The Camden chronicle. (Camden, Tenn.) 1890-current, 1905-01-13

the teaching itself, they could find no foot.
ing in the soul 81 man except through
spiritual susceptibility in the man himself
We rightly ask for evidence, bit what
evidence, and evidence Of what? We saw
we would believe in Christ if only we could
be convinced. but convinced how. and be.
lieve what about CHRISTI Men have some.
times asked, with an injured air, why they
could not be convinced bv an unmistabab,s
sign from heaven, why Christ il He should
be what He claims could not break dowr
by supernatural means the barriers of un
belief and forcibly open the door Of the
heart and find entrance What would
such an entrance be worth morally? a.
mere sensuous or intellectual qualification
which might come from a sign from heav-
en- would be quite outside the purpose
aimed at by our Lord. What would per-
yuade the carnal mind of the spiritual,
what2 not the carnal, surely. Not if one
rose fro mthe dead. Christ was accred-
tied tc His generation, not by this or that
sign or wcader-working, but by His whole
ministry, by Himself, by His life and
teaching. He Himself was the sign. If
the sign of Jesus win not be to Jerusalem
what the sign of Jonah was to Nineveh,
would moment of astonishment at some
wonder working create spiritual gertrude?
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. II God
asks from man love, will some celestial APP
pearance create love? If God asks from
man that free allegiance of the will, could
a 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
who cannot see th& sign which Jesus is
Himself. He authenticates the spiritual
to US. Seeing Him we must believe in
God, or if not how could we be made more
sure of God? Christ is the revealer Of the
Father. He is the sign and symbol and
evidence of God. He is. Immanuel, 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 a matter of fact Jesus has con-
WINGED the world of God, and is convincing
the world. Through Him we, too, know
God By Him we have access to God. In
love God. The vision of Him is the vision
of God.
This generation thirsteth for a 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 emulat-
ing the methods of medievalism in which
the so-called lives of the saints are houted
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 a recrudescence 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
Lian Science, or whatever happens to be the
form of it at the. time. where
esoterlc mysteries of some kind are prac-
ticed. The root of all such things is this
same unspiritual thirst for sign, after
wonders, faith healing and
other things pretty much on the level of
conjuring tricks.
All, me. All this is sign in itself,
sign OF the WEAKNESS and despair and
breakdown of the black materialism Of our
day to satisfy the heart of man, but it has
The terrible danger of inducing a worse
form OF materialism still, deceving the
carnal heart by wearing the dress of spirit
lal religion. How unstable it is we see
from the constant swing of the pendulum
now from atheism and materialism to the
most outrageous supernaturalism as in the
case of Mrs. Besant and others, and now
n the opposite direction from ultra-mysti-
'lsm to ultra rationalism. The cause Of
,hese seemingly contradictory changes it is
lot far to seek, as both are really based on
he same foundaton-a wrong conception
If what the spiritual is and therefore Of
what is true evidence of the spiritual. This
thirsteth for sign. There shall
De no sign given to it. No sign can be
would Judge all things by material stand
lrds, generation that is blind to the spil-
tual signs of which life is already full.
There can be no voice from heaven to men
who are deaf to the heavenly voice of
which the whole word is already full; If
he spiritual does not evidence itself; if
nan will not see God in Christ reconciling
he world to Himself; il the SIGN of the
ross cannot convince the stubborn heart
md bend it to acknowledge its divine pow
IT. If Jesus Himself is not seen to be His
'wn sign and miracle, His own evidence
md proof, there shall be no sign given;
here can be no sign given.
There shall be no sign given unto this
generation" Is that the last word? Is
hat the clang of the closed door in the
ace of a seeking soul? Master, we would
zee sign from Thee" That pitiful cry
+ truly asked, not as by those Pharisees,
put craving for spiritual enlightenment
md spiritual communion, that pitiful cry
las ever been answered. Never turned He
way from earnest, sincere, honest inquiry
fter light and truth. He eondescends to
ur weakness when we cry, ooh that I
new where | might find Him" He meets
is by the way. He makes our hearts to
,urn within us as we walk with Him, con-
'incing us of His love, convincing us of
he path, showing us the path, and it suf-
teeth us. When the heart thirsts with