The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1904-07-06
A SERMON FOR SUNDAY
AN ELOQUENT DISCOURSE ENTITLED
!"OOES COD CARE2"

That the Greatest Discovery OF inc
Twentieth Century Will BE the Dis
covery of Goe.
BROOKLYN, n. Y Does God Care!,
was the subject OF the sermon Sunday
morning by the Rev. Robert MacDonaia,
pastor Of the Washington Avenue baptst
Church. He took his text from /: Peter
vi: Casting all your care upon HIM, lor
| He careth for YOU" Mr.. Macdonald SAID:
1.-The greatest discovery of the TWEEN
tieth century will be the discovery OF God,
and then it will be seen that God does not
care" Such is the latest assumption OF
science, if a certain learned professor OF
one of our largest universities is deemed a
trustworthy Interpreter. He wisely drew
the line between Christianity and inhdel,
;tv as between believing that God cared
for us and that He did not care. and
| stated that the leading scientists were In
fdeis.
Lest such statements upset or weaken
the faith of some of us, let us see what the
! weight of probability is for the realizing
of these presumptive prophecies. Let 1t at
the very start be remembered that any
more definite scientific discovery. OF Goo
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
re. SClenCG VIII uOuOIlSSS
about God. Shame upon our developing
intelligence if it does not. Every, dlscov-
erv is that. But that is a very different
|. thing from discovery of God. His handl-
work will be more clearly traced, the
working of His purposes more definitely
realized: but l 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. l am
| confident that 1900 years hence the eScla-
nation of the human mind Will be about
find Cod" One OF infinite retreats IS not
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 invioiate.
Why do l speak as though God were an
taeonistic 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 incompleteness of human knoWl-
edge and the present paucity of scientific
means, both of which will be remedled, he
is sure, before the present century closes.
l speak as l do because I 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 impersonal, objective tact
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, I have no right to believe that God
will ever be discovered by any man save
by Him whom God has discovered. He
only finds God whom God has found. l
am striving to maintain the integrity, OF
the divine revelation as over against that
| of human investigation. We must take
God OIL 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 will
negative the revelation we now nave
through Jesus Christ. Science IS mighty,
but not almighty. Not more mighty than
God. We welcome it in the realm OF well
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 II 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
revelation, will be scientifically questioned
| and repaired. Faiths content examined
and modified perchance, but it's 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 ever bend
to scientific formula, and too mystical to
be expressed in the cold accuracy of scien-
tific 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 are ignored. Facts, upon which
are stamped indelibly Gods kindly i'm
print, are swept aside, facts as stubborn
as the Immortality of the mountains, and
the existence of the ocean aud 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 mortaIs
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 a thing
of fuctuating standard. Always difier-
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-
l%ightenment 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 "oughtnesso as to the doing OF
right and wrong? God demands it, we
say. The Creator has a 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,
Him. 1t is precious to read that we love
Him because He first loved US" It is as
true that we are under obligation to Him
because He is under obligation to us. We
never speak of it that way. We seldom, II
ever, think of it that way. The more eS-
p~ressive side of the divine nature occupies
our thought. God is so pleased to do for
us, His blessings are so much more truly
the manifestation of His love than Of any
other characteristic. But the divine ia.
tionality expresses itsei; in justice and
morality as truly as in love. We are con-
scious ever of our demerit, insignifcance,
dependence, see all divine favor to be an
emanation of His love. The Creator must
; make provision for His created. The ne
cessity of His own nature demands it. The
divine Father, as well as the human father,
must support His child. Conscience in US
is evidence Of Gods care. And it is EVIL
dence that can never be explained away.
So long as humanity endures conscience
will advocate right and denounce wrong,
and just so long must man believe in Gods