The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1905-01-04

goiee-frons heaven or a succession of
voices eubdue 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
moral? There can be no sign gwen to men
who cannot see the 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 Emmanuel, 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
Him we recognize God. For His sake we
love God. The vision OF Him is the vision
of God.
This generation thirsteth for q 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 m~edievalism, in which
the so.called lives Of the saints are fouted
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 q recrudeseence of the crudest spirit
ualism, spirit rapping, table turning, tea
cup manipulating, after which the devo-
tees go 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 sam claims appear in a more
p%retentious garb in Theosophy, or Chris
tan Science, or whatever happens to be the
fashionable form Of it at the time, where
e~soteric mysteries of some kind are prac-
ticed. The root of all such things is this
same unspiritual thirst for q sign, after
thaumaturgical wonders, faith healing and
other things pretty much on the level OF
conjuring tricks.
All, me. All this is a sign in itself, a
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, deceiving the
carnal heart by wearing the dress of spirit
ual 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
in the opposite direction from ultra-mysti-
cism to ultra-rationalism. The cause Of
these seemingly contradictory changes it is
not far to seek, as both are really based On
the same foundation-a wrong conception
of what the spiritual is and therefore of
what is true evidence of the spiritual. This
generation thirsteth for a sign. There shall
be no sign given to it. No sign can be
given to an unspiritual generation which
would judge all things by material stand
ards, a generation that is blind to the spir-
itual 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 world is already full; If
the spiritual does not evidence. itself; if
man will not see God in Christ reconciling
the world to Himself; If the sign of the
cross cannot convince the stubborn heart
and bend it to acknowledge its divine pow
Il IL OCooo iItSS 10 v oSSn ~ w 11Ao
own sign and miracle, His own evidence
and proof. there shall be no sign given;
there can be no sign given.
"There shall be no sign given unto this
generation" Is that the last word? ls
that the clang Of the closed door in the
face of a seeking soul? Master, we would
see a sign, from Thee" That pitiful ~
if truly asked, not as by those PharjSY,
but craving for spiritual enlightermsnt
and spiritual communion, that ply al cry
has ever been answered. Never Vned He
away from earnest, sincere, hop1t inquiry
after light and truth. He coGiescends to
our weakness when we cEEE "Oh. that l
knew where I might find Em." He meets
US by the way. He makes our hearts to
burn within rs as we walk with Him, con.
vincing US of His love, convincing US Of
the path, showing US the path, and it suf-
fceth us. When the heart thirsts with a
deeper thirst than for a sign, when 1t
thirsts after the love Of God, when the
heart and flesh cry out, He shows US the
signs of His passion, as with Thomas, BE
hold My hands and My feet" He com-
forts us. He comforts us with the sign of
the cross, and before that wondrous mani
festation of the eternal love, before that
revelation Of the Fathers heart, we be.
lieve and worship, and adore and love, and
we say in penitence and in faith. My
Lord and my God" Do We believe?