Orange County observer. [volume] (Hillsborough, N.C.) 1880-1918, 1906-11-15
Subject: Personal Experience.

irving Square Presbyterian Church
'on the theme, Personal Experience"
a Rev. I. w. Henderson, pastor,
tool AZ his text Jno. 4:42: Now we
Oeiieve. not because Of thy saying;
Tor We have heard Him ourselves, and
Know that this is indeed the Christ,
q Saviour of the world" He said:
The final proof of the value of the
Gospel to the individual lies in per-
n experience. The-one test which,,
above all others, warrants a man to
hall Jesus or to deny Him, is that Of
real knowledge directly acquired. No
man is At to f1aunt 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 a 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 prfn-
ciples that we maintain. The church
universal represents, ia its funda-
SAAI0 0OS AAOos VIC Op1A1OuS III my1"
lad men who have, through the pro-
cess Of individual experience, reached
q 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
logiance 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 a per-
sonal experience the truths which
Christianity asserts to be fundamen-
tai. I am 8 Presbyterian and you
are q 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 Of
Christians is but the congregation Of
some OF the followers of Christ
around q 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 IL personal experience. Nc
man is Z good Christian who has not
had contact with Christ. No man
a appreciate the genius OF Presby-
terianism save he who has had the
experience common to all who hold
that creed. It is a wise thing fol-
e man who honestly differs from his
fellow men: 1t is q sensible thing FOL
q 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, hit
dogma, his tenets, as you willard
determine whether or no they mirror
correctly his personal experiences
But merely because a man finds him
self at variance with the world o.
men about him Is no sign that he hal
misinterpreted his experiences or II
wrong. The prophets were perse
cuted not because they we're wrong
but because they framed from thu
facts at hand conclusions that tn
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 it round
Luther would never have nailed tn
n~inety-fve theses to the door OF tn
church at Wittenherg had he no
I been true to the truth as he saw 1t
And these men were, as are man,
men to-day. dead wrong in their be
lfefs as measured by the standards o
the past.
The results attained in all depart
!; ments of knowledge are the outcom
j. OF the personal experience of indi
, viduals. A scientific law may be tn
declaration by a single man Of trutl
proven out of the records Of his per
: sonal experience, unaided and un
| verified by the experience Of an
E other man-not infrequently at frs
It Is. But this much is sure: tina
any law that has the assent Of an
society is based entirely upon tn
experiences Of Individual men VIII
have perceived and been influence
by similar phenomena in their ser
arate lives.
|, All the knowledge that we hav
= and all the laws that we accept a
second hand are. at bottom, founde
$ upon the research and personal invei
tigation and experience OF some sill
5 gle man or some set of men. To sa
that we accept many truths at secon
hand in no way Injuries u argumen
All that we receive urOn the aSse1
lions OF other men is so taken b.
cause we have faith in the validit
of their conclusions as being the d
rect result OF their personal exper
ences. Repetition is never so II
8 spring or convincing as is the dictul
. of the first source. And the onl
= value that reinstatement has is game
from the personal knowledge out
: which 1t springs. BY virtue OF tt
~ multiplicity OF the demands on OF
time we have to rest much OF r
ceived truth upon the decisions
other,men: but, in the providence
God, we may prove accented truth
we will In the investigation and tt
d~elineation of our " personal e
p~eriences.
No man, however, is entitled to a
arm or to deny the value OF a d
clared truth unless he has either m
to the full the requirements Of eas
: condition or accepted the opinion
some original Investigator who b
IS fulfilled all incidental demands. Ho
a Ril1v IT would he for a man. uututOr(