The Birmingham age-herald., 1906-10-22
THEOLOGY OF THE
 FLYING MACHINES This Was Subject of Dr. Stagg'S Sermon Yesterday OUR RELATION TO GOD Religion Is Not All Thing of Feeling. Mind, Soul and Strength Enter Into Reverencing God as
 
OUR RELATION TO GOD

at the First Presbyterian church yester- day morning on "Teleology of Flying Machines" taking his text from the eighteenth and nineteenth chapters of the thirteenth chapter of Proverbs: There be three things which are too wonderful for me- yea four which I know not: the way of an eagle"
 Dr. Stagg spoke in part as follows:
 Who wrote the Proverbs I know not. If I am to judge by the books that men have written about them, but that they are the product of wisdom aided by in- spiration have no doubt. In the text. the writer admits of four things of which he was ignorant. and I suspect, were he living now, that he might acknowledge ignorance of many more. We are con- cerned today, with only one object of the inspired writer's ignorance-that of "the way of an eagle in the air"
 Mans Ignorance.
 Ignorance is the incentive to effort. To know what things are and how they came to be as they are is mans greatest ann biton-every other effort in life is insig- nifeant compared with this. So dense is mans ignorance that 1t has been turned into a cloak of piety and to be ignorant has meant to be pous. Against this ever increasing wish on the part of man, to know, the church. herself has said, keep your mouth shut and don't ask ques- tions; secret things belong unto the Lord. And they do, and God will always have His secrets. But earnest men say, Why! rl fhiDp Of Inc for hpt tPTinR life was once secret, and we have to ad- init 1t. Does this proverb mean then that it would hurt anybodys faith to find out the way of an eagle in the air? Well, 1t has cost some men their life to find out a much simpler thing. The movements of the planets, the circulation of the blood, the possibilities of chloroform, and old Ben Franklin came nigh being put in an insane asylum for merely hintlng at electricity, when he took a man in an alley and showed that he had some in a bottle that he caught by the help of a kite. The church brought on the dark ages because she thought it was easier to manage people who did not read and talk than 1t was people who asked questions.
 It is all nonsense, and yet nonsense the church would follow again today if 1t were possible. l would not speak harshly against this form of piety-they who ob- served it though they were doing God service, they believed ignorance would keep people good and that ignorance was ordained of God. They loose sight of the fact that knowledge of God makes God a more mysterious being. Knowledge of how things are made transfers reference from the things to the maker of things. What we know of the heavenly bodies and the laws that control them increases our wonder of their creator
 Every attempt, therefore, to find out the ways of God is to be commended.
 Simple Interpretation.
 To take the simple illustration of the text. It may be that some man was walking along with boy and was try ing to teach him about God, when an eagle passed high in the heavens, and he said there Is Gods work that cannot be understood, how that eagle turns his eye to the sun and ascends until he is a mere speck against the sky. And then deseends and takes the wild hare or the
 
 the mountains"
 Yet there are some people in the world who would put you to death rather than see this text overthrown by some one navi- gating the air after having learned the way of the. eagle. This may be said, In passing: that after noting every move ment and examining every feather and studying every bone, as carefully as any surgeon ever studied the human frame; if you wont to go to New York or Europe you had better take the steam cars and the steamshlp-not only for your own comfort but If you hope to arrive in either place, rather than a flying ma chine.
 But what I am insisting on Is this: Sup pose you knew the way of the eagle and could do away with every known mode of locomotion and henceforth travel in the air you would only increase the rever- enee for the wisdom of the creator in pre- arranging for such an end. All of which means that true knowledge of Gods ways strengthens the faith of Gods creatures in their maker.
 To stand by what you believe to be the truth is manly, but to limit the truth to your understanding and time is unwise and will end in persecution of those who see differently. The American school boy knows facts that Socrates, the Greek philosopher. would have discreded. To say that we do not know more of the works of God than the savage or the ancients Is to deny progress. God can .f.r tr,a al haa to m most of His doing and He reveals Himself by His works as well as by grace.
 Religion is not all thing of feeling Mind, soul and strength enter into rever- encing God as wei las shouting. The wonders of this age contrasted with other ages Is the increased knowledge that men have of the works of God, and yet there is more room in the world for faith today than ever before. Ignorance is not faith.
 What. then, Is the teaching of the textl It is that whoever will look may see above material forces evidence of wis dom that has planned and pre-arranged everything to it's place and function. This in itself should convince anyone that there is no intelligence which must both com prehend the system and possess the power to make the whole subservient to his will. Anyone who will open his eyes may:
 Find tongues in trees books in the running brooks, sermons in stones and good in everything"
 Relation to God.
 Every rational creature in the world is related to God and when he finds the hiphegf nf hpfuO it triIt in