The Penn's Grove record., 1905-06-23
THE PULPIT.
AN ELOQUENT SUNDAY SERMON BY
THE REV. c. E.. JEFFERSON.
Subject: Wanted. A New uAsn Of God.

New York City. - In the famous
broadway Tabernacle the pastor, the
Rev. Charles Edward jefferson. d. d.,
on Sunday preached the following ser
mon entitled, Wanted: A New Vision
of Cod"
The great word on the lips Of the
coming preacher will be God" The
name which is above every name has
been too much neglected in these re-
cent years, even by the men anoiuted
to proclaim if.
Inere have been reasons for this neg
lect. The evolutionary philosophy
awakened a new and thrilling inHerest
Ill man. Whence he came, how he
started. what have been the processes
OF his climbing, these are the questions
Which have bewitched and absorbed us
all. The phenomenal achievements of
the last half century have worked to-
ward the same result. Never has man
been so wonderful as now, never has
he done such mighty deeds. He is a
miracle worker who says each evening,
i viii do greater things tomorrow"
His prowess. cunning and mastery are
astounding, and to /chant his praises
has been our pastime and delight.
The mlseries of man have also con-
spired to fix our attention on him. He
has come from the country to the city
and be is in trouble. He has become
the victim of all sorts of economic and
social forces. which have left him
lying bleeding and half dead by the
side of the road along which the
strong have driven ~furiously to wealth
and pow 2r. To lift the man who is
down and place him Oh our beast and
get him into the nearest inn Is a prob
lem of vast dimensions, and has taken
a deal of our thought and time.
We have Leen caught In the com
pick of secondary causes, and have lit
tie inclination to consider the Cause
which underlies them all. To many
minds Gods presence has become dim,
His personality vague and doubtful.
His holiness has been by many quite
forgotten. In admlring or plying the
creature we have gotten our eyes off
the Creator. Our first duty is the step
Of the prodigal, Il will arise and go
back to my father"
The prophet of the coming days is
going to say in the words of one of
old, 81 have yet somewhat to say on
Gods behalf" Mans cause, has been
pleaded eloquently and long, and the
time has arrived for the forthputting
Of the claims of Gcd. Beginning at
the earth always ends in Babel, be-
ginning at the throne of God leads to
Pentecost.
We are coming back to tire old evan
gelism of the apostles. Wherever Paul
went his message was, 1--WE pray you
in Chrlst's steal, be We reconciled to
God" Simon Peter net the uproar
in the streets of Jerusalem on;the Day
of PentecOst with a great Gee aration
of God-"I will pour out'of My spirit
upon all flesh; and from first to last
1t was upon what God had done In
Christ that he based his passionate ex-
hortation to repentance.
All deep-eyed men are seeing with
increasing clearness that it is not by
ecclesiastical might or political power,
but by the rpirit OF Jehovah that the
mountains of iniquity are TO be leveled
and the rough places made smooth.
The evangelism Of the coming days
will begin wi h God.
Three doctrines will be counted car
dinal. In the forefront will be placed
the sovereignty of God. If the Puri-
tan passion has died out Of our blood
it is because the Puritan conception
of God has faded out of our hearts.
What we need to see to-day is q throne
with God on it. Democracy has made
havoc with our ideas of authority,
and the result Is a fabbiness of respOn-
sibility and a laxness of conduct, which
unless cOunteracted, will lead to our
ruin. The pessimism and hopeless
ness so prevalent to-day, even among
protesting Christians are the direct
result of a failure TO grasp the funda-
mental doctrine OF Gods omnipotence.
Along with the doctrine of Gods.
sovereignty will 60 the doctrine of
His immanence. 1t is an old doctrine
couched in fresh phraseology and with
new light shot through 1t by modern
science. The doctrine is written large
across the pages of Scripture, and in
every land and time the saints have
known chat God dwells y the hearts
of men. In Him we live and move
and have our being, as the apostle
long ago declared. And centuries be-
fore Paul's day a Hebrew poet thrilled
by the thought of Gods competence
wrote the 199th Psalm.
That God Is above all and through
all, and in Ill, and that of Him and
through Him and to Him are all
things is one of the. commonplaces of
the Bible; and whether we use the old
phrase, 1.-THE indwelling God" or the
phrase now most popular, ''the imma-
nent Cod" the thought needs to be
emphasized and wrought into the con-
sciousness of the Christians of our day
that God is in His world and dwellS
in special fulneSs in the hearts of those
who love and serve Him.
Nor will the holiness CT God be for
gotten. The decadence of the sense
of sin has been caused by the blur
ring of the doctrinespf Gods holiness.
Holy Father VS. the title by which
Jesus knew God. and it is thus that
we must know Him if it is TO be well
with our souls. The forms in which
r%etribution was often preached in pre-
ceding generations were so grotesque
and arbitrary that some of us have
been ashamed TO say it right out clear
and strong, that God pun shes men
for heir sins. In the coming day we
are going TO believe again that whatso-
ever Il man soveth that shall he also
reap. that without holiness no man can
see the Lord, that there is no peace
unto the wicked, that the soul that sin
meth dies in the act of its SHINING, and
that God is calling upon men every
where to repent.
No man acquainted with the teach
Ing of the latest science need be
ashamed or afraid to preach the most
rigorous doctrine OF retributiOn. You
preachers do not tell men often enough
that every sin brings its inevitable
punishment" is a sentence spoken to
me years ago by a physician. Behold
the goodness and severity of God! This
is the completing statement of the
apostle. and the prophets who are re-
deem the twentieth century will let the
sentence stand without abridgment.
With cities rotting at our doors and
the wall of the damned ringing in our
ears. and with an ancient empire
crumbling to pieces before our eyes,
1t is not hard to believe that while
God is ready always to forgive the
penitent He will by 10 means spare
the guilty.
Behold your Gci! will b the stir.
ring note of the coming message. and
the only God who will stir the hearts