The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1905-09-21
THE PULPIT.
an ELOQUENT SUNDAY SERMON BT
THs REV. DR.. c. GEORGE CURRlE.
Subject: Growth.

Brooklyn, n. Y.-The Rev. c. George
Currie, D. d., preached in Holy Trin-
tty Church Sunday morning to the con-
gregations of Holy Trinity and ST.
AIMS. DR.. Currie's subject was
'Growth,I and he selected for his text
II. Corinthians, VI: Not for that we
would be unclothed. but clothed upon
He said:
These words of the epistle express
the important principle that wherever
there is vitality life not only adds to
itself continually, but at the same time
never throws away, never entirely loses
the essential elements that it has once
succeeded in acquiring. That is to say.
that all the time. that life is putting on
raiment, as it were, or being clothed
upon'-Say, in the flowers, or bush or
insect or man. for that PARTIAL that
time it keeps the essentials Of whatso-
ever it has invested itself with. And
it is never perfectly unelothed Of its
fundamental gains: mot unclothed but
clothed upon" These principles hold
good in relation to life of every kind
and under all conditions. 1t is one Of
the great keys of nature that have
been furnished to US, and its univer-
salty springs from the fact that
the universe is fundamentally similar
in all it's parts. I mean to say that the
universe is constituted in such man.
ner that the different plans of being.
the physical. the intellectual. the moral.
the spiritual, all correspond to one an
other. So that whatsoever is true in
one is true in all Of them. Mankind.
in fact has an instinct to that effect.
Our ordinary words that we use in
talking, for instance, for physical
things are mostly the same as those
used for intellectual or spiritual things.
The word, right" means straight, and
straight is constantly used by us III
a moral sense; the word wrong
means twisted OF corrupt, and cor
rupt'' often means dishonest. The
things that are seen are. that is to say,
divinely created pictures of the things
that are not seen; and it is great
satisfaction that we can have trust
worthy picture of spiritual things that
we can see. Our blessed Lord talked
in parallels. not because parallels are
simple, but because the truths ex-
pressed by parallels (as the loaf OF
bread or the raiment or the water from
the well, or the sparrow having his
food prepared for him, or the lily get
ting it's raiment without worrying
about it, are not merely physical
truhs-you must not fall into that
blunder-they are truths that reach all
the way up through all the plans to
the eternal kingdom. Our Lord talked
in that way because He saw the whole
of the plan. from the top TO the bot
tom, and He talked in no other way
to the people at large: without par
able spake He not unto them. Inc
plans, intellectual, moral and spiritual.
are represented in the physical, and all
of them are fundamentally alike. That
is why He talked in parallels.
Now come back to the general prln-
clple before us, mot unciothed, but
clothed upon," and let us see to it that
we have the physical and material idea
distinctly in our heads. Here, for IN
stance. is the stump of a tree with the
different rings of wood Of which it is
composed. Year by year the tree has
put on new growth, which you can see
TN the successive rings. But all the
time, that it has been putting on the
new rings it has never completely let
20 of the cid ones, and the first ring OF
all is right in the centre all the time.
Let me give the little folk a simple IL
lustration, that they may take it away
with them. Children, you turn an ap-
ple on its side. Cut it down in the cen-
tre through and through. Then you
have two halves, have. you not? Well,
cut off from either half slice. very
thin, the thinner you cut it the better.
Then hold the. slice up to the light.
Now, what do you see? You see in the
centre, distinctly, the dark outline OF
the original blossom that was on the
apple tree in the springtime.
Now, take some examples OF this
principle. There IS the Bible, for IN
stance. 1t is living book. mean by
that it was not flung down from the
Sky, like meteorite, so as to land ike
Joseph Smiths Bible somewhere IN
valley all made up and ready. 1t did
not come that way; but it grew in the
world like an oak or pine tree; and. &C
cording to what the Saviour says about
the Holy Ghost continually teaching in
the word in successive ages, the Bible.
which is Gods truth or the word OF
God, is, in a manner, still growing. Do
you know that? It is coming out IN
parts. 1t is life from beginning to end.
It unfelds, not a single period of mans
history only, but successive stages in
the growth of the human mind. There
fore it contains. like a tree, successive
rings, as it were, greatly contrasted
c1e with another, widely differing one
from another. In one ring, so to speak.
it is IAN eye for an eye and tooth for
a tooth" Literally. exact justice. In
another ring it is, If man strike thee
on the ore cheek turn to him the other
also.' In the one ring, vengeance; III
the other, no vengeance. The Bible. as
I said, thus urfolds to us successive
ages in the spiritual growth of man.
Some Of its stages, or rings. such as
poiygamy, we have left behind us long
ago; some We have not yet reached.
The Sermon on the Mount especially
stretches out and away to the future
perfection of the race, when a nation
like Russia will be an impossibiiity.
1T the present time, you know, all ma
lc for thai,