The Fulton County news. [volume] (McConnellsburg, Pa.) 1899-current, 1904-11-23
1.-THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOD"
A Bright Sunday Discourse By Rev.
Livingston L. Taylor.
Tells Why Religion Is 40 Affair Of the Soul
and 0od-Seetarlan, Dogmshe
Inslstence Is Periious.

BROOKLYN, N. Y.-Sunday evening. il
the Puritan Congregational Church tn,
PASTOR the Rev. Livingston L. Taylor. haC
for the subject Of his sermon. rh,
Psalm lxxxiv:2: My heart and nv desi i
ctieth out for the living God" Mr.. Tay
lor said:
| come back to this pulpit in no uncer
tainty OF mind with refesence to what m,
message should be. | know, at any rate
where 1T must begin. Unless | mistake
the terms OF my commission, unless mis-
disposal, which are the Bible and the
church, unless | mistake the example oi
my Master, it is my business to help men
so far as in me lies. to find God.
There is no mistaking my own mind
nor what the summer has done to confirm
1t IN TINS conviction To me, as to many
OF you, the glory of the Lord has been re
vealed anew in earth and sky and sea- To
me, as to many OF you, has come the Oh.
portunlty to read and to think and to en-.
ter into the thoughts of other persons. We
have gone out OF doors with our religion,
We have taken our ideas of God and life
away from home with us. We have trav.
eled far atield with them in the books
when we have read. How have they
Jared?
For myself did not by any means get
rid OF Jeremiah's words by preaching on
them last Sunday morning. They stay by
me, as they began to stay by me in the
early summer. The gods that have not
made the heavens and the earth, these
shall perish from the earth and from un.
der the heavens" Heaven and earth bear
testimony against every inadequate idea of
God. We must have God whom nothing
IN heaven or on earth can dethrone. We
must have a God our faith in whom need
not be shaken by anything we NAV learn
About natnrn n h. Il.
the lie of men and nations We must
have God who will not break down and
perlsh out OF our sous in the hour of trial.
We must have a God who shall be God to
us, our God. even when we can only cry
with job, "Oh, that l knew where /
might hnd HIM" We must have a God
70 whom we may say, Father, into Thy
hands l commend my spirit in the very
hour In which we may have cried my
God. my God, why hast Thou forsaken
me! Such is the God and Father of our
Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Such is
the God from whom nothing in the heights
or In the depths, nothing in the past, the
present or the future could detach the
faith OF Paul Such is the God our need of
whom may be revealed to us at any mo-
ment by the lightning flash of some great
calamity. Such is the God our need OF
whom will bear down upon our minds
more and more heavily as we face more
ohu more frankly tne factS OF lie.
Here IS q man who has been summoned
by a midnight message to the bedside of
ms child. As he goes from ferry to ferry
to ascertain by what route he can reach
her most quickly, every man he addresses
reads his secret and shows him kindness.
connections are close. Over every signal
light that delays him the engineer sees a
night lamp in sick room that tells him
every second lost must be made up. The
conductor nervously hurries passengers off
and on the train at every stop. The race
Is won. The father stands beside his child
There are the doctors. There are the
nurses. There are friends. Everything
that human love and sympathy aud skill
can suggest is being done. Where is thy
Nature says to him, 81 have contrived
little sack in your chid's body. have
flled it with poison. Within twenty-four
hours l propose to break it. If | break
It your child will die. If YOU are willing
to take other chances. let the surgeons re.
move it, Then L will do the best / can
for you"
Some men tell me that their God is ma.
ture; Does your God thus speak His whole
mind! Why, that room where a father is
making up his mind what answer to give
TO natures ultimatum is flooded with pure
love; Everybody cares. Are YOU ready to
say Everybody cares but God?" There is
IT.
There is harsh ultimatum of nature to
be accounted for. But there are loving
hearts IN that room to be accounted for,
also. And there is universal capacity for
sympathy. and helpful action to be ac.
counted for. 1t is scene which fairly
represents the. tragedy of the world pro.
cess. In which aspects of it do you dis.
cern the working of the higher lawn the
merciless progress OF the disease or in
what is being done to save, to heal, to
comfort! II there is any purpose, or even
any tendency, to be discovered in such
scene, is it the triumph of pain and the
periectlng OF cruelty that is being pro.
love?
Christians should know where to look
LOT God in such scenes. They will find
Him in precisely the place in which they
would look for Jesus Christ. Sometimes
we wonder why so many miracles of heal.
ing are recorded in the gospels. May it
not be becadse God wants us to Know
where to place Him when we are confront
ed by the elemental questions which sick.
ness and pain and death are certain to
raise In our minds? 1t is the higher law
which should ever speak to us of God.
1t is with life and healing, with love and
care, that we are taught to associate the
Thought OF God. In the midst of lifes CON
fusions we know in part. When that
which Is perfect is come it will prove TO
be-love. We can even think of ourselves.
when 1t is alp over, looking back and say.
ing:
= With mercy and with judgment
My web of time lie wove,
And aye the dews of sorrow
Were lustered with His love:
III bless the hand that guided,
III bless the heart that planned,
When throned where glory dwelleth,
In Emmanueps land"
like to think OF the positive aspects of
the First Commandment: Thou shalt have
no other God before Me-" That means.
stated positively; Thou shalt have a God
and thou shalt have Me for thy God.
Thou shalt have God. 1t is the first law
OF the souls own life. Thou shalt have a
God whom nothing can ever make il un-
reasonable for you to trust /. 1t is the
souls law OF self preservation. How do
we know when we are going to be in criti-
cal need of faith like Paul's-of faith like
that OF our dying Lord? Every man who
suffers needs it. Every man who thinks
needs it.
Il say that every man who thinks needs
God. We are thinking here tonight. We
have been thinking some OF the very
thoughts which have stolen away the faith
OF many man and many a woman. We
have been facing facts which throw the
mind into an agony. We have been dealing
with conditions which faith has TO reckon
with. have talked with men, the tumult
OF whose minds made me think of the
north coast waves. as Robert Louis Ste.
venson describes them, in all the terror Of
them, in all the power OF them to wreck
the frail barks in which men voyage. There
may be minds incapable of tumult. There
may be people who cannot understand