Catoctin clarion. [volume] (Mechanicstown, Md.) 1871-1940, 1904-07-14
UNFINISHED THINGS"
A Bright Sunday Discourse By Rev. A.
Il. 6. Morse.
Address Upon the First and Last Words "
the Scriptures.

strong seiHioh vi on'i'"
He said:
NY sermon this morning ia based upon
the first and the last words in the Scrip
heaven and the earth,7 Gwen so, come
Lord Jesus" And between these texts
there is an Unreasonable distance. The
| first deals with the beginning OF things;
| The last closes the Bible with note OF
| incompleteness. The first takes us back
| to the moment when the shining worlds
were hurled from the battements OF heav'
en- by the hand of the Creator. The sec
ond points forward to some ear off divine
event to which the whole creation moves"
It would solve many troubles IN our
thinking if we remembers that we live IN
q world of unfinished things. This earth
| is not finished product 1t is rather the
sum of all the forces with which 1T was
stored in the beginning. 1t is what some,
one has called an eXpectant creation. u
stands with shaded eyes looking toward
the future. Hidden behind all its move
ment there is divnely appointed END;
| Men may correct all their false ideas OF
evolution in the light of this single truth
| But in the beginning they must post God,
Life is an unfinished product. Whoever
saw finished life? In great workshop
we must look for noise and dust and tu'
multi and confusion We also look for the
finished product, but it is not there. AS
soon as product is finished It is removed;
Its place is not there in all that dust and
dirt. This world is Gods great workshop,
Are we startled at the noise and confu'
sion? Human beings are in process of be
ing formed and perfected. But the end IL
not yet ut doth not yet appear what we
shall be-" No one is perfect to-day. And
what we call the best is made up of un
finished and incomplete products. If this
world has ever seen the perfect, it is only
that it would be removed. Life is great
school. What man is, or does, after grad
uation has not been told us yet with any
detail.
We are appalled, at the evidences of so
cal wreckage. They tell us there Is moth
ing good in all the world, that the whole
earth is vast madhouse, her inhabitants
are drunk with delirium, the fields are be
well nigh exhausted. They tell lis that the
strong trample the weak to death in thel
cruel greed and hunger. Now this seem,
to me like false Interpretation. The
world is filled with madness. 1t does reek
in cruelty and greed. But still | am
taught that this world is Gods, and that
it is working for divinely appointed end.
1T manifcsts along its course one great IN
tention.
Who, then, are the pcssimists? They
are the disappointed whom fortune seems
to have shaken from her skirts. Here is
man you used to know Then he was
gctic. In those days his eyes were bright
with the CLEAN of far-off fire. But now we
meet him and the light has faded from his
eye, and the spring has departed from his
step, and he has joined the great army OF
the disappointed. He had set his heart
upon obtaining something which the pass
ing years have said he could never have.
And his life has failed and his possessions
have taken flight. Now what does this
mean? 1t simply means that he has been
displaced by the very progress, of the
world. When an army is marching Tor
ward and it quickens its pace, the weaker
soldiers must fall by the waysde. But the
army has gone to valiant duty. And the
very fact that the world is sweeping on.
ward means that some must be dropping
every year. They are flung backward be-
cause the race is hurrying forward.
This world is an incomplete world be
cause it is divine. If life, rs we know 1t,
were complete, if this were the end, then
we should have to-day the ultimate stand.
nrd of success. Our judgment of ourselves
and OF others would be final But is that
so? Who of lis dare judge another? DO
we not rather look at this life as part OF
Whole, whose greater part lies beyond the
vision? There isn't room in the longest
human career to develop all we hope and
love and long for. And so we say that the
most encouraging thing about this life Is
that it is not yet complete. The basis of
hope is the possibility of growth-not IN
the perfection of attainment now or in the
immediate future.
Shall | be misunderstood if ] point out
A. /.
took of this same incompletencss? His ac'
tions, His parallels, His whole teaching
constitute promise of the future. His
lie led to His death, His death to His res
direction, His resurrection to His ascen
sion, His ascension to His throne of glory.
and that again leads to His second coming
Even so. Come, Lord Jesus" 1t Is a
though the lines OF life projected far be
yond our farthcst ken, and could be fol
lowed only by an infinite hope. Why was
not Jesus one of the disappointed? Ii ever
man had a right to be pessimist it wa:
He. He found that the world did not
want Him, the rulers of the state had nc
place Tor Him, the church OF Judea that
God had been training for 1900 years tc
look for Him did not know Him. Why
was He not in despair: Because He had
in Himself the wells of JOY, Not the JOY
of indifference, not the JOY OF Him who
secs and does not care But the JOY Of
| Him who sees all, and through all to the
| living God. just as in one of Corot's pic
lures you can see in the foreground the
| gnarlcd and blackened trunks, and be
| yond all and behind all the clear shining
of the sky.
The gospel with it's mission still unac
complshed is another instance of that
thought before us. In the world, in the
! church and i'll the soul Of the believer the
gospel sees not yet all things put under it
| And that for the simple reason that this
is world of unfinished things. And ever
| this may come to us with Inspiration, FOL
unlike the jewellers in the Orient we live
in the midst of unfulflled propheses. MOI
| shall they ever be fulheled here. Other
conditions and other circumstances are
needed. From this incompleteness one
might gather the largest argument for our
| Immortality. This world is in accordance
| with a divine purpose, and cannot be eX
| planned unless it tells of a fulhllmeEt in
. the ages, yet to come, when this earth shall
have been replaced by a new earth where.
in dweleth righteousness. Then He Him.
self shall be satisfied.
| The old philosophers used to represent
| al! things in a state of continual flow.
! They stood by the river whose dark wat.
| ers, fed from some hidden source, stole
past in voiceless mystery. They saw the
! same mysterious flow in the seasons. in
| the harvests, in human life itself. And
they posted motion as the substantial in
the world of things. Now the world is in
! state of flow because it state of in.
completeness, and that again because it is
cxpectant. There is something yet before
US. God has not made men who can long
and love and hope and struggle and deny
themselves, only that they may fall into a
hole in the grass.
For what, then, does this whole creation
wait; Paul tells us in one place that it is
that worth the time that is past? Isn't it
worth all the struggle and suffering and
tears of our fathers? Isn't it worth all the
pain with which JOY and sorrow have pol.
ished us into shapeliness?
And who again ore these sous of God?
,As manu- a.: nrn Lnd LIZ thn snirit Of God