Evening star., 1909-04-18


primarily to man, but in a man. 1t
marks our spiritual birthday when we
discover for ourselves that God never
speaks to any man, but speaks always
in every man. Religion Is not primarily
the attempt to bring something into the
heart and spirit of man; it is rather
TO extract something from the heart and
spirit OF man; not primarily to com
municate, but to extract: not to speak
to a man. but in a man. not to bring
something from far off the heaven above,
Or the abyss below, but to lift something
into reality which is already latent in
our human nature. This. of course, is
automatic. We need hardly remind our
selves that we can give man only that
which he already has, paradoxical as it
may seem. as the man who reads Dante
is Dante, in so far as appreciation of
him goes; he who reads Paradise Lost
and trembles at the tragedy already has
the dramatic instinct released in him.
1t is because we are dramatic that
Shakespeare was produced and that he
plays to us. In vain we uplift our eyes
to heaven. says the poet, If We are
blind We say: But would We have
the gift of seeing?" What we bring we
find. 1t would not matter if the very
air were violent with the messages of
revelation from the Heavenly Father, this
would find no response and awake no
echo in our hearts. for ii we are not
there first. the capacity TO respond to
spiritual truth, for truth takes TO rise
from outward things; but here we may
believe there is an inmost center in us
all where truth abides In fullness. and
to know consists rather in opening out
a way whence the imprisoned spiendor
may escape than in effecting another
for light supposed TO be without. And
for this supposition We are largely in
deoted to the Apostle Paul who was not
only an apostle but philosopher.
Brought up a Pharisee OF the Pharisees,
he had their dogmatic religion to its
depth and to its heights. He had done
what few men dared to do. He had
eliminated his logic
There may be two lines of thought
as there may be two lines in mathematics
which may appear to be parallel. and it
is only by extending them some distance
that we find them meeting. A man may
find himself pledged to certain theories
of life. or even convictions of life. and
to his mind they may seem quite harm
less until he tries TO carry them to their
logical development. Paul was man
enough to do that, so he did logically the
thing that failed; he became perse-
cutor. for if he was right, it went with
out saying that everything else was
wrong. If dogmatsm was right the
spiritual Interpretation of religion was a
mistake. So armed with authority from
the high priest he goes to Damascus on
others. and on his way the man who
walked in darkness beheld a great light
at the midday of his career. and there
dawns upon him that after all that is
not the right kind Of religion, 1t occurs
TO him that the revelation of God is not
in parchment or book. not in synagogue
or sanhedrn; it comes to him that the
divine revelation is in the mind. 1t was
& his birthday tt. when it pleased a., God to ;
an apostle: he defends himself stoutly
against the allegation that he can be no
apostle. because he has not seen the
Master I'm the flesh. We recall the time
when the Master, His task nearing COM
pletion. gathered about Him those sew
enty men, laying His hands on them,
telling them tc go out and heal the sick
and minister unto them; we can i'm
agine the taunts that the Apostle Paul
not there" All, no." he says, Il was
not there. but that does not alter the
fact. / was not there physically but
was there appreciably. God revealed His
Of His own personal experience. so that
! am an apostle. | have an authority
to preach the Gospel. and henceforth it
is not the Gospel, but it is my gospel
gospel which came to me first-handed;
IT is my property because it finds re-
sponse In my heart.
If we could recognize this and appreci.
ate all It's hopes and simplicity 1t would
show us that after all Paul is wonder
full interpreter of the Master. though he
never saw Him in flesh. yet he seems to
have lived very near to him in spirit.
This perception of revelation within man
is the very heart and center of PauPs
teaching. Il am a crucifed man.. he
says. Looking back to the old days of
Damascus. he says: II have been crucified
and died II is no longer ! that live,
but Christ who liveth in me. There has
been a new center to my life, new
polarity to my spiritual being. l no longer
live, IL is Christ who liveth in me-" And
we can imagine how. when pressed for
some definition of this Christ life. the
apostle answered: Il will go into no de-
tail; for me to live that Is Christ. and to
die that Is game. When 1t pleased God to
reveal His Sen in me-"
There are three or four things which
follow directly from this This simple
principle has manifold applications. First
Of all, how il changes our estimate
ality of the Christian religion. We know
where tco often we have looked, and we
know how many doubts have come from
the efforts TO find the reality of religion
in that direction. We shall find 1t not
SO. but shall find 1t, as the Master said.
within" =
Tennyson said:
II found Him not in world or sun
Or eagles wing or insects eye,
Nor through the questions men may try,
The petty cobwebs we have spun
The evidence for Christianity is q
Christian. That is all the evidence there
is; all the evidence there ever was; all
the evidence there can be. The evidence
for the value of music is music. To hear
Jennie Lind is sufficient; Phidas Is the
argument for sculpture: Raphael is the
evidence of painting. Il am" says the
Master, 'I am the life. the way and the
truth When We take Him at His word
and try to find the credentials of the re-
ligious life in the religious capacity
which Is ours and In the colorings OF
the religious life which we see in others
we stop our long quest and We see that
we are saved as Paul says. by faith.
not in the capacity to believe in absurd
ity. but faith in the power to believe
OF moral and spiritual initiative" 1t is
not in heaven. IL is not in the abyss
IL is not over the sea. but II is very
nigh thee in thine heart this is the
faith of the Gospel which we preach
Or observe again how the perception
of this simple principle that God speaks
not TO us but in us. how that revela tion
is not the attempt to put something
into your mind. but to extract something
from IT, gives us the true spiritual view
10 our Holy Bible One would be willing
10 rest the case with any intelligent man
who would read all these books. The
trouble has been that the men who have
talked most about these things have read
least. One who would read would discover
AZ cnce that the Bible does not claim
10 be an artificial product. Quite the
opposite. Inspiration is not the attempt
of far-off power to put something into
YOUR mind but il is the effort your mind
i, making TO throw eff from itself per
ceptions of spiritual truth which were
already there.
The Bible is wiser than we have beer