The Camden chronicle. (Camden, Tenn.) 1890-current, 1904-12-16

A STRONG DISCOURSE ENTITLED
"THE KNOWLEDGE or COD"
The Rev. Livingston l.. Taylor Tells WHY
Religion is an Affair of the Sani s
Cob SectariaD, Do2lnatic Insistemes
is Perilous.

is Perilous.
Brooklyn, n. Y.-Sunday evening, in
the Puritan Congregational Church, the
pastor, the Rev. Livingston l.. Taylor, had
for the subject OF his sermon, The
| knowledge of God The text was from
Psalm lxxxiv:2: My heart and my flesh
| creth out for the living God" MIR. lay
Tor said:
| come back to this pulpit in no uncer-
tainty OF mind with reference to what my
message sh0uld he. ] know, at any rate.
where it must begin. Unless | mistake
! the terms of my commission, unless ] mis-
take the nature OF the means placed at my
disposal, which are the Bible and the
church, unless | mistake the example OF
my Master, 1t Is my business K, help fnen,
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 this conviction. 10 me, as to many
OF you, the glory of the Lord has been re-
veaed anew in earth and sky and sea. 10
me. as to many of you, has come the op-
portunity 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 tray
eied far aheld with them in the books
which we have read How have they
Jared?
For. myself I did not by any, means get
rid Of Jeremah'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 I'M
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 God our faith in whom need
not be shaken by anything we may learn
about nature, or about the Bible, or about
the life of men and nations We must
have God who will not break down and
perish 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 | knew where /
might find Him" We must have God
to 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 oar
Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ Such is
the Cod from whom nothing in the heights
or in the depths, nothing in the past, the
present or the future could detaoh 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
whom will bear down upon our minds
more and more heavily as we face more
and more frankly the facts of life.
Here Is Il man who has been summoned
by midnight message to the bedside of
his 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 4
night lamp in a sick room that tells him
every second lost must be made NJ. Tho
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 and skill
God! L say, father. where is thy God?
Nature SAYS to him, Il have contrved
little sack in your child's body. | have
filled 1t with poison. Within twentyfour
hours | propose to break it. If | break
1t your child viii 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 n father is
making up his mind what answer to give
TO natures uitimatum is flooded with pure
love. Everybody cares. Are YOU ready to
say Everybody cares but God!" There is
q sick child there to be accounted for.
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 a universal capacity for |
and helpful action to be ac-
counted for. 1t is scene which fairly
the tragedy of the world pro.
cess. In which aspects of it do YOU dis
Germ the working of the higher lawn the !
merciless progress Of the disease or in
what IS being done to save, to heal, to
1t there is any purpose, or even
any tendency, to be discovered in such a
scene, is it the triumph of pain and the
pertectlng OF cruelty that is being pro-
NOTED? or is it the perfecting of faith and
love?
Christians should know where to look
Tor God III 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 because God wants MS 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
winch should ever speak to lis 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 hfe's CON
usions we know in part. When that
which is perfect is come it will prove to
oe-iove. We can even think OF ourselves,
when 1T Is all over, looking back and say
ng:
With mercy and with judgment
My web of time He 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 dwelletb.
In Emmanuefs land'