The Camden chronicle. (Camden, Tenn.) 1890-current, 1905-01-06
A SERMON FOR SUNDAY
AN ELOQUENT DISCOURSE ENTITLED
KNOWING THE TRUTH"
Tho Rev. Cornelius Woelflsin DweIIs on
The Condition of Learning Spiritual
Truth as Laid Down by Jesus-Open-
Mindedness is the First qualification

M1ndednesS Is the First Qualification
BROOKLYN, n. Yin the Greene Ave-
hue Baptist Church Sunday morning the
minister, the Rev. Cornelius Woelfkin,
preached the sermon. Mr., Woelfkin's text
w:s from deuteronomy xxix:29: "The Sc
cret things belong unto the Lord, our God,
but the things that are revealed belong UNI
to us and to our children, that we may do
all the words of this law" He said:
A noted astronomer once said: Il have
searched the stars, but | find no God" A
noted philosopher said, If there is an inf
mite, personal God. He is unknowable.'
Materiaistic science and rational phil
osophy have formulated the creed of ag-
Mysticism, viz: that God is unknown and
unknowable. 1t sounds conservative, mod
est and wise But it is not really new.
One of the ancients wrote in the long ago,
"Canst thou, by searching, find out God?
Canst thou know the Almighty unto per-
lection? Zophar, the Naamathite, was a
clever agnostic. The Hebrew lawgiver
writes, The secret things belong unto
the Lord our God"
If God be the Infinite. Eternal and Alb
solute, it is impossible to comprehend and
explain Him. There must always be di-
mansions of mystery unknown and un-
movable in Him. The astronomer never
expects to find the walls of the universe.
There is always the unknown beyond. II
space and time stagger the imagination,
can we ever hope to bring the eternal God
completely within the range of human
conception? We are all agnostics. Even
Christians worship at the altar of the SUI
per movable God. II is no discredit to
the thest that he cannot tell the day Of
Gods birth. We need not distress our
selves because we cannot walk about God
and know His diameter and circumference.
He is unknowable.
But because we cannot know all, shall
we rest content to know nothing? The
scientist is aware that he can never know
it all. Does he therefore break his instru-
ments and content himself to abide in ig-
norance? He knows in part. He will
know more, though he never knows it all.
So, concerning God, there are things that
may be known. The myste y of the I'M
known is the very charm Of eternity: The
ages will ever clothe themselves with new
garments of mystery.
How may we know God? God is a
spirit and must be spiritually known. John
Fiske, speaking of the spectroscope, calls
it 'an addition to our senses" All our
inventions are extensions to our senses.
There is auto-seeing, auto-hearing, auto
feeling. Tyndale said, 'The silence of
the forest at MONDAY is agitated with
sound, if we could only hear it, There
are some things telescopically discerned,
Others microscopcally and spectroscopi-
cally. Without these they are not dis
cerned at all. Why does one man only
glance at a picture, and pass on, while
another will study it by the hour? Why
will some people leave the music hall,
while others are held spellbound by the
symphony? Because some things are art
istically discerned and others muscaly.
There must be the subjective faculty to
appreciate objective genius.
Why do some men go through life with
out any sense of reverence, worship and
prayer while others bow in humility and
alteration to one whom they call God! Be
cause God is spiritually discerned. The
natural man receiveth not the things of
God. neither can he know them He is
lacking the souls telescope, microscope,
spectroscope, etc. Natural devices cannot
discover a spiritual God.
The study of man himself presents
faints analogy of this truth. Science stud
les the human body; articulates the skele-
ton; knows the nervous system; explains
organization. But does the anatomist dis
cover the role man? Does he find that
soveregn-the will, the magistrate-the
conscience, the artist-the imagination, the
orchestra-the emotions, the librarian-the
memory? They are all there. but the in
struments of physical dissection do not
discover them. They are mentally dis
cerned. When spiritual men, as such,
pronounce upon physical science, they be-
come fools. And when materialists, as
such, pronounce upon spiritual things
they likewise turn out folly. One qualif-
cation cannot constitut- authority upon
all things.
1t is sometimes said that religion speaks
in a language of its own-a foreign tongue.
This must be so in the nature of the case.
Every new idea demands the garment of
a new word or phrase. Every science Gre
ates its own nomenclature. We might !
find hundred volumes written in our ma
tive tongue and yet not understand what |
is written. Spiritual realities must ex-
press Themselves in spiritual terminology. |
Instead of quarreling with the introduc- !
tion of new terms, we should as true stu
dents learn their meaning and so widen
our apprehenslons.
The condition Of learning spiritual truth
S laid down by Jesus. HE that willeth to
10 His will shall know the teaching"
There must be right attitude first, and |
hen the experiment of action Open
nindedness is the first qualification for
apprehension. Prejudice distorts and
n our limitations. It is the handicap
lpon honest examination and experiment.
Prejudice shut the theologians out of nat
Iral science for years. Prejudice is shut
ing the materialists out of religious science
o-day. The whole universe is governed
" law. Let man obey the laws of ma
ure and nature will unfold its mysteries
o him. Let man put himself in align
nent with spiritual realities, and the
piritual world will discover itself to him.
He that cometh to God must believe that
lie is, and that He is the rewarder of them
hat diligently seek Him"
There must be action the test of expert
nent Here is a stumbling block. Men
ave their own wills and hesitate and halt
t doing the will of God. The chief diff
ulties concerning religion do not rise out
f intellectual embarrassment so much as
failure in attitude and action. Yet with
ut these men cannot know.
The means of knowing are twofold. st.
ohm says, Chat which we have heard,
hat which we have seen and handled with
ur hands declare we unto you" There is
rst the message of tradition-that which
re have heard. There is tradition in