Orange County observer. [volume] (Hillsborough, N.C.) 1880-1918, 1905-09-28
CHRIST OUR REFUGE
OUR REGULAR SUNDAY SERMON
All Things Work Together For Good
to The Righteous.
Subject: Growth.

Brooklyn, N. Y.-The Rev. c. George
Currie, d. D., preached in Holy Trim
ity Church Sunday morning to the con-
gregations Of Holy Trinity and St.
AIMS. Dr.. Gurries subject was
Growth" and he selected for his text
II. Corinthians, va: mot 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 unclothed of it's
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 its parts. 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 in
moral sense; the word wrong"
means twisted Or corrupt, and ''cor-
rupt" often means dishonest. The
things that are seen are, that.is to say,
dlvlnely created pictures Of the things
3hat are not seen; and it is a great
satisfaction that we can have a 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
ing its raiment without worrying
about it) are not merely physical
truths-you must not fall into that
Dlunder-they are truths that reach all
Inc 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
10 the people at large: without par
aole spake He not unto them" The
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 prin-
cple before us, mot unclothed, but
clothed upon," and let us see to it that
we have the physical and material idea
ulstlnctly in our heads. Here, for in
stance, is the stump of tree with the
inherent rings Of wood Of which it is
composed. Year by year the tree has
put ON new growth, which you can see
~ ~ the successive rings. But all the
ume that it has been putting on the
new rings it has never completely let
90 OF the old ones, and the first ring of
al IS right in the centre all the time.
Let me give the little folk a simple il
auStration, that they may take it away
with them. Children, you turn an ap.
PIE on its side. Cut it down in the cen
tre through and through. Then you
nave two halves, have you not? Well.
cut Off from either half a slice, very
nl nlin' the thinner you cut it the better;
1,en Hnen hold the slice up to the light
VOW, what do you see? You see in the
ttsSntre, distinctly, the dark outline OF
sne original blossom that was on the
apple tree in the springtime.
NOW, take some examples of this
pIlnclple. There is the Bible, for in
ssssance ssce It is living book. mean by
., .nat It was not flung down from the
ssys IKE q meteoglte. 10 az t. land ltks