The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1905-10-01
"A Sermon for Today
THE PERSONAL TOUCH.
BY HENRY r. COPE. 4
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t-5ss EQlCOf OF Ram s Horn.
.tt And man shall be a hiding place from the
wind, and a, covert from the tempest as rivers
of water In dry place, as the shadow Of a
great rock IN weary land.-lsaiah xxxii., 2.
A man needs men more than he needs
spirits. You can no more satisfy the
human heart with departed souls than
You can appease hunger with kitchen
doors. People want people to love. No
matter how perfect from the pedago-
ing the masses by ideals may be you
will always find that they prefer, to
take their ideals on two legs and with
the Light Of life in their eyes. They
would, rather associate with the most
mediocre men than with the most highly
interesting mummies, and you will find
them getting more out of common peo-
pie on the street than out of the most
perfect profiles in the art gallery.
No matter how. perfect your church
worship may be in it's artistic and its
intellectual appeal, its sensuous aspects
alone will never satisfy that strange
ing that leads men to the place Of wor-
ship week after week. The church may
have much success as club, as an expo
sition Of style, fashion, and refined sen.
timents, and yet fail utterly as church
unless it gives men life, unless it some
how comes near to them and opens it.
self to- them so that they feel here are
hearts that understand and ears open III
sympathy, here are warm handgrasps
here is the life giving touch.
Ordinary people cannot worship alb,
only the forms Of worship. You might
as well call on men to fall before Che
books of Euclid set on an altar as to
expect humanity to worship the hypo.
thetical being whom some call the god
of heaven. Still less can men be
brought to adore the propositions of
theology. For worship is but love, and
you can never learn to love syllogism
Ideas alone have power as they be-
come personal. Many man is wor
shipping the good in his mother, the
gentle and" sublime in some othel
woman, Or the heroic in some man; anc
these constitute his1religion. These are
people, and they satisfy him as postu
OF worship never could They not only
set the good in the glowing frame Of
life but they touch his life with theirs
there is something other than theil
goodness, their fine characters; there il
that which makes them one with him.
A God far off from man has AWAY.
meant far off from God. And yet Coz
has ever been seeking to come near t.
US. 1t is more than a figure Of speecl
that the Bible uses when it speaks O:
the, most High as man, a father, {
neighbour, a friend; it is an indication O,
| the closeness of God to ourselves. of hi
reality, of his identity with us. w,
| need not think of him as an overgroWl
man sitting on top of the clouds; yet i
! is better that he should be embodied il
some image of the form that has alwav
meant personality to us than that W
should lose sight Of the form that ha
always meant. personality to us thai
that we should lose sight of the possibil
1ty Of, approach and communion witt
| him as friend with friend. Better t.
| think 20 OF God as man with us than no
to know that the one over us ali is i
living touch with us all. -