The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1904-12-14
A SERMON FOR SUNDAY
A STRONG DISCOURSE ENTITLED.
THE KNOWLEDGE Of GOD"
The Rev. Livingston L. Taylor Tells Why
Religion is an AFFAIR OF the Soul and
God Sectariap, DoGmattc lnsistence
AZ perllona

for the subject OF his sermon, Inc
knowledge Of God" The text was from
Psalm kxxiv:2: MY heart and my flesh
crieth out for the living God" MI. lay
lor said:
1 come back to this pulpit in nc uncer-
tainty Of mind with reference to what my
message should be. / know, at any rate,
where it must begin. Unless l mistake
the terms of my commission, unless l mis-
take the nature Of the means placed at my
disposal, which are the Bible and the
church, unless 1 mistake the example Of
my Master, it is my business to help men,
so far as in me lies, to find God.
There is no mistaking my own mind,
nor what the summer has done to confirm
of you, the glory of the Lord has been re-
vealed anew in earth and sky and sea. To
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 trav-
eled far aield with them in the books
which we have read. How have they
Jared?
For myself I did not by any means get
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 a God whom nothing
in heaven or on earth can dethrone. We
must have a 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 a God who will not break down and
perish out of our souls in the hour Of trial.
We must have a God who shall be God to
with Job, "Oh, that I knew where !
might find HIM" We must have a God
to whom we may say, Father. into Thy
hands I 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 our
Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Such is
the God from whom nothing in the heights
or in the depths, nothing in the past, the
present or the future could detach the
faith of Paul. Such is the God our need of
whom may be revealed 10 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 q man who has been summoned
by a 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 q
night lamp in a sick room that tells him
every second lost must be made up. The
conductor nervously hurries passengers of
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
can suggest is being done. Where is thy
God? I say, father, where is thy God?
Nature say to him, II have contrived a
little sack in your child's body. I have
filed it with poison. Within twenty.four
hours I propose to break it. If I break
it your child will die. If YOU are willing
to take other chances, let the surgeons re-
move it.: Then I will do the best I 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 a father is
making up his mind what answer to give
to natures u.timatum 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 a 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
sympathy and helpful action to be ae-
counted for. 1t is a scene which fairly
represents the tragedy Of the world pro-
~ ,,l,oh oe-anfn 1f - ID ,-1,, lie
Germ the working of the higher LAWN the
merciless progress of the disease or in
what is being done to save, to heal, to
comfort? If there is any purpose, or even
any tendency, to be discovered in such a
scene, is it the triumph of pain and the
perfecting of cruelty that is being pro.
noted? or is it the. perfecting of faith and
love?
Christians should know where to look
for God in 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 us 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
which should ever speak to us Of God.
It is with life and healing, with love and
care, that we are taught TO associate the
thought of God. In the midst of life's con-
fusions we know in part. When that
which is perfect is come it will prove to
believe. We can even think Of ourselves,
when it is all over, looking back and say
ing:
with mercy and with judgment
My web OF time He wove,
And aye the dews CT sorrow
Were lustered with His love;
I'll bless the hand that guided,
I'll bless the heart that Planned,
When throned where glory dwelleth,
In Emmanuel's' land"
I like to think of the positive aspects of
the First Commandment: Thou shalt have
no other God before Me" That means,
stated positively: Thou shalt nave q God,
and thou shalt have Me for thy God.
Thou shalt have a God. 1t is the first law
of the SOULS own life. Thou shalt have a
God whom nothing can ever make it I'M
reasonable for you to trust. 1t is the
souls law of self preservation. How do
we know when we are going to be in criti-
cal need of faith like Pauls-of faith like
that Of our dying Lord? Every man who
suffers needs it. Every man who thinks
needs it.
I say that every man who thinks needs
God. We are thinking here tonight. We
have been thinking some Of the very
thoughts which have stolen away the faith