The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1904-12-15


| mere sensuous OF intellectual qualification
| which might come from sign from heav-
en- would be quite outside the purpose
aimed at by our Lord What would per-
suade the carnal mind OF the spiritual,
what? not the carnal, surely. Not If one
| rose fro mtbe dead. Christ was accred-
tied to His generation, not by this or that
sign or wonder working, but by His whole
ministry, by Himself. by His life and
teaching. He Himself was the sign. If
the sign of Jesus will not be to Jerusalem
what the sign of Jonah was to Nlnereh.
would moment of astonishment at some
wonder working create spiritual certltude!
If the sign of Christ will not now convince
man of the eternal love of God, what sign
from heaven will?
In asking to be convinced of the spirit
ual by some impression Of the senses we
ask the impossible. A sign to prove the
spiritual must itself be spiritual. If God
asks from man love, will some celestial ap-
pearance create love? II God asks from
man that free allegiance of the will. could
voice from heaven or a succession OF
voices subdue the mind and capture the
heart? If God asks for Righteousness or
loyal obedience of the life to the law Of
life could anything material generate the
moral? There can be no sign given to men
who cannot see the sign which Jesus ls
Himself. He authenticates the spiritual
to US. Seeing Him we must believe in
God, or il not how could We be made more
sure of God? Christ is the revealer OF the
Father. He ia the sign and symbol and
evidence of God He is Emmanuel, the
Sign and Seal of God with US and God for
us, the proof OF the divine in our midst.
There shall be no sign given to this gener-
alton other than that: there can be no
other. He is the highest sign, and If the
greater fails how can the lesser convince,
and as matter of TACT Jesus has con-
vinced the world of God. and is convincing
the world. Through Him we. too, know
God. BY Him We have access to God. In
Him we recognize God. For His sake We
love God. The vision of Him is the vision
of God.
This. generation thirsteth for sign. We
think it an evidence of our spirituality
that We do so thirst. and SO We find many
modern versions of the demand of the
Pharisees. Sometimes in the name of
science, sometimes in the name of religion.
We can even manufacture signs when they
seem to be lacking. Sometimes by eElulat-
ing the methods Of medievalism, in which
the so-called lives of the saints are flouted
before US, and asking us to believe IN the
great realities of spiritual life because OF
some material sign. Answers to prayer, it
may be, providences which. however CO.
gent to the individual concerned, have lit
tie meaning to others. or sometimes we
have recrudescenee Of the crudest spirit
ualism, spirit rapping. table turning, tea
cup manipulating. after which the devo-
tees 60 home feeling that they themselves
have been assisting at some act OF pro-
found worship, as if the melodramatic vul-
garisms of spiritualism could prove any
thing but the folly of the race. Or again,
we have the same claims appear in more
pretentious garb in Theosophy, or Chris
tian Science, or whatever happens to be the
fashionable form of it at the time, where
esoteric mysteries of some kind are prac-
ticed. The root of all such things is this
same unspiritual thirst for sign, after
thaumaturgical wonders, faith healing and
other things pretty much Oh the level OF
conjuring tricks.
All, me. All this is sign in itself, .
sign of the weariness and despair and
breakdown of the black materialism OF our
day to satisfy the heart of man, but 1t has
the terrible danger of inducing worse
form OF materia(isra still, deceiving the
carnal heart by wearing the dress OF spirit
ual religion. How unstable it is We see
from the constant swing of the pendulum
now from atheism and material!sm to the
most outrageous supernaturalism rs in the
case of Mrs. Besant and others, and now
in the opposite direction from uitra-mysti.
cism to ultra-rationalism. The cause OF
these seemingly contradictory changes it Is
not far to seek, as both are really based on
the same foundation-a wrong conception
Of what the spiritual is and therefore of
generation thirsteth for sign. There shall
DC no sign given to it. No sign can be
given to an unspiritual generation which
would Judge all things by material stand
ards, generation that is blind to the spir-
itual signs of which life is already full.
There can be no voice from heaven to nen
who are deaf to the heavenly voice Of
which the whole world is already full; if
the spiritual does not evidence itself: if
man will not see God in Christ reconciling
the world to Himself; ii the sign OF the
cross cannot convince the stubborn heart
and bend it to acknowledge its divine pow
er. If Jesus Himself is not seen to he His
own sign and miracle, His own evidence
there can be no sign given.
''There shall be no sign gwen unto this
generation" Is that the last word? Is
that the ciang OF the closed door in the
face of a seeking soul? Master, we would
see a sign from Thee" That pitifnl cry
if truly asked, not as by those Pharisees,
but craving for spiritual enlightenment
end spiritual communion, that pitiful cry
has ever been answered. Never turned He
away from earnest, sincere, honest inquiry
after light. and truth. He condescends to
our weakness when we cry, oh, that /
knew where I might find Him" He meets
us by the way. He makes our hearts to
burn within us as we walk with Him, con-
vincing us of His love, convincing us OF
the path, showing us the path. and it suf-
6ceth US. When the heart thirsts with
deeper thirst than for sign, when it
thirsts after the love Of God, when the
heart and flesh cry out, He shows US the
signs of His passion. as with Thomas, "Be-
hold My hands and Ny feet" He. com.
forts us. He comforts us with the sign Of
The cross, and before that wondroas mani
festation of the eternal love, before that
revelation Of the Fathers heart, we be-
lieye and worship, and adore and love, and
we say in penitence and in faith. MY
Lord and my God" Do We believe?
Goods Veils."
Little Mary had just come from the win.
dow with evident pleasure, and sat down
on her little stool at her papas feet. 1t
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