The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1908-09-23
THE PULPIT.
A BRILLIANT SUNDAY SERMON BY
THE REV. w. H. MINISTER
Theme: Spiritual Awakening.

McMaster, pastor of the Embury Me-
mortal M. E. Church, Lewis svenue
and Decatur street, preached Sunday
morning on THE Spiritual Awaken
Ing of Man." The text was from
Luke 1892: when they were fully
awake they saw His glory" Mr.. Nc
Master said:
The common yet strange phenom-
ena of sleep and waking provide US
| with a significant smile. The state
! when the body is dormant, the senses
are stopped and reason Is absent, be-
comes the symbol Of inaction, OBJ
livion, Inconsistencies, death. The
state of waking comes to represent In
our language, action, awareness, re-
/ s~ponsiveness, life. Sin Is said to put
the soul to sleep in moral night.
| Christ is represented as the awakener
of those asleep, the litter Of those
dead into newness of life. A sin is
represented by sleep and death, life is
represented by light and glory. The
basal suggestion in the word glory"
Is that of dazzling brightness, of efful-
gence, and it will gather a deepening
! content as the wealth and wonder OF
the spiritual life are unveiled.
Religion has as it's subject matter
not the morbid, erratic and abnormal
things of dreams and nightmares, but
the normal visions Of the awakened
soul. When the soul is most normal
and when it has most nearly attained
the ideal state, then it's sight is ~clearest
and it's vision greatest. When Peter,
James and John, on the Mount of
TRANSPORTATION, were heavy with
sleep, they saw nothing and heard
nothing, but when they were fully
awake they saw Christ's glory and the
two men who stood with Him. The
non-religious mind is asleep and dead
to the all-enveloping realities Of the
unseen spiritual world. Having ears,
they hear not the upper harmonies,
having eyes they see not the tran
scendent glories. The awakened
mind, on the other hand, has come to
spiritual consciousness. He responds
to spiritual stimuli; he feels the lure
of moral beauty, his faculties have
found a sphere Of blessed action and
his whole personality is awakened to
q spiritual sensitiveness which catches
ravishing glimpses Of the divine
glory. =.
The world of spiritual reality is all
around us. 1t inspheres us as an at
mosphere. 1t Is underneath and i'm
minent in all material forms. I'm
God we live and move and have our
being" Our real selves are unseen
and spiritual, the body being the
earthen vessel Of the unseen gift of
life. Our words are visible or audible
signs of spiritual ideas. Our draw
ings of lines and angles and circles
but visible representations of purely
ideal relations, our books and IL
braries but means of concreting and
preserving that spiritual thing we
call literature. We are asleep and
dead to all we are ignorant Of. II
we are aware of the treasures of lit
erature we are awake and alive to
them. If we are conscious of the I'M
seen and spiritual things we are
awake and alive to them. Because
we do not see these spiritual glories
does not argue their non-existence,
but only our dead condition. Those
who see them are the prophets, the
seers, the men of spiritual authority
and leadership. Christ was just as
divine and just as glorious down in
the valley healing the demoniac child
and restoring him into his fathers
arms as He was on Mount Hermon
when the disciples saw His garments
as white as snow. The only differ
ence was that on the mountain they
were fully awake and saw His glory"
The waking Of the soul is a process.
The true object Of education Is to
awaken and arouse and develop the
powers Of the personality. The
growth of the bodily powers is largely
conditioned by well-directed activity,
hence c%alisthenics and gymnastics.
'he development Of the mental facul-
ties is conditioned by stimulating
thought activity, hence systems Of in
struction, and teachers and courses Of
study. The awakening Of the moral
nature is conditioned by doing the
will of God, hence prayer and
churches and rituals and preaching
and religion. The object of religious
instruction is to awaken the sleeping
conscience, the dormant feelings, the
inactive will and enlist them actively
in the spiritual love and labor of
Christ.
The history of religion when
written from the standpoint Of pro-
gressive development will be the
story Of the awakening of the soul
% spiritual things. Professor Bourne
says: when there is little mental
or moral development the religious
instinct can cling to a stick, or a stone
or some low and hideous animal.
But as life unfolds and intellect is
clarified and conscience becomes reg
nant in our religious thinking, it then
appears that there are certain condi-
tons that must be met by any religion
that Is to command the assent of de-
veloped humanity" All races have
worship and religion. The aweken-
ing of the mind, as evidenced in the
progress Of education, has made wor-
worship and religion. The awaken
ing Of the sense Of the beautiful, as
evidenced by the progress of art and
esthetics, has made worship more
beautiful. The awakening Of the
moral nature, as evidenced by ethical
- stems and ethical emphasis, has
made worship more ethical. When
men are fully awake they will see the
glory of Christ, for He is the truth for
the mind, love for the heart and
power and guide for the will. No true
development of the human personality
will exceed the glory Of Christ, nor
go SO high that He shall not remain
it's ideal and it's good. We can think
of nothing in the moral and spiritual
scale beyond or better than Jesus
Christ.
Christ is not only the ideal Of this
spiritual awakening. but He is the
great cause of it. He is the inspira-