The Camden chronicle. (Camden, Tenn.) 1890-current, 1904-07-29
A SERMON FOR SUNDAY
AN ELOQUENT DISCOURSE ENTITLED
"DOEs COD CARE 2"
The Rev. Robert Macdonald Declares
That The Greatest Discovery of the
Twentieth Century viii De the Dis
Coyery of Goo.

covery of Goo.
BROOKLYN, N. Y "Does God Care?"
was the subject of the sermon Sunday
pastor of the Washington Avenue Baptist
| Church. He tool his text from !. Peter
VI: Casting all your care upon Him, for
| He careth for YOU" Mr.. Macdonald said:
'The greatest discovery of rhe TWEEN
tieth century will be the discovery OF God.
and then it will lie seen that God does not
care" Such is the latest assumption Of
science, if a Ger tain learned professor OF
| one of our large6t universities is deemed a
| trustworthy interpreter. He wisely drew
the line between Christianity and infidel-
| ty as between believing that God cared
| for us and that He did not care, and
stated that the leading scientists were in
| fdels.
! Lest such statements upset or weaken
the faith of some of u.s. let us see what the
| weight of probability is for the realizing
of these presumptive prophecies. Let it at
the very start be remembered that any
more definite scientific discovery of God
than we now have is unlikely. And this
is said, not because we now possess so
much, but that we are possessed of so lit
tie. Science will doubtless discover more
about God. Shame upon our developing
intelligence if it does not. Every discov
thing from discovery of God. His handi-
work will be more clearly traced, the
working of His purposes more definitely
realized; but | think we can trust the IN
finite One to as successfully outwit the
scientific inquisitiveness of the twentieth
century as of any that has soul. | am
confident that 1900 years hence the excla-
nation of the human mind will be about
as it is noW-"Who can by searching out
az inf 70 potr 70 ic
going to be taken by surprise. The secret
of His presence will ever elude the discov-
cries of man. The mystery of His person =
shall still remain inviolate.
Why do / speak as though God were an
tagonistic to human discovery? Because,
friends, this learned prophet whose state
ments we are considering sees the only
lack to the discovery of God to be the
present lncompeteness of human knoWl-
edge and the present paucity of scientific
means, both of which will be remedied, he
is sure, before the present century closes.
| speak as | do because | do not like to
have Him whom we honor as Creator and
Father stripped Of His mystery and robbed
of His volitional power and referred to as
you would to an lmpersonal, objective fact
of creation. We discover stars and CONT
nents and seas and laws and a good many
other things, but it does seem to me that
God Himself will have something to say
about the discovery of Himself. More
over, / have no right to believe that God
will ever be discovered by any man save
by Him whom God has discovered. He
Orgy finds God whom God has found.
am striving to maintain the integrity of
the divine revelation as over against that
of human investigation. We must take
God on His own terms, rather than on
ours. Therefore, he only discovers God to
whom God has revealed Himself, to whom
God permits such discovery. We need not
fear that any future discovery of God viii
negative the revelation we now have
through Jesus Christ. Science is mighty,
but not almighty. Not more mighty than
God. We welcome it in the realm of we'll
defined data, in the realm of demonstra
ton and proof. But its advocates need to
learn that the Eternal transcends its scru-
tiny and the Supernatural bends not to its
demands. Reassure your heart that if you
are so fortunate as to be a habitant of the
realm bounded by the Christian religion
the essence of your faith cannot be
harmed. Faiths form, as also the form of
and repaired. Faiths content examined
and modified perchance, but its essence,
that spiritual thing we call the divine
grace, that precious consciousness of His
care for you, and that you are living in the
light of His face is too sacred to eyer bend !
to scientific formula, and too mystical to
be expressed in the cold accuracy of scien-
tifc terms.
We are told that when this improb-
able, to our thinking Impossible, dis
covery occurs it will be found that God |
does not care. All present evidences of
His care arc ignored. Facts, upon which |
are stamped indehbly Gods kindly inn
print, are S, 'ept aside, facts as stubborn |
as the immovs 1iiity of the mountains, and |
the existence o. the ocean and the shining |
OF the sun.
There is, for instance, that stubborn |
thing called conscience to be dealt with. |
That stands out as a very Gibraltar of |
protest against the assertion that God does
not care. In all the history of mortals
conscience has been regarded as Gods |
handwriting on the wall telling man he
must do the right and must not do the
wrong. True, it does not tell him what is
right and what is wrong. That is thing
of huctuating standard. Always differ
ence of opinion about that because de-
pendent upon the mans intelligence that
owns the conscience. And any certain
type of intelligence depends upon the age
and civilization in which he lives. circum-
stances, moral and religious ideals Thus
it is that the truest standard for the en-
lightenment of conscience is Christianity.
Christian ethics, springing from the Ser
mon on the Mount, Is universally recog-
nized mans truest and highest standard
of enlightenment.
But on what higher authority rests this
sense of "oughtness" as to the doing Of
right and wrong? God demands it, we
say. The Creator has right to impose
terms upon His creation We recognize
our obligation to Him. Yes, but because
the moral sense rests upon an intuition of
Gods perfect morality. We could not feel
any obligation to God unless we felt Him
worthy of that obligation. We believe
Him to embody the ideal and perfect NOR
atty. His sense Of obligation to us, then,