Catoctin clarion. [volume] (Mechanicstown, Md.) 1871-1940, 1907-04-04
Te RUZ1IF |
.enSe-s1HS HSe>sec-o,.sS%N\
"A SERMON x1sG&&
pY ThE REV. NE1hN
'IM%kftNDEeS0NWai7
Subject: Contemplation.
Subject: Contemplation.

Brooklyn, N. Y.-Preaching at the
Irving Square Presbyterian Church
on the theme, Contemplation" the
Rev. Ira Wemmell Henderson, pastor,
took as his text Ps. 46:10, "Be STILL"
He said:
This is call to quietude. 1t is an
invitation to meditation in the midst
of a busy world. 1t is a summons to
contemplation. 1t Is an appeal to
men to seek satisfaction and restful-
ness not in commotion but in thought
fulness, in mental, physical, spiritual
tranquility before God. And it is
needed
Noise abounds. Cacophany is con-
temporaneous. Racket is as notice
able as anything in the order of the
days. Hubbub, confusion, clamor,
these are the concomitants of our
modern. especially of our modern ur
ban, life. 1t would almost seem as
though din were demanded. City life
Is characterized by Its diversity of
sounds, by It's confusion. And that
which is feature of city life is, sad
ly, altogether too increasingly becom-
ing the rule in suburban life. The
countryside is receiving the evil influ
ence of the commotion of the city.
The noises of the city seem to pene-
trate with too much frequency and
insistency into the solitudes of ma
ture. And we cannot easily escape.
Our life is strife. Mans career Is
one of turmoil to a great extent. We
must in some measure live in the
midst OF the hustle, the hurry, the
rush. The incessant roar is of neces-
sity, in some measure, an attendant
circumstance of our manner of liv-
ing. 1t Is largely inevitable.
But noise is not all that is needed.
Neither is it always a sign Of eff
cheney. A certain amount of din may
be inexpugnable. But it is no guar
antee of effectiveness. In fact the op-
posite of this is the truth. Noiseless-
ness is both desirable and Indicative.
The stars rush through the heavens
in their age long courses silently, ma
jestically, tremendously. Their speed
is appalling. their energy is beyond
human comprehension. And withal
the movement of the spheres IS as
noiseless as silence itself.
That which is characteristic of the
motion of the celestial globes is the
aim of the endeavors of the mechan-
icians. The desire mechanically is to
attain noiselessness Wehave learned
that noise Is largely lost motion. And
so the energy of the mechanical en-
gineer is to reduce friction, to abolish
noise, to secure quietness in the work.
ing of machinery.
What Is true of the world Of me-
chanics is true Of the crowd The
people who make the most noise are
not the ones who do the most work.
generally. The man who fuses is
not the man who is accomplishing the
most. Disturbance, disorder, excite
ment are not indications of effectual-
ness. The man who is busiest is not
the man always who gives the casual
observer the impression that he is
eXpending energy. The man who
shouts the most is not always the
man who makes the most telling ar
gument. The advocate who rants
and tears passion to tatters and
brings CONSERVATION to the witness Is
not the lawyer who wins the case
always. The noisy mob is never the
most dangerous. All this noise is so
much lost motion. 1t is waste. SO
as in the realm of mechanics the ef-
fort is in the life of man to secure
quiet. That Is if the man be wise
We cannot escape labor. In the
wisdom and the providence of the AL
mighty we must work. But noise Is
only an incident of labor. 1t Is never
the thing itself. And while we recog-
nize that God summons us to a por-
% Lob LOT o1cn fail 70
realize that He calls us into the Silly
places, that He invites us to commun-
ion with Himself, that He invokes us
to contemplation.
There is a good deal of this COM
motion in the intellectual and in the
spiritual life Men are striving to Sc
cure knowledge of the things of the
intellectual life and of the religious
life by the exercise of excessive en-
ergy. They are trying to force their
way to the truth by sheer intellectual
and spiritual brute force-if / may
be permitted such an ineXact express
sion. Many men seem to desire to
blast their way into the depths Of di-
vine wisdom, with much tumult and
agitation to the mind and soul. We
do too much of our thinking with our
mouths and not enough with our
heads. We endeavor too much to
learn of the spiritual truths OF the
kingdom of God by discussing at
great length, and with more or less
book knowledge, upon the mighty
speculative matters of the theological
disciplines, seemingly forgetful OF the
fact that an understanding OF the
eternal principles and truths OF the
kingdom of God is not to be gained
by theoretical disputatiOn, but rather
by communion with the living God.
The most profit and the greatest
progress may be found both intellect
ually and spiritually in quiet. The
soul that waits in silence and expect
ancy, with an open mind and an open
heart, while the Father reveals Him
self is the soul that will indeed know
that He is God. "Be STILL" for this
is the way to intellectual and spirit
ual wisdom.
The great facts of human life are
most surely made known to us when
we simply let God speak to us. We
may force some knowledge. We may
enter into a measure of information
of the facts that inhere in the multi
tudinous life round about US by the
exercise of sheer energy, but the
finest, the deepest, the most abund-
ant truths of the kingdom of God, in
tellectual and spiritual, are those that
are mediated by the divinely appoint
ed process of contemplation, of intel
lectual and spiritual susceptibility.
The man who, in the midst of the
crowd, out in the silent Businesses OF
nature, in the quietude Of prayer, will
be still before Jehovah is the man to
whose soul the most enriching bless
ings come, whose intellectual appre-
citation of spiritual truths is most
,,roly cortified who enters into the