The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1904-01-20
A: SERMON FOR SUNDAY
ABEAUTIFUL DISCOURSE BY THE REV.
DR.. c. l.: CoopElL:

DR.. G. L: COODEll:
Subject: A Sure Method With Doubt-Do
| Not Be Impatient With 1t, Only Con-
tinue to Move Toward the Light You
| Do See-Truth will Free You.
BROOKLYN, N. Y.-Sunday morning, in
the Hanson Place NJ. E. Church, the Rev.
Sure Method With Doubt" The text was
taken from Daniel v:'l6, "And have
| heard of thee that thou canst make inter
pretations and dissolve doubts" DR.
| Goodell said:
If Daniel were alive to-day, with his
ability to dissolve doubts unimpaired and
unimpeached, he would be the busiest
man of his time. And yet ours is no
more an age of doubt than any other
q hundred years ago in our universities
and fippant skepticism among educat-
ed people which is now quite outgrown,
! but it will always remain true that every
generation must settle its own doubts.
| The generation is made I'D of the indl-
vidual and the great questions OF the soul
are personal questions. They must be
wrought out for the most part, by indl-
vidual stress and struggle. There are
phases of doubt that receive greater en-
phasis than others at gwen time. In one
generation a deistic philosophy seems to
triumph in another agnosticism is at the
| fore. The generation now passing has
fought out the great battles OF evolution
and we may fairly say that its theory Is
in no way menace to the Christian faith;
There have been hot battles on the field
of biblical criticism. Positions once held
by the two great forces have been proven
untenable and the orthodox party by CIV
inr up what could not be defended has
made its position stronger than ever be-
| fore.
The doubts to which I wish to refer and
which I would be glad to scatter as spec
ters of the night are not so much OF the
theoretical as OF the practical sort. They
are the kind which make stout men weak,
which paralyze great upward movements
in society, and cut the nerve of personal
devotion. :, =,
It is not strange OF unreasonable that
we should have doubts. We begin life
knowing nothing We journey IN @ the
land Of the unknown at every step: W. we
investigate and experiment. and question.
Little by little with material brought from
the unknown we build the structure
which we call knowledge, and in doing
this we form habit which masters us. 1t
will not let US rest. Life has become a
great interrogation point, and our jour.
new a voyage of discovery. We sail into
every beckoning bay. One is fair harr-
bor and nothing beyond; another stretch
of sandbar and shoal and we are tortu-
nate if we are able to put again to sea; while
another proves to be the mouth OF a
~reat river up whose tide we. go to glor'
ious discoveries in a delectable country.
| The man who thinks cannot stop his
thinking. Often he is mocked by it and
pitilessly punished, like some adventurous
! mountain climber, but climb ne must
though he fail in his quest.
'That low man seeks little thing to do,
This high man with a great thing to
pursue
| Dies ere he knows 1t.
It is no wonder. then, that we are drlv-
en- to doubt, for life is too short to kno"
| all.
It is not to be wondered at that our
doubts concern themselves chiefly with
religious truth. In the very nature o.
things religious truth is supernatural. 1t
is not so much contrary to, as beyond, our
senses. It's principles are not like the ak,
IONS OF mathematics. The whole field ol
| religion is beyond the realm OF the senses
md of scientific rules; therefore. it IS to
he wondered at least OF all when we fnd
that in this field speculation and doubt
run riot.
which Horace Bushnell states admirably:
GOur faculty is itself in disorder. A brok'
en- or bent telescope will not see anything
rightly. So mind wrenched from its true
lines of action, discolored and smlrcneo
bv evil. will not see truly, but will put
blurred, misshapen look on everything
Truths will only be as good. as errors and
doubts as natural as they"
In view of all this, let us have done
with abusing those who doubt. DOUBT
properly pursued is only knowledge IN the
raw, and DR.. Parks was right when ne
said MInfdelitv is the ultimate result Of
Checking the desire for expanded knowl
edge" Let us frankly tell our young peo
nle that doubt is not final condition save
to a dishonest mind. Through the doubt
| of to-day they will come to the knowledge
| of Tomorrow. and let us also remind them
that what they hold as the truth to-mor
row should have great expansive power
so that coming days will give more Light
and add to the proportions OF the truth
| 'I have heard of thee that, thou cans
make interpretations and dissolve DOUBTS,
This same Daniel had stood before the
Kings father when he, too, was sore bur
dened with mystery. He did not claim
for his own unaided wisdom the power
to settle doubts. but stoutly and honestly
owned the source of his power, saying
"There is a God in heaven that revealett
secrets" It may be said truthfully that
the only sure method for the. solution
of life's problems and the dissolvlne, OF IT.
doubts is by entering into rlgnt Teiatloni
with Him. If it is objected that one q
the great doubts of life relates to His
| very existence the answer is, Every mar
is conscious of the great ethical lmpera
tive. I ought. This relates him to some
great law, and hence to some .greas "a"
| eiyer. 1t would not seem to be a very
exalted prayer, "Oh God, if there be, :
| God. enliehten my soul, if have soul,
| and vet even a prayer like that, with ar
honest purpose to follow each faintest ray
| of light, would not be unavalling. >.
In the, matter OF dlssolVine reng!ou:
doubts, the ultimate purpose is everything
No man ever comes to the truth by being
| simply curious Speculation for specu
lation's sake leads nowhere. The mind II
| filled with conflicting arguments. 1t ,ls
poor cause which has not something plaus
ible about it, and so the mind chases It
self from sophistry to sophistry, from con
troversy to controversy, darkening coun
| sci and coming out nowhere.
The first thing for an honest seeker al
ter truth to do is to pledge himselt tt tt
abide by the truth as he finds it: TO play
fast and loose with ones convictions is tht
first and second death. 10 ta!l to uss
| the light we have to refuse to live up K
hat we know is right, is to put one,'
| self into the darkness of eternal doubt
Plato was right when he said: Atheism
is disease Of the soul before it become:
an error of the understanding. Frenel
atheism was foregone conclusion, wher
one considers the condition of French NOR MOI
ais. Why should man believe in Goo
when his life was one long rebelline