The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1905-10-11
THE PULPIT.
AN ELOQUENT SUNDAY SERMON By
THE REV. DR.. c. GEORGE CUR7iE.
Subject: Growth.

Growth" and he selected for his text
IL Corinthians, Va: Not for that we
would be upclothed, 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 "ciothed
.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 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 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 erect.
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
q 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,
divinely created pictures Of the things
that are not seen; and it is q 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 las the loaf OF
bread or the raiment or the water from
the we'll. 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
truths-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" 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-
ciple before us, mot unclothed, 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 tree with the
different rings of wood Of which 1t IS
composed. Year by year the tree has
put on new growth, which you can see
in the successive rings. But all the
time that it has been putting on the
new rings it has never completely let
20 of the old ones, and the first ring or
all is right in the centre all the time.
Let me give the little folk q simple IL
lustration, that they may take 1t away
with them. Children, you turn an ap-
ple on it's side. Cut it down in the CEN
tre through and through. Then you
have two halves, have YOU not? We'll,
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 TINS
principle. There is the Bible, for in
stance. 1t is living book. I mean by
that it was not flung down from the
sky, like meteorite, so as to land ike
Joseph Smiths Bible somewhere N
valley all made up and ready. 1t did
not come that way; but it grew In the
world like all oak or pine tree; and. ac-
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 n manner, still growing. DO
you know that? 1t is coming out IN
parts. 1t is life from beginning to end.
1t unfolds, not 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
one 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 one cheek turn to him the other
also" In the one ring, vengeance; IN
the other, no vengeance. The Bible. as
I said, thus unfolds to US successive
ages in the spiritual growth Of man.
Some Of it's stages, or rings, such as
polygamy, 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 nation
like Russia will be an impossibility.
At the present time, you know, all ma
tions take brute animals for their rep
resentative coat of arms, because they
all have the brute in them. The time
will come when the bear and the ION
and the bird of prey shall all be ground
out of humanity. and the work be full
filed when he that is struck on one
cheek will turn the other also. and the
race will become, as 1t never has be-
come, Christian. And yet Whatsoevc:
has been true remains true forever.
While the Bible gives us the story
of the Gospel, it continues to retain
the law in the Book Of Deuteronomy.
Calvary does not blot out Sinai. They
are related to one another. You must
know the law before you can know the
Gospel. You often hear Of people be-
;,r oy+ror,oIr rillinr tn forriVe What