Catoctin clarion. [volume] (Mechanicstown, Md.) 1871-1940, 1906-11-15
Subject: Personal Experience.

irving Square Presbyterian Church
On the theme, personal Experience"
the Rev. l. w. Henderson, pastor,
took as his text Jno. 4:42: Now we
believe, not because of thy saying;
Tor we have heard Him ourselves, and
know that this Is indeed the Christ,
the Saviour of the world He said:
The final proof of the value of the
Gospel to the individual lies In per-
sonal experience. The one test which,
above all others, warrants man to
hail Jesus or to deny Him, is that of
real knowledge directly acquired. No
man is fit to flaunt Christianity as
q farce who has not first observed
the rules incidental to the living OF
the Christ life. He is the best advo-
cate of the beauties of the Christian
economy who has been loyal to his
Lords commands.
The consensus Of Christians is the
result of common experience. We,
as citizens of the kingdom Of God,
hold fast and together certain for
mulas of faith because we have, each
for himself, as individuals, found
valuable for us those working prin-
ciples that we maintain. The church
universal represents, in its funda-
mental dogmas, the opinions Of myr-
lad men who have, through the pro-
cess Of individual experience, reached
a common ground of belief. The
church catholic is divided upon sec
ondary tenets according to the vari-
cites of secondary Christian religious
experience among men who assert al
legiance to the central truths. In the
broad sense, all of us who believe in
and serve Christ, are Christians be-
cause we each recognize as per-
sonal experience the truths which
Christianity asserts to be fundamen-
tai. | am Presbyterian and you
are Methodist, not because our
views are different at the vitals, but
because our secondary experiences
are unlike. The Christian Church
is an aggregation of men who see
Jesus with the same eye and who find
in Him and in His power in their
lives bonds which link them fast.
And any sect or denomination or
Christians is but the congregation of
some of the followers of Christ
around a secondary tenet that Is alive
with their own peculiar doctrine, the
result of an individual experience.
At the bottom of it all the moving
principle is personal experience. No
man is a good Christian who has not
mad contact with Christ. No man
can appreciate the genius of Presby-
terianism save he who has had the
experience common to all who hold
that creed. 1t is wise thing for
a man who honestly differs from his
fellow men; it Is sensible thing for
a Christian who earnestly and reason
ably disagrees with his fellow fol-
lowers of Christ; to examine his con-
clusion-that is to say, his creed, his
dogma, his tenets, as you willard
determine whether Or no they mirror
correctly his personal experiences.
But merely because man finds HIM
self at variance with the world of
men about him is no sign that he has
misinterpreted his experiences or is
wrong. The prophets were perse-
cuted not because they we're wrong,
but because they framed from the
facts at hand conclusions that the
Hebrews did not care to admit as ten
able. Calico got into trouble be-
cause Ptolemaists thought him crazy.
The world was called fiat until
dauntless soul declared 1t round.
Luther would never have nailed the
ninetyfive theses to the door Of the
church at Wittenberg had he not
been true to the truth as he saw 1t.
And these men were. as are many
men to-day, dead wrong in their be-
liefs as measured by the standards Of
the past.
The results attained in all depart
ments OF knowledge are the outcome
of the personal experience Of indi-
viduals. A scientific law may be the
declaration by single man of truth
proven out of the records of his per-
sonal experience, unaided and un-
verified by tho experience Of any
other man-not infrequently at first
1t is. But this much is sure: that
any law that has the assent of any
society is based entirely upon the
experiences of individual men who
have perceived and been Influenced
by similar phenomena in their sep
arate lives.
All the knowledge that we have
and all the laws that we accept at
second hand are, at bottom, founded
upon the research and personal inves-
tigation and experience of some sim
gle man or some set of men. To say
that we accept many truths at second
hand in no way Injuries our argument.
All that we receive upon the asser-
tons of other men is SO taken be-
cause we have faith in the validity
of their conclusions as being the di-
rect result of their personal expert
ences. Repetition is never so in
spring or convincing as is the dictum
Of the first source. And the only
value that reinstatement has is gained
from the personal knowledge out of
which it springs. BY virtue of the
of the demands on our
time we have to rest much OF re-
ceived truth upon the decisions Of
other men; but, in the providence of
God. we may prove accepted truth il
we will in the investigation and the
delineation of our own personal ex-
periences.
No man, however, is entitled to af-
hrm or to deny the value Of de-
ciared truth unless he has either met
to the full the requirements of each
condition or accepted the opinion of
some original investigator who has
fulfilled all incidental demands. How
silly it would be for man, untutored
and IMMERSED in the sciences, to set
up his opinion, without deep and
sea rching Investigation against the
declarations of a Darwin, a Tyndall
Or Wallace. And on the other
baud how unmaniy it would be for
a convinced student, who has, after
arduous and painstaking effort,
reached conclusions at variance with
all the theory of all his masters be-
fore him, to finch to state and to
stand by the truth revealed to him
by God.
If. In the realm of science, eXDeri-