Catoctin clarion. [volume] (Mechanicstown, Md.) 1871-1940, 1908-09-10
THE PULPIT.
AN ELOQUENT SUNDAY SERMON BY
PROFESSOR HUGH BLACK.
Theme: Shame Of Detection.

stitute was delivered by Professor
Hugh Black, M. A., of Union Theo"
logical Seminary. The service was
held in the chapel Of the institute,
and was presided over by Professor
Black. Mr.. Black, as the Scripture
lesson, read the fiftieth Psalm. Pro-
lessor Black spoke on "The Shame OF
Detection" selecting as his theme
jeremiah 1925: "As the thief Is
ashamed when he is found out, so Is
the house of Israel ashamed In
the course Of his sermon, Professor
Black said: y
The prophet Is accusing the nation
Of apostasy, of unfaithfulness to her
true spouse. To awaken repentance
he points to the base ingratitude
which could forget the early days of
their history when God espoused
them, in love and favor brought them
up out of the land of Egypt, led them
through the wilderness and brour't
them into a plentiful country. lac
points next to the willful and wicked
pbstinacy which made them forsake
God and choose the lower worship
and the lower moral practice Of
heathenism. And here he points to
the folly of It. Besides its ingrati-
tude and Its wickedness, It Is also un-
speakably foolish, an insensate stu
pidity at which the heavens might
yell be astonished, not only that a
nation should change its God who had
taken them by the arms and in end
less lave and pity taught them to
walk, but that 1t should change Him
for 9uch other gods-that Israel
should have given Jehovah such pitt
full, rivals. This is the folly at whici.
the heavens may be amazed, that MY
people shave forsaken Me. the foun-
tain Of living waters, and hewed them
out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can
hold no water" To monotheist who
had grasped the principle of the One
God, and who had experience of spir-
itual communion, polytheism with its
lords many and gods many must have
seemed a system almost beneath con-
tempt. Intellectually, 1t introduced
confusion instead of order; morally,
II meant that life would be lived on
much lower plane; religiously, 1t
was the degradation OF the pure spir-
, ltual worship to which the prophets
pointed the people.
This is why the prophets always
speak of the shame of idClatry. It
seemed incredible that men in their
senses should prefer what appeared
to them to be brutism superstition.
Both Intellectually and morally twas
q disgrace. Especially the prophets
of the exile and after 1t, who had
come into close connection with
heather idolatry, had this sense of
superiority, and withered the stupid
ity of polytheism with their most
mordant irony. 1t was a shame. at
which they blushed, to think of Jews
descending to such puerile worship and
practices. 1t was folly for the heather
who knew no better; it was shame
for Israelites to grove. before a stock
= or stone. The prophets confidently
predicted that experience would prove
the folly and vanity Of idolatry.
"They shall be turned back" says the
| prophet of the exile; "they shall be
greatly ashamed that trust in craven
images. that say to the molten i'm
ages, Ye are our gods" The proph-
cts with their spiritual insight al
ready saw the disgrace and vanity of
such worship; but the people who
were seduced by the lower and more
, sensuous rites of idolatry would have
to learn their folly by bitter expert
ence. When the pinch came, when
! the needs of life drove them like
sheep, when in the face Of the great
necessities, they would find out how
futile had been their faith. "As tho
thief Is ashamed when he Is found
out, so the house of Israel will be
ashamed; they, their kings, their
princes, and their priests and their
prophets, saying to stock, Thou
art my father; and to stone, Thou
,, hast brought me forth; but in the
time of their trouble they will say,
Arise and save us. But where are
thy gods that thou hast made thee
Let them arise If they can save thee
in the time Of thy trouble"
All, in the time of trouble they
would find out their folly; and the
vanity of their trust in idols would be
found out! They should feel already
the disgrace; but, though they are IN.
! sensible to that now, they will yet be
convicted and the hot blush of shame
will cover them with confusion OF
face. They are not ashamed of the
, ingratitude and wickedness and folly
of their conduct, but their sin will
I find them out, and then surely the
conviction of their foloishness and
guilt will abash them, and then al
last they will know the sense oil
degradation and self-contempt which
should be theirs now. LAS the thiel
is ashamed when he is found out, sc
the house of Israel will be ashamed.
! The same dullness of mind and
darkening Of heart and obtlseness oil
conscience can be paralleled among
ourselves. Is it not true that In
social ethics the objectionable sin Is
to be found out? In many cases Il
is not the thing itself that men feal
and condemn and are ashamed of
but anything like exposure of 1t
There is keen enough sensibility tt
| disgrace, but not for the thing itsel
which Is the disgrace. Men will d.
things with an easy conscience fol
which they would be ashemed-i
they were found out. Our mora
standard of judgment is so much jus
that of the community. Our con
science Is largely a social conscienc,
|
and vital, but imposed upon us b.
society, code of manners and rule
which We must not transgress. 1t Il
no eSaggeration to say that we liv,
more by this code, by the customs ant
restraints of society, than by the hol.
! law of God as light to our feet and
lamp to our path. Much Of this i
good, and represents the accumulated
gains of the past, a certain STANDARD
of living below which men are not ex
pected to fall, moral and even
Christian atmosphere which affects j
all and which is responsible for nue.
OF the good that Is in us. One onl
needs to live for little in a paga
community to realize how much W
owe to the general Christian standar
of our country. such rs 1t is. Az tn
,ame time we must see how insecur,
his is as a guard and guide to life.
III, l. y