Arizona republican., 1908-12-14
REASONABLENESS OF
 PAUL'S DOCTRINE
Sunday Morning Sermon at the Metho- dist Church.

dist church yesterday was based on the text: "But the natural man re- ceiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him; neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.'
 Rev. A. l.. Hawley said in part: q hope to show by illustrations and anal ogies familiar to every one, that the doctrine here laid down by Paul is reasonable and in accord with we'll known facts and usages of life To show this may help some one; he, for example, who supposes religion and mystery to be co-extensive. The one great mystery is God-all others are but shadows thrown by that burning light.
 Mystery and ignorance are COCK tensive-things are mysterious because we do not understand these causes.
 When the true interpreter of God shall arise he will be able to show that what is distinctively known as the Christian religion is only more mys- terious because it is more sublime than any other part of the economy of life and nature. How much we see de-
  see; and in the common things of life use all possible medfams to assist our natural powers: yet it has strangely come to pass that men have asserted the ability of unaided natural powers to search the deep things of God.
 For instance. Here is a beautiful diamond whose wondrous lustre moves you to eXclaim: what a perfect gem, without a fault of any kind" The lapidary hands you a magnifying glass, and through it you see black spot In the center of the stone. The lapidary says the naked eye could not receive it, for it is only microscOpically dis cerned."
 You see two shining surfaces in the sky and remark there must be two to a telescope and through it you see that one shines only by reflected light and say: they both looked alike to my unaided vision" "Yes" is the re- ply, the difference is only telescopical- ly discerned."
 Here is a field in which some people think there is iron. One man. who be- lieVes that what he cannot find with naked eyes does not exist, goes over 1t and reports there is no iron there. The other, a man who has learned the linn itations of his condition, goes over 1t holding a little crystal box in which is a tiny. trembling needle, and says there is iron there. He digs for. and finds the iron and answers his interogaters by saving. "The naked senses, the un- digrnNar the iron ore-it is magnetically discerned."
 You say. How well and strong that boy is" and the surgeon who has just examined him says he will not live to see twenty five, for he has yalvular lesion of the heart But see how viz orous he is" you reply. The surgeon places his instrument over the boys heart and bids you listen, and answers your surprise by saying "valvular le- sion is only stethoscopically discerned.' Everywhere We confess our need of aid if we believed only what we can dis cern with our unassisted natural DOW CTS we would lose nearly all our knowl- edge: vet the man who cannot read his mothers letter without the aid of glas- ses sometimes insists on reading Gods lit ulllNtlof NiNl uAiN'''''N'S~N faculties Now the application of all these instances is: The things of God are not discerned by unaided natural powers-few things are. Except man be born again he cannot see the Kingdom of God" Is it not perfectly reasonable that a selfish, sinful man must get a new viewpoint, or aids to his spiritual vision to see the beauty and grandeur of the Christ-life? Be- cause we could not discern the things of God with our natural powers, is why the bible was written. God knows our blindness, so gave us this revelation of Himself: and because of our inabil- ity to comprehend, He sent His spirit to guide us into the truth" God only can reveal Himself-we cannot even read the thought of our own mother mind-so God must needs make Him self known if men ever were to know Him.