Virginia citizen. (Irvington, Va.) 1891-1921, 1907-10-04
Calmage
sermon
By Rev.
Frank De Witt Talmaee. ID. ID.

are crises In every life which, like
revelation of the unseen, teach lessons
that should never be ignored or forgot
ten. The text is ii Corinthians XII, 3,
81 knew such man whether in the
body or out of the body cannot tell;
God knowetm."
\ friend of mine was some time ago
reading that fascinating book of Fran
ces Hodgson Burnett entitled 1.-THE
One 1 Knew Best of AL" and for a
long time he did not know that the
heroine of The book and the author
were one. He followed the little girl
step by step as she grew up until this
fact suddenly dawned upon him.
why" he said, Mrs. Burnett Is
writing the history Of her own life"
The same fact Is true about the auto
biographies of Charles Dickens and
Thomas Hughes and Lord Byron and
Thomas De Quincy. When you read
David Copper6eld" you are reading,
with an added touch Of romance, the
autobiography of Charles Dickens.
When you read tom Browns School
Days" you are reading Thomas
Hughes early life at Rugby. When
you read "Childe Harold" you are
reading malformed and distorted his
tory of the life of Lord Byron When
you read the Confessions Of an Opium
Eater" YOU are reading of the cham
Der OF horrors in which De Quincy
lived for many years. These authors
may not have said in plain words that
the characters of their autobiographies
were reincarnations of themselves, but
they were, just as the prominent men
and women OF social and political Eng
land OF the Victorian era moved
through the pages of Disraeli's novels
masQuerading under fictitious names.
Paul was writing the chapter of my
text In the third person. There had
been many criticisms made against the
great apostle because, though he had
never seen Jesus, he assumed authori-
~ as a teacher of Christianity.
= IL you examine PauPs writings care
fully you will find that he uses the
personal pronoun ar far more than
any other inspired writer in either the
New Testament or the Old. His enc
mics claimed that he was q blatant,
conceited boaster. So I'm order to dis
arm any unjust criticisms he describes
one of the most important experiences
of his life, referring to it in the third
person. He said, 81 knew a man In
Christ above fourteen years ago
(whether in the body 1 cannot tell or
whether out OF the body 1 cannot tell;
God knoweth); such an one caught up
TO the third heaven" Then Paul goes
on and tells how this man, this third
person, who was himself, had the most
marvellous manifestation of Gods DOW
or and love. Ali the time the Corin-
thians are reading this account me-
thinks we can hear them say: do you
suppose Paul is abiding to himself?
Do you suppose Paul himself has been
in paradisew Indeed / have often
Thought that by putting this divine
manifestation In the third person Paul
made 1t even more powerful than II he
had directly spoken OF it as having oc-
CURED to himself
Now, it has always been debatable
question among Bible students what
this glorious revelation which came TO
Paul really was. 1t was evidently one
OF the important moments IL not the
supreme moment of Paul's life. Why.
so overwhelming was 1t that Paul
could not tell whether he was in the
flesh or out of the flesh when his spir-
ftual exaltatlon occurred. He could
not tell whether his spirit was confined
IN Its tenement OF clay or whether his
soul for little while left his body and
took its flight into the unknown world,
as our souls will depart when the
breath stops and the pulse ceases to
beat and the physician pronounces us
dead. Though many commentators
may try to tell us what this Pauline
revelation was, am not going to try
TO explain 1t. / do not think Paul
wanted us to know what it was.
The Presence of God.
Paul does not say what he saw or
heard in this wonderful vision. AS a
man admitted to an audience with a
King or emperor is expected TO main
tain decorous silence about the inter-
view. so Paul says 1t was not lawful
to utter the words he heard in the
third heaven. We can understand that
There are some OF our own experi-
ences about which we shrink from
speaking. They are too solemn, too sa-
cred, for utterance. But what an effect
they have had on our lives! 1t would
be useless for an infidel to tell some OF
us that there is no God; we know
there Is. There have been times when
he has come so close to us that we
have been conscious OF his presence;
we have felt him near to us. 1t is
about these times, more common than
we sometimes think, that I would
speak to you this morning.
Your first great moment of spirftual
ecstasy may have come to you as a
Aaction from an almost miraculous
escape from death IN early youth. I
do not know what that escape was.
Perhaps you were skating upon the
Ice on the river and suddenly You
came too near an air hole and I'm you
went. You can feel the horror of that
cold plunge now. You felt the swift
current gripping you as though It was
a fiend with million hands and all
those hands were trying to drag you
ander the Ice. You remember well
holding out your arms to save your
self and the ice breaking as you tried
to lift yourself upon its smooth sur
face. Or perhaps the Miraculous es-
cape from death came when you as a
little boy were down by the old saw
mill fishing. Your mother had forbid
den you to go into a boat
For some time you had been fishing