The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1904-12-22

instrument, and it will do what is claimed
for it, And any man may experiment
with the realities of our religion and test
its claims to comfort, wisdom. peace, rest,
hope. love, prayer. etc. And only when
we thus know will we be effective wit
nesses OF truth. Jesus said. eve speak
that we do know and testify that we have
seem" With such knowledge the known
becomes the key Of the unknown and leads
US into deeper knowledge.
The purpose of learning to know God is
to obtain the life eternal. When kepieir,
the astronomer. after many failures, finally
discovered the laws Of planetary MOTION ne
fell upon his knees and cried: Il thank
Thee, O God, that I, am thinking Ihy
thoug hts over after Thee, This KNOW.
edge made him partner with the thought
of the eternal God. So every. truth eXper'
mentally discerIed puts us into partner
ship with God. We learn to think HIS
thoughts; to will HIS will; :; to love. with
His love; to live His lite. And Ills, is life
eternal. Therefore Jesus says. TO know
Thee the only true God. and .1esus Christ
whom Thou hast sent, this is life eternal.
The range of things thus movable is
very wide. Only a few of them may be
suggested. We may know the forgiveness
of our sins. We are made co7scious OF
our sinfulness through the exercise of our
conscience and our inability to overtake
what we know to be the ideal. But when
we accept the overtures of divine grace and
Weld to the incoming and inworklng OF
Gods Holy Spirit, we experience a peace
and power which are the subjective evl-
dences of our being loosed from our sins.
This IS the first thing in Christian knoWi-
edge.
Next eve know that we have passed
from death unto life" Such TRANSITION
is made on all planes of life. A new eli
mate helps some men to pass from deatn
to life in body. Education enables men to
pass from death to life mentally. Society
to life morally. The development OF latent
genius makes men pass from death unto
life So the touch of Gods spirit awakens
new ideals. affections and possibilities, and
the love of a spiritual society evidences
passage from death unto life.
eve know that all things work together
for good to them that love God" This Is
not self-evident. as we take narrow view
Of mortal life. Rut when we see the wider
ranges we learn it is so. There may be ex::
periences which darken the scene and
plunge the Judgment into panic. <'joseph,
while being led slave to Egypt could not
understand this. Nor could Moses. Ian
iel and the prophets in the day of trial
But afterward they saw it to be so. The
glory which Moses saw was not some .llss.
trous form. hut rather that all the past
history was transigured> with Gods pres
ence and favor. It is the. backward look
that gives us this assurance. I'VE kno"
that if our earthly house OF this body be
dissolved we have building of God
eternal in the heavens" That is, we know
that we have an immortal destiny of eter'
nal life. SubiectiTely we know that every
appetite has its satisfaction. Hunger sug
gests food and thirst argues for water. Ii
God creates a fin on the fish He makes an
element for. it to swim in. If He fashions
wing, He supplies the air for it to fly in
Surely these lower appetites are not graft
fed only that the deeper and nobler ma! a
be disappointed. And effectively, "Christ
hath brought life and Immortality to light
through the gospel" His resurrection sat
Isles our desires and becomes prophetic Of
our destiny. Let us study earnestly the
truth Of God-with view to doing Hi!
will, and we shall know in part now and
more perfectly by and by.