Catoctin clarion. [volume] (Mechanicstown, Md.) 1871-1940, 1906-10-11
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: Sunday Sermon ;
"A Scholarly Discourse BY {
! Bishop John J. Tigert. J
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Brooklyn, N. Y.-Union services of

Brooklyn, N. Y.-Union services Of
the First Reformed, the Grace M. e.
Church, the Memorial Presbyterian
and the Sixth Avenue Baptist were
day morning the preacher was Bishop
John j.. Tigert, of the Methodist Epis-
copal Church, South, who was elected
to the bishopric in May last, at which
time he was the editor of the South
ern Christian Advocate. The bishop
Is vigorous and lively preacher of
the old-time Methodist order. His
subject was "The God of Grace" and
he took for his text the passage, II
Corinthians, iv:8: For God, who
commanded the light to shine out Of
darkness, hath shined in our hearts
to give the light of the knowledge Of
the glory of God in the face Of Jesus
Christ" He said:
The great lesson that lies on the
surface of this text Is that the God
of creation is also the God of grace
and salvation. If you and should
think about 1t superficially we should
be inclined to believe that the God
who built the universe Is greater
God than the One who saved the soul,
but therein would lie radical mis-
take. Many man of great wealth
and resources has found 1t easier to
build a palace than to frame the life
of son, and many man so situated
would give all he ever earned in or
der that he might have boy after
his own liking. The Car found 1t
easier to accumulate resources, In
Guiding men and material, for the
war against Japan than he Is finding
1t to pacify the people of Russia to-
day. The more we think about 1t
the more we shall be. compelled to
believe that every problem involving
the government of moral matters is
more difficult than the fashioning Of
material things. For the element Of
freedom enters into the former pro-
posal; and wherever we are dealing
with those who are free we cannot
count on the result as we can when
dealing with forces that are fixed.
The free and the fixed-these are
two realms, but the God of the fixed
is also the God of the free; and the
God of creation Is also the God Of
revelation and grace and the saliva
ton of the. human soul: For God,
who commanded the light to shine
out Of darkness, hath shined in our
hearts to give the light of knowledge
of the glory OF God In the face of
Jesus Christ" Now there Is certain
ly in this phrase as express reminis-
cence of the first chapter of Genesis:
God said, Let there be light: and
there was light" 1t Is very easy for
10 T., 1of ~ hn
world. l can conceive the sun to
be blotted out; the moon and the
stars no longer to shine; the founda-
tions of the earth removed. But at
ter l shall have imagined this l shall
find that there Is void, eternal, In
finite, that by no effort of thought
can l annihilate. 1t may be nothing,
and yet ! cannot conceive 1t as II 1t
were nothing. II l think a little
more closely about It am obliged to
conceive this void as absolutely dark.
That is to say, light is positive en-
tity; darkness Is nothing. The re-
moval of the source of light brings
darkness, and since in this darkness
there is no source of light 1t must be
altogether dark. Now, Just as dark
ness Is the absence of light, so cold
is the complete absence OF heat.
Everything, even ice, possesses
little heat; we cannot imagine what
infinite cold is Yet this void, eter-
nal, infinite, is at once completely
cold Again. silence is the absence
of sound. Silence does not require
any absolute cause; in order to Gre
ate silence in this house l have but
to cease talking. Once more: This
void cold, silent, dark, Is also dead.
Did you ever think about 1t? Death
Is nothing. You will never meet
death, for while you are death Is not,
and while death is you are not. And
so you and death can never come face
to face. What terror you have OF the
gave is born of false imagination.
The horrors that creep over us and
constitute physical fear of death are
the imposition of Imagination be-
cause we conceive of ourselves as
being sensitive; as feeling the cold,
damp cold of the grave, overwhelmed
by it's darkness. But death is only
absence of life. Fix these four con-
ceptions upon your mind for the
sake of the lesson to follow: Silence
is the absence of sound; Darkness is
sence of heat; Death is the absence
of life.
Now, 1t was In these circumstances
this void, eternal, Infinite, silent,
cold, dead, that the voice of the AL
mighty was heard, breaking the ST.
lence of eternity, flinging the light
out into this infinite and eternal void,
and saying LET there be light; and
there was light" And Paul says that
very God, who commanded the light
to shine out of darkness, hath
shined in our hearts to give the light
of the knowledge of God in the face
of Jesus Christ" believe In de-
pravity, in total depravity. That is
to say, believe the natural heart is
totally dark and cold and silent and
dead. That babe born into the world
is mere lump of flesh through
which the blood Is coursing: in which
the sinews and bones and muscles
are forming. 1t Is the possibility OF
a man. 1t must be built up into a
man. It must "attain unto the full
ness of the stature of manhood In
Christ Jesus" 1t requires God to
! handle the situation; to illuminate
that natural darkness; to lmpart
spiritual light and heat and life 1t
requires God to break the silence of
nature. After all, this depravity
arises from deprivation. 1t Is not
that there was any injection OF a
moral poison into the system by the
hand of the Almighty. The human
heart is not foul pool sending up a
stencil. Depravity is pre-eminently
a deprivation. 1t does not involve
guilt. 1t involves beginning. 1t is
that 1t may be made habitation of
God through the Spirit of God. The
God who commands the light to shine
out of darkness shines in those dark,
sad, cold, dead hearts of ours, and