The Olneyville times. (Olneyville [Providence, R.I.]) 1887-1917, 1907-12-06

A
vary, and all that IL means 10 men;
but IL you have not the love OF God
| in your own heart; II you do not
| know that Calvary is your own saliva.
| tion. you do not know anything about IL
| experimentally. All that you know is
hearsay. You may 60 into the realm
OF other things than spiritual and You
may take another mans word for
much truth. AS We are humanity con-
| stituted. il is necessary that we
should take a great deal OF truth on
| the testimony of others. | do not
pretend 10 be an expert on electricity
| or economies. ! so 20 man who has
! experimental knowledge OF these
! things, in whom | can trust, and take
! his word for it, So IL is throughout
! all the realm Of nature. Blu. when
/ you come TO spiritual things, the only
| thing that is of any use 10 you is
/ first hand knowledge.
care not how much you may be
able To philosophize. You may do
that from the Scriptures. The
/ heather can build system of philos-
ophy on that Book. But il is far
more necessary 10 have life that is
/ founded on divine realities. ! care
not how much you may know about
! the Scriptures, about Christ from the
testimony of other people; the thing
that is important TO me is, is your
heart burning within you as YOU walk
by the way, while the Lord is speak
ing TO your soul?
O, my friends, let us not be de-
! ceived. Christ can sneak TO you to-
day just as powerfully, just as up
! liftingly and just as burningiy, as
ever He spoke TO the disciples. Christ
can speak 10 you, in words adapted to
your peculiar need. just as much as
when He spoke TO Moses in the burn
ing bush He will reveal Himself TO
us, just as truly as any patriarch ever
got vision of God / am weary OF
the way the church of Christ goes
back TO the Fathers. May We have
the Christian foresight and brains
and ability to turn our faces to God
and learn from Him. | am great
believer in giving all homage to those
who have gone before. The knowl-
edge of to-day is very largely founded
on what is left TO us by those who
have antedated us--it is the consun-
nation of an ever-increasiLg pro-
gress. But the only way that those
who lived before us grew in knowl-
.
10 God that He might lead them, give
them illumination and knowledge OF
the truth. And. if we are TO make
any progress at all in spiritual things,
we must be willing to have a divine
and wholesouled faith in Gods pur-
pose to lead us Alright, even as He led
the patriarchs. | do not mean to say
that we are perfect. that we have
no reason for contriteness OF heart
but we belittle ourselves. Some peo-
pie think that the power of God
stopped in the hearts OF men, with
Jesus and Paul. Some people have
more faith in Abraham and Moses
than they have in the men of their
own day. man OF our day and age
who bears upon his face the marks OF
divinity and of inspiration and OF
power, a man who is in all things
! just as good as Abraham, should re-
ceive just as much recognition from
his own and from the world as Abra-
ham gets. Why! on the basis OF
common knowledge, what was the
wisdom Of Abraham compared with
the wisdom Of to-day; the enlighten-
ment, the spiritual power OF the pa
triarchs compared with what we have
with Christ in our hearts? And yet,
we are more willing TO accept the
dicta of Moses or Abraham than OF
Beecher or Spurgeon.
/ understand Just what Jesus
meant when He said. "A prophet is
not without honor save in his own
| country" There He was, a man in
His own day and age outranking anv
man who ever lived, in spiritual
things; and yet they said, as not this
the carpenters Son from down yonder
in NAZARETH" "Why, out OF that
town no good can come; that man
knoweth nothing" We in our day
and age hail Jesus Christ and the
reyealment Of God in His truth and
beauty. And yet l know men TO-DAY
who are Just as much inspired OF God
az Abraham was ever inspired. who
are Just as much filled with the Spirit
OF God as was Abraham, and more so;
men who have a better and wider
knowledge of the truth of God; men
| whi live lives which are nobler. But
they are not trusted. Let us have
| some sort of confidence that God is
| able TO lead us to-day even as He led
our fathers and the patriarcns. You
may try to down that IL you will.
But, nv friends, unless the church OF
Jesus Christ begins TO give men a
God who is ruling in the world to-
day, God who is lifting men in the
world to-day, God who Ia Just as
powerful in your life and mine as in
any other mans, you will see that the
Presbyterian and the Baptist and the
Methodist and the Congregational
and all the other churches will be
swept out OF existence that men may
get for themselves IN some way, un-
der some other organization, the
truth Of God.
know there IS a good deal OF talk.
and a good deal OF trouble In the
hearts OF men, In the church to-day.
lest various organizations outside OF
the church should cripple us. But let
~ read in the movings OF the people
away from us the signs OF the times.
Let us read the handwriting in the
heavens. Let us see in the workings
! o., God to-day, God who is just
as powerful as He ever was in Pales-
tine.