Mexico Missouri message., 1908-12-31

God. Suppose Il
- could be proven
that God, who created the heaven and
earth. had spoken just one sentence7
Il would be a diamond sentence. We
would treasure Il above eli the wealth
OF earth, The Word Of God. Yet that
Is what we have. For the word OF
Cod The word written, the word
spoken, the word lived. The word
written as we have 1t in the Bible; the
word spoken as we speak It and trans
NIT to others; the word lived as we
translate II into character and deed.
Tho Living Word.
"Ail Scripture 10 God.breathed." As
God made man and breathed into him
the breath Of life and he became liy-
ing soul. so he inspired men to write
the Scriptures. breathing into them
the breath OF his life. and so their
words became his living words. So
we ought to treat Gods Book as q
living thing. We ought TO have the
reverence for It that we have for life.
We have more reverence even for
vegetable life than for death. We GER
tainly respect living. growing flower
more than an artificial thing. Where
there Is life Il Is elevated to a higher
realm, and life makes all the differ
ence between respect and disrespect,
reverence and Dissertation.
When this word gets into our hearts
and lives II becomes active; IT shows
life. No Christian Is respected who
does not show life. He may have the
constituent parts of the Christian In
different receptacles under the glass
case, and people can look at him with
n. curious. grewsome sort OF interest
II he is dead, but unless they see him
move, and move along the line Of
Gods life. they have little respect for
him or his claims.
Some of US have smiled at the fool
fish fellow who stood here on a Chi
cago street. and. looking through the
the window OF the taxidermist's shop.
saw an owl in the midst OF the ami
mails and birds he was stuning for ex-
hibition, and began to criticise the
owl. The feathers were not arranged
right, the mead was not on right, the
body was not poised right. and when
he got through his criticising the owl
turned around and winked at him.
The man walked OF, feeling that he
was a fool, and so he was. The mo-
ment that owl turned around and
winked he was beyond that fellows
criticism, and everything he said up
| 70 that moment was true. II we have
q stuffed sort of Christianity In the
window for exhibition the world will
pass by and criticise us and every
thing about ps. but when we show
life. the life OF God. we get beyond
the scalpels Of all the critics in the
world.
Tho Surgical Word.
And yet there is a sense in which
"the word Of God" IL surgical. sharp
er than two-edged sword. piercing tc
the dividing aaunder Of soul and spir
II and Joints and marrow" The word
OF God Is not only living, but Il Il
sharp-sharpeF than two-edged
sword. The business Of the sword Il
70 pierce, and It can pierce between
soul and spirit, the joints and marrow
cut right into the innermost being
The soul here represents the natura
man; the spirit represents the spiritna
man. 1T IL sown q natural body; Il Il
raised spiritual body" "The natura
man diseeFneth not the things Of th'
Spirit" exactly the same words. "th'
soul Of man dlscerneth not the thing
OF the Spirit" and It takes the wor'
OF God 10 discriminate between tn
natural and spiritual. II IL the wor'
Of Cod that tells you whether yol
are living simply q natural life or
spiritual life.