The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser. (Upper Marlborough, Md.) 1882-1925, 1908-05-15
THE PULPIT.
AN ELOQUENT SUNDAY SERMON BY
THE REV. JOHN c. AGER.
Theme: Casting Out Evil Spirits.

/
! preached Sunday morning on Cast
! ing Out Evil Spirits" sermon sug-
gested by the Emmanuel Movement.
J The text was from Matthew 1877:
i And He called unto Him His twelve
| disciples and gave them authority
| over unclean spirits to cast them out. "
| Mr.. Ager said:
The Lords twelve disciples were
exceptional disciples only in the sense
| that they were types of representa-
| tives of discipleship. That Is, the
! outward duties and powers and privi-
! leges which the Lord conferred upon
| these twelve men were divine types or
symbols Of the spiritual duties and
powers and privileges that are con-
| ferred upon all true disciples of the
| Lord. So this power or authority
| over unclean spirits to cast them out
every true disciple of the Lord pos
sesses in the measure of his disciple
| ship, that is, in the measure in which
! he has come into the true order or
his life.
This great truth lies at the founda-
| ton of certain lines of thought that
are attracting much attention at the
i present time. These concern them
| selves mainly with mans deliverance
! from physical evils, or diseases, with
| only an obscure recognition Of the
| fact that physical evils are mainly
| the effects or results of spiritual evils.
But the next step, that the spiritual
evils that beset us are caused by our
afiliation with evil spirits, as these
words plainly imply, is regarded as
an absurd superstition.
For modern Christian thought
gives the least possible space and con-
sideration to the supernatural. 1t has
never found any place in its thinking
for an actual spiritual world, which is
the endless abode Of all who have
passed out Of this world through the
gate of death. 1t has even less re-
spect for the idea that those who have
passed out of this world, wheverer
they may be, have any vital connec-
ton with our experiences here.
This attitude of mind is most plain
ly out of harmony with the apparent
teaching of the Gospels, which every
where take for granted the existence
Of spiritual beings, good and evil,
who hold most intimate relations to
men on the earth. So this aspect of
the Gospel teaching is something that
needs to be explained away, and the
attempts to do this are numerous and
various.
To the new church, on the other
hand, this is vital truth, both as a
fundamental philosophical principle
and as a practical doctrine.
A century and half ago Sweden
borg set forth with great fullness a
truth that recent philosophy has been
making a good deal of, the truth of
the solidarity of the human race.
Protestant theology rested on pure in
dividualism. But the truth that hu-
mainly as a whole is a one, vital
and organic entity, has now come to
be clearly seen and it's significance
recognized. Most thinkers, however,
confine this truth to the present popu-
lation of this earth, while Sweden
borg makes it include all humanity,
the population of all worlds, includ-
ing the spiritual world. He teaches,
furthermore, that this universal Or
ganism is in the human form that is,
is human organism, as all its parts
and constituents are. In this organ
| ism each individual soul has its place
and function, like the cells and fibres
of the human body, each one vitality
| related to every other. But while 1t
Is true that no individual soul or
spirit could exist if cut off from every
other soul or spirit, yet every human
soul is separate individual, with
complete capability Of determining
the character of its own life for itself.
Another doctrine to which Sweden
borg gives unique Importance is the
doctrine Of influx.
Every individual soul in it's true
order is finite image of the infinite,
and is therefore made up of number
less functions and powers and parts,
from highest to lowest. Into this
complex organism the divine life flows
in an unceasfng stream. Modern
psychology teaches that our con-
seriousness covers only part of this
mental organism, the part that lies
next to our bodily sensations, and
therefore the lowest or outermost
part. And as consciousness is an es-
sential element of all choices and de-
Examinations, and it is by choices and
determinations that character is de-
termined, SO it is only this lower or
outer conscious region Of our life into
enter.
All these regions of the human
soul, from highest to lowest, are
merely organic vessels or receptive
ties, and are living only by virtue Of
the unceasing inflow of life into them.
Into the highest or Utmost region of
the soul the divine life flows directly
from the Lord This region lies
above or within all human and an
gelic consciousness, and forms the
| eternal connection between the in
finite and eternal life and the finite
life, ensuring to the human soul its
| endless existence. Into all the re-
gions of the soul below this highest
! or Utmost two streams of life flow,
| one inwardly from the Lord, one out
wardly from other finite souls. And
| 1t Is this latter interf1ow OF life from
soul to soul that binds all finite souls
| into a single organism, the universal
| man.
Thus the life of man is in no sense
and in no respect self-deriyed. The
human soul is nothing but an organic
! vessel; and it Is made alive solely by
what flows into it. And this inflow
ing life enters the soul in two ways,
one directly from the Lord, the other
mediately through other souls. And
this is true Of all the activities of
life, and especially of it's two chief
activities, thought and feeling.
The capacities OF the human soul
may be grouped under two heads,
namely, intellectual and emotional.
Life flowing into the intellectual ca
pacities produces thought; flowing
| into the emotional capacities it pro-
duces feeling and willing, and all
thought and feeling and willing in
man are SO produced. Thus our
thought and feeling are not, as they
appear to be, self-derived. They are
the product of these two streams of
life that flow into us increasingly, one
directly from the Lord, the other me-
| liately through other souls. We
| know how thought and feeling are
communicated to us by means of what
enters the mind through the senses
| that is, by means Of language and
| visible and tangible objects, and we
| acknowledge that such thought and
feeling are communicated, and not
self-derived. So there is no move
ment of the human mind that is not
product of an inflow of thought or
feeling from other minds. This i'm
partation and reception of thought