Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-12-13

'.He that sent me is with me: the
Father hath not left me alone, he
words of John viii:29, was the text
of a sermon by Rev. Ulysses G. b. Plerce'
minister of All Souls Church, last sun
day. He said. in part:
lone is almost tempted to read those
words in a whisper, because 1t seems
as il they were not meant to be shouteo
from the housetops. 1t Is as II these
! intimate words Of a sacred spiritual char
acter had made their escape from his I'M
guarded lips. 1t is as if he had opened
the Masters personal journal to which
He had confided His most secret thoughts.
AS much as If He should say, Here Is
the secret of my spiritual health, here is
the fountain of my steadfastness and
spiritual vigor. If my strength is as the
strength of ten, it is because my life Is
pure. He that sent me is with me- The
Father hath not left me alone.
do we wonder then at the impress
that this man has made upon human his
tory: Do we wonder that He could with
stand temptation, that there radlated
from Him spiritual health and power?
Not at ALL 1t seems inevitable that
these things should flow from man
who feels that the Father Is always win
him; that howsoever deserted, he is never
alone And do we not secretly wish that
this were true Of you and of me? what a
JOY it would be. IT, as we languidly ARISE
In the morning and contemplate the day S
work. we could say to ourselves: Yet
must not forget that He that sent me,
He that watched over me in my hours
of unconsciousness, He by whose provi-
dence / am guided, is with me. The
Father hath not left me alone" What
a joy it would be If, during the tempta-
tions Of the day, during its SORROWS, Its
joys and it's perplexities. there was al
ways this thought to go before us like
the pillar Of cloud and of fire. What
new men and women we should be, II
as we come home at night, spent with
the days toll, before we throw ourselves
into oblivion, we could call ourselves
home and say: After all, He with whom
and for whom l have been laborins, He
who sent me Is with me. The Father
hath not left me alone
What prevents our entering into this
presence Of God? What keeps us away
from our high heritage of this constant
and howsoever lonely we are never alone?
One thing that prevents this high heri-
tage Is the persuasion which is latent
in many of our minds that somehow
God created us long, long ago, that He
ordained certain infieXible and unchange-
able laws of life which have worked so
well that they have been left to work
alone. And SO for the most part, we
pick our way through life as best We
may, dependent on our own strength,
cultivating our own power, rising or fall
ing as our own physical strength war
rants. We have not yet learned that the
way of man is not in himself alone, that
1t is not In man that walketh to direct
| his steps.
But aside from this general persuasion
! there are two things that haunt the
| mind and keep 1t down to a lower level
of spiritual visor. And one is the mod
| ern habit zone may almost call 1t modern
interpreting the development theory In
| materialistic terms. What I mean Is,
| that as we study the rise and evolution
| of man. we make certain categOries and
| formulate certain principles like the
| struggle for existence. the survival OF
, the fittest,' selection. natural and other
wise and geographic distribution and
We may say to ourselves: Given these
and plenty of time we can produce man.
OF course I do not need to be reminded
| that no creditable scientist would accept
| that statement OF the case. he would call
| that a mere parody; but what ] have
| in mind Is not the verdict of the far
seeing and muchweighng scientist, but
! the verdict of the popular mind that
| somehow thinks that it knows all there
| is to be known about man, and that for
| gets that there Is no legerdermain by
which you may take Greek alphabet
| and toss it up in the air and have IT
come down in the form of Homer's Iliad:
| that there Is no way by which material
! laws may be released and working even
in endless time may produce man I'M
| less man was there ready to be released.
But there Is a survival of this also
In the modern passion for interpreting
the religious life in scientific nOmencla-
ture, the fondnesS for taking our religious