The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1904-02-21

Los Angeles. Cal. February 1A-ln
dealing with those mysteries Of religion
that are beyond human understanding
and which many find stumbling block
TO belief the preacher in this sermon
urges their acceptance by faith as the
first essential step toward calculation,
The text is i Timothy Ill, 16, Great is
the Mystery of Goodness"
Ignorance Is a stnnted scoffer. As a
dwarf she will ridicule the helping hand
of knowledge, which she is too short of
stature to reach. As an iconoclastAe
Walt of the street she will hurl derisive
missiles at the big square windows of
the temple of wisdom. whose walls she
is too puny to topple down. Come,
said an aristocratie but very ignorant
woman of London to her guest-"come
into the front room. l want to show
you a poor, crazy, deluded and yet harm
less old man. He seems to have an in-
telligent face, but there he sits in the
house just across the street hour after
hour, day, after day and week after week
as little child, with clay pipe blow
ing soap bubbles" Who was the frivo-
lous hostess who was patronizingly ask
ing her guest to laugh at the old man
who seemed to find enjoyment in blowing
few soap bubbles IN Lieceser square,
London? No one person of his generation
ever heard of her name. Who was the
poor, silly old man of intelligent face.
with penny clay pipe blowing soap bub-
bles? He was Isaac Newton, whose
skull encased the greatest brain of his
time. He was Isaac Newton, laboriously,
intensely, unremittingly studying the
laws of the refraction of light, for which
Investigations and discoveries he was
to be honored by scientific societies all
around the world. It is never safe to
take public opinion as a guide In esti-
mating men or things. Shallow critics
often assume a sapient mien and in SUI
percilious tone derde the wisdom they
cannot comprehend. A stuffed owl with
spectacles on nose may pose in museum
as an emblem of wisdom, but the wing
ed denizen of the forest hooting in the
darkness is no featured oracle.
Footprints of Truth.
How often have the pure white gar
ments of wisdom been despatched and
befouled by blatant bombastie gnorance
IlOW Oiltil mas lIS ptiiiOSpPiiti anu eAio
truth seeker been tainted with his fail
ure to solve the problems of the uni
versel He does not know everything; no
man is more conscious of the fact than
he. But should he on that account de-
sert the fountain of wisdom and re-
frain altogether from drinking at the
Pierian spring? Should the scientific
student be so discouraged at his limita-
lions as to destroy the telescope because
1t does not magnify enough? Is he to
burn out with senseless passion eyes that
are not omniscent and wreck his ear
drums because they fail to detect remote
harmonies? Isaac Newton, himself the
greatest philosopher of his time was one
of the humblest of men. At the end OF
his life he said: Il know not how | may
appear to others. As for myself, | seem
to be like a schoolboy playing at the foot
of the sand dunes, gathering here
white shell and a smoother stone than
ordinary while the great sea of knowl-
edCe lies all unexplored before me- Be-
cause a man does not know everything.
that is no reason why he should despsc
the temple of wisdom" Because hero
and there a veil or mist cannot be pen.
etrated, that is no reason why he should
become a ground mole and not try to
follow in the self-revealed footprints OF
truth.
Mysteries of the Gospel.
There are two purposes Tor this SER
mon. The first is to talk about some
of the great mysteries Of the gospel. l
would show you that about every church
alter there are great Appalachian ranges,
great towering mountain peaks of my3
teries. So hugh they are that the mind
of man cannot attain 10 them. yet each
l,a IF ixfp the
mark of the cross is stamped upon them
as the Mount of the Holy Cross in Col
orado bears the sign of the cross. To
this sign we bow and believe, even
though we cannot understand. Peter
could not understand: John of the Apoca-
lypse could not understand, and Paul.
heholding them, exclaimed, Great is
the mystery OF godliness!' What those
mighty intelects could not grasp must
be a mystery to us until it is fully ex-
planned beyond the grave.
The second purpose of the sermon is
the practical side. 1t is to remind you
that, though we now know only in
part" that part is sufficient for all the
great purposes of salvation and redemp-
ton 1t is to prove as F.. II. Chaplin
puts it. that although we see through a
glass darkly we do see something" and
that that something is sufficient II
we welcome it as a gospel handmade to
lead us into perfect peace and to lead us
to that throne of God where each can
say, II shall know even as also | am
known
The mystery of the Trinity: How can
there be three persons ond one Godhead?
"Three In One and One IN Three?" That
is an explainable mystery. You must
be very careful" wrote a dear ministerial
friend to me when I was preaching
series of sermons upon the Holy Spirit
'you must be very careful not to con-
vey the false idea to your people that
there are three distinct and separate
thrones In heaven" II Is a mystery to
be reverently accepted beyond the power
of the human mind to understand, and
that 1t should be so Is not strange. for
God himself has declared, "As the heav-
ems are higher than the earth, so are my
WAYS higher than your ways and my
thoughts than your thoughts" We can
not explain the personality Of God any
more than you can tell why the grass
grows or the sun shines. But we do feel
and know that, like the grass and the
light, the Trinity of the Godhead Is
great divine fact. And, furthermore we
do feel and know that as God the Father
lives, so Christ was born into this world
not only to save us from sin, but also
to prove that God the Creator is Coo
of love. Mystery mystery, mystery
A high. deep, impenetrabe and overpow-
ering mystery Yet the mystery Of the
Father. Son and Holy Spirit is TACT
revealed to u.s. to be accepted by iaith
and bringing to all who so receive IL
message OF joy and peace