab.e distance. The
first deals with the beginning OF thlngs
The last closes the Bible with a note of
incomple.eness. The first takes Us back
10 the moment when the shining worlds
were hurled from the bsttlements OF heav-
en- by the hand of the Creator. The see
ond points forward 10 some FAR of divine
event 10 which the whole creation moves
j, would solve many troubles in our
thinking II We remembered that we live IN
a world of unfinished things. This earth
IS not a finished product. 1t is rather the
sum Of al the forces with which II was
stored in the beginning. Il is what some
one has called an expectant creation. IL
the future. Hidden behind all Its move
ment there ls a diviney appointed end.
Men may correct all their false ideas of
evolution in the light OF this single truth.
Blu; IN the beginning they must post God.
Lie Is an unfinished product. Whoever
saw a finished HE: In great workshop
we must look for noise and dust and tu-
finished product, but II is not there. AS
soon as q product Is finished II is removed.
It's pace Is not there in all that dust and
dirt. This world is Gods great workshop.
Are we startled at the noise and coufu-
SION? Human beings are ID process OF be-
ing formed and perfected But the end is
not yet. 1T doth not yet appear what We
shall be-" No one Is perfect to-day. And
what We call the best is made UP of un-
finished and incomplete products. II this
world has ever seen the perfect, II is only
that II would be removed. Life is a great
school. What man Is, or does, after grad
Gation has not been told Us yet with any
detail.
We are appalled, at the evidences OF So
cial wreckage. They tell US there Is moth
ing good N all the world, that the whole
earth IS a vast madhouse, her inhabitants
are drunk with dellrIum, the fields are be.
coming bankrupt, and the harvests are
well nigh exhausted. They tell MS that the
strong tramp!e the weak 10 death IN their
cruel greed and hunger Now tins seems
TO me ike false interpretation. The
world Is filed with madness 1t does reek
in cruelty and greed. But still / am
taught that TINS world is Gods, and that
II Is working Tor a dlvlnely appointed end.
It maultests along It's course one great in
tentlon.
Who, then, are the pessimists? They
are the disappointed whom fortune seems
10 have shaken from her skirts. Here IL a
man you used 10 know. Then he was
bright and keen and vivacious and ener-
getic. In those days his eyes were bright
with the gleam of far-ofi fire. But now we
meet him aad the light has faded from his
eye. ana the spring has departed from his
step, and he has joined the great army OF
the disappointed He had set his heart
upon obtaining something which the pass
ing years have said he could never have.
And his life has failed and his possessions
have taken flight. Now what does this
mean 1t simply means that he has been
displaced by the very progress of the
world. When an army is marching for
ward and II qulckens ITS pace, the weaker
soldiers must fall by the wayslde. But the
army has gone 20 valiant duty. And the
very fact that the world is sweeping on
ward means that some must be dropping
every year. They are flung backward be-
cause the race is hurrying forward.
This world is an incomplete world be-
cause II rs divine. If life, as we know II,
were complete, If this were the end, then
we should have to-day the ultimate stand
ard OF success. Our judgment OF ourselves
and of others would be final. But is that
so. Who OF US dare Judge another? Do
we not rather look at this life as part OF a
Whole, whose greater part lies beyond the
N4slou. lItIt lsD room IN lHe longest
human career 20 develop all we hope and
love and long for. Ard so we say that the
most encouraging thing about this life is
that IL Is not yet complete. The basis of
hope IS the possibility OF growth-not IN
the perfection of attainment now or IN the
immediate future
Shall | be misunderstood If l point ont
that the earthly iiie OF the Saviour par
took OF this same ineompleteness? His ac-
tions His parallels, His whole teaching
constitute a promise of the future HIS
lie led 20 His death, His death to His res
direction, His resurrection to His ascen-
sion, His ascension to His throne OF glory,
and that again leads 10 His second coming.
Even so. Come, Lord Jesus" Ii is as
though the lines OF lie projected far be-
yond our farthest ken, and could be fol.
lowed only by an infinite hope. Why was
not Jesus one Of the disappointed; Ii ever
a man had right 10 be a pessimist IL was
He. He found that the world did not
want Him, the rulers Of the state had no
place for Him, the church of Judea that
God had been training for 1900 years 20
look for Him did not know Him. Why
was He not in despair? Because He had
In Himself the wells OF JOY. Not the Joy
OF indifference, not the Joy of Him who
sees aad docs not care. But the Joy Of
Him who secs al, and through all 10 the
living God. Just as in one OF Corots pic
turCs YOU can see IN the foreground the
cnar.ed and blhckened trunks, and be-
yond MI and behind all the clear shining
OF the sky.
The gospel with its mission still unac-
compiished as another instance Of that
thought before Us. In the world. in the
church and in the soul OF the believer the
gospel sees not yet all things put under il.
And that for the simple reason that tins
81 old . ttnf fnrE no Az
this may come 20 US with inspiration, for
unlike the Gwel.ers IN the Orient we live
in the midst OF unfulflled prOphesles. Nor
shall they ever be fulheed here. Other
conditions and other circumstances are
needed. From this incompleteness one
might gather the largest argument for our
Immortality. This world Is in accordance
with a divine purpose, and cannot be ex-
planned unless 1t tells OF 4 fulhlment IN
the ages, yet % come, when this earth shall
have been replaced by a new earth where
IN dweleth righteousness. Then He Him
self shall be satisfied.
The old philosophers used 20 represent
all things IN state Of continual How
They stood by the river whose dark vat
ers, fed from some hidden source. stole
past IN vOiceless mystery. They saw the
same mysterious flow IN the seasons. m
the harrests, Ia human life itself. And
they posted motion a. the substantial IN
the word of thing Now the world - in
a state % hOw because IL is state Of in
completeness. and that again because 10 is
expectant. There - something yet before
Us God has not mace men who can long
and love and nope and struggle and deny
themselves, only that they may isll into
hole IN the grass.
For what then. does this whole creation
vaIty Paul tells us 10 one place that 10 is
for tie revealing of the sons Of God. Isn't
tha: worth the time that u pas;y Isn't II