The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1906-02-26
MEASURING GOD
BY YAROST|CKS
Rev. Frank Fay Eddy breaches a
Sermon on the Sub
ject.
AND DISCUSSES THE DEITY
SHOWS DIFFERENT WAYS GOD is
CONSIDERED.

CONSiDEhEOs
Rev Frank Fay Eddy preached on
Measuring God by Human Yard
sticks" at the Unitarian church yes
terday. The sermon began with
comparison of the results achieved by
Job, who did not find satisfaction for
his reason in the answer he received
from Jehovah, but who did find salts
faction in a sense of nearer cOmmu-
Mon with God. Thus the only result
of his seeking was a deepening of his
spiritual life, gain in the faculty OF
worship. This Mr.. Eddy said was the
usual result of seeking the new truth
in religion. Nationality was ever fed
with half a loaf. but in proportion to
earnestness is gained a new sense of
Intimate communion with divine
things The futility of human yard
sticks in measuring God was expressed
in the following words:
do not aim to be exhaustive in cata
loguing the different kinds of yardsticks
we finite humans have invented to meas
ure the infinite God. A number OF reli-
gious yardsticks, however. may be men
toned by way Of illustration. One is ira
dition. written and unwritteD. This would
include legends and folklore, traditions
that live in the language of q people. IT
would include all Bibles. the written ira
ditiOns of supernatural events. And IT
would include practically all religious in
situations in so far as they by ceremony
and ritual rehearsed and fostered tradi-
tons All this tradition, whether pre-
served in legend. in sacred book OF state
ly ceremony is after all but one of these
yardsticks.
Tradition as Yardstick.
..-r-t-s--- c,t..;z.;o,. tr.d;+;or, &c On ex
ample so long as we devCutly believe we
have an actual history of how God made
the world, of his dealings with the first
pair in the garden of Eden, of his rela-
tons to the patriarchs and prophets and
of the later sending of Jesus Christ as a
savior, as long, l say, as we can devoutly
believe all this, we seem to have very
good yardstick with which to measure
1 God and his activities But Christian ira
dition does not satisfy the modern ques-
toner. This is a yardstick that has been
I dis redited by many as inadequate ana
/ incorrect.
Another expedient is TO measure God
/ by symbols or Dy substituting something
/ known and understandable for the IN
/ finite ana incOmprehensible- Thus most
pOIytheiSmS have a nOtheiStIc thought
behind them. The various deities repre-
/ sent phases of the one all-inclusive one
I 7 believe the development of the doctrine
/ of the divinity of Christ is due to this
very tendency. as is the worship Of the
/ Virgin Mary and the Saints in the Ro-
I man and Greek CaThOIC c6uTcneS-
/ The creedS are still other yardSticks.
/ being explanations of the designs of God
! toward men. They are whitfield oct ot
/ the wool of tradition. but usually are
4 flourished chiefly by the generation that
/ produces them
Definition Another Yardstick-
We may add 70 the above. the yardstick
| of definition We attempt TO measure
/ God BY telling what we think he Is or is
not For instance, we glbly say he is the
/ one supreme being, self-existent and eter-
nal; or that he omniScient, Omnipotent
and omuipresent, and behold we do not
4 I'm the slightest degree know what we
! mean by our definition If we accept the
| pantheists assertion that God is simply
/ the life or eternal energy peTT1eatirS al
/ things we can partly understand but are
not satisfied. We are unwilling TO admii
/ that Herbert Spencer exhausted the sub
iect when he termed God the unknowable,
vet we can add little more than to en-
dorse the descriptive phrase of MattheT
! Arnold who defined the infinite one be
hind the veil as The power, not our
/ SO after examining and trying all the
various yardSticks. We are left like Jot
without an answer. except the challenge
of an overwhelming problem we canno'
measure God or fathom his providence
| The modern question: 1iscerns that the
old yardsticks are delusive, that all his
in the universe that produces q certain
/ order physical and spiritual. and that as
a human being partially free he can work
/ with or against this order
Element of Mystic.
But this is not all. We cast aside the
various yardsticks as more or less use
/ less. There abides always the mystical
element in religion, that intimate personal
/ communion that cannot be described
/ much less weighed and measured / can
not explain it, but perhaps can partially
/ illustrate my meaning comparing our hu-
49, a I've
| with that of God and men. We can trace
the evolution of the sense of DaTent-hood
/ II the race, We can show the resulting
| moral relations and can gather facts and
/ fip11Tes to prove our pet theories of child
/ government and education, In all this
we are using Ou- yardStiCks or science
and facts. The subject rs within reach and
is measurable and We arrive at some
tangible facts and compiling OF figures
there Is a something which we all fee
when we gather our little ones in OuI
/ arms. a mystical sense NJ joy and com
/ munion of soul with soul that is after al
the real tie that binds parent and child
together The deep sense of love, pro-
tecting on the side Of the parent and con-
/ fiding ON the part of the child is the
sweet and holy bond that abides and
unites- And this subtle mystical thing
cannot be measured with any of our yard
sticks. Some such essential relationship
I there is between God and man. OuT
human souls pant after the divine SOU
( as the hart for the water brooks. There
Is TINS inutSlIuCliDlt DigSliCloH III HA-
menity that makes man ever God
! seeker In his seeking he never satisfies
his reason but does find communion
with divine things which feeds his hun
/ gering soul
Dogmss Passing Away.
In conclusion Mr.. Eddy said he firm
! " believed that the old yardsticks OF
] religion would be less and less used
/ in the future. In place of their dog
matte scale of values we learn the Sc
/ rene satisfaction of philosophy. This
/ philosophy he thought would resemble
/ in many respects the nobler type OF
stoicism. But with It win be mixed
| the mystical element. in which. after
all, abides the significance and power
/ Of religion.
/ The faith Of the future, I firmly be-
/ lieve. will oe philosophic and will dis
credit the old yardsticks," he said
But 7 as firmly believe it will unite
with it broad philosophy something
/ of the mysticism of Jesus, knowing the
/ kingdom of heaven not as a place to
b gained but as an experience in low
/ and serving -