The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1906-11-14
THE PULPIT.
AN ELOQUENT SUNDAY SERMON BY
BISHOP JOHN J. TlGERT.
Subject: The God Of Grace.

held in the Cnurcn. ouu-
day morning the preacher was Bishop
John J. Tigert, of the Methodist Epls-
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 a vigorous and lively preacher OF
the old-tiine Methodist order. His
subject was 1.-The GOD of Grace" and
he took for his text the passage, II
Corinthians, i've: For God, who
commanded the light to shine out OF
darkness, hath shined in u 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 I should
think about it specifically we should
be inclined to believe that n COD
who built the universe is a greater
God than the One who saved the soul,
but therein would lie a radical mis-
take. Many a man of great wealth
and resources has found 1t easier to
build q palace than to frame the LIE
of a son, and many a man so situated
would give all he eve earned in Or
der that he might have a boy after
his own liking. The Car found it
easier to accumulate resources, In
GLIDING men and material, for the
war against Japan than he is finding
it to pacify the people Of Russia to-
day. The more We. think about it
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 fxed-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 ~phraseSas express reminls-
cence of the first chapter of Genesis:
God said, Let there be light: and
there was light" 1t is very easy for
us to imagine the humiliation of the
world. I can conceive the sun to
be blotted out; the moon and the
stars no longer to shine; the founda-
lions of the earth removed. But af-
ter I shall have imagined this / shal
find that there is a void, eternal, In
finite, that by no effort of thought
can 1 annihilate. 1t may be nothing,
and yet I cannot conceive it as If 1t
were nothing. If I think a little
more closely about it I am obliged to
conceive this void as absolutely dark.
That is to say, light is a 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 it 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 a
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 I have but
to cease talking. Once more: This
void cold, silent, dark, is also dead
Did you ever think about it? 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 come face
to face. What terror you have OF the
gave is born of 4 false imagination.
The horrors that creep over us n
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
the absence Of light; Cold is the alb
sence of heat; Death is the absence
of life.
Now, it was in these circumstances
this voiG, eternal, infinite, silent,
cold, dead, that the voice of the AL
mighty was heard, breaking the ST.
lence Of eternity, finging 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 ouc hearts to give the light
of the knowledge Of God in the face
of Jesus Christ" I believe in de-
pravity, in total %depravity. That is
to say, I believe the natural heart is
totally dark and cold and silent and
dead. That babe born into the world
is a mere lump of flesh through
which the blood is coursing: in which
the sinews and bones and muscles
are forming. It is the possibility OF
a man. 1t must be built up into a
man. 1t 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 impart
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 a foul pool sending up 4
stencil. Depravity is pre-eminently
a deprivation. 1t does not involve
guilt. 1t involves a beginning. 1t is
that it may be made a %habitation OF
God through the Spirit of God. The
God who commands the light to shine
ont Of dork0pcc chinpc in thoso dark