The Penn's Grove record., 1910-04-29
THE PULPIT.
A BRILLIANT SUNDAY SERMON BY
DR.. WILLIAM T. PATCHELL.
Theme: Testimony of a Man.

San Jose, Cal.-Sunday the Rev.
DR.. William T. Patchell, pastor of the
First Congregational Church here,
preached on 1.-THE Testimony of a
Man" The text was from Isaiah
40:9-11. DR.. Patchell said:
So far as man is concerned, the
master problem is the question OF
his place or standing in the universe.
He wants to know whether he is a
machine or a god. Is he a cunningly
contrived piece of mechanism, assem-
bled by the four winds and organized
by the sun, or is he a free creative
personality? His conquest Of the
soil, his control of the great nature
forces, his adaptation and adjust
ments, his analysis and synthesis, wit
ness his oneness with the physical
universe; but he handles 1t rather as
a creator, as a god, and his very sue
cess sets him apart from that he con-
trolls. So, too, when he Investigates
and Classics the forms Of life, he
discovers that he is, and is not, one
with that he reveals.
We read: "And the man gave
names to all cattle, and to the birds
of the heavens, and to every beast
of the field; but for mar there was
not found a helpmeet for him." To
have such lightning utterance blaze
out Of the dim past and take its place
at the head Of our proud modern sci
ence is significant and tremendously
interesting, for 1t states as a fact
that which our science Is rapidly veri-
flying, that by way of knowledge man
does but isolate himself. He tells the
stars, but himself he cannot tell.
He ~classifies all forms of being except
himself. He generalizes everything
but that which generalizes. The
greater his knowledge, the darker
the problem he himself becomes, for
at is evident that he Is excepted who
did subject all things unto him." He
isolates himself. He is dark with ex-
cess Of light. He is escaped from a
universe to which he Is organically
and vitality related, for to his confu-
sion he learns that in all the wide
ranges of creation there is mot found
a helpmeet for him.; that this uni
verse of life and matter duplicates
a deeper undiscovered universe to
which something within himself re-
acts; that except he discover and re-
late this unknown within himself to
this unknown without himself, he
must surely die. And henceforth his
quest is become the mad search for
that which shall be bone of his bone,
flesh of his flesh" He must find an
other being like himself if ever he is
to discover himself, for he must de-
termine and define himself in terms
of another.
The challenge is imperious, and SO
terrible that he can find no rest. He
must go forth! To it he will sacri-
flee every interest and subordinate
every desire. His own body he
pierces; his first born he Stays. In
darkness, in cold, in pain, in wild Joy,
he seeks to liberate this awful pas
sion which smolders In his bones like
ire-he must find another being like
unto himself-one compacted of his
own unrevealed being-and his lone
ly cry, What am II" leaps across
the abyss. He searches the spaces
for God.
This need he call spiritual. He
declares that within himself lie GER
tain imperious qualities and energies;
! love, joy, truth, peace; that these
must discover and relate to another
spirit, else life shall turn to ashes.
So we witness in the long process oil
development that man, every man in
some measure, tries to interpret the
secret of his spiritual being. The
philosopher, the artist, the statesman
the poet, the scientist, the theologian
these are the outstanding ones who
have given themselves to the utter.
most in this mad quest.
For the analysis of star-dust, the
classification of fishes, the Had, the
Parthenon, the proposed Rockefeller
Charter, Stanford University, the
Constitution, Mrs. Wigs, Hull
House, the altar, the ritual, the sacri
fee, what are these but the far-funs
challenge to the universe?
Out from these many strivings ant
groupings emerges one unique and sig
nificant figure, which by its persist
ency witnesses above all others tt
the solidity and strength of the spir
it's need. It is the speaking-prophet
whose conventional expression II
modern life is the man in the pulpit.
When we go to church Sunday
morning we accept the pulpit as We
| dCC6DI hOSI s AO A0NA
thought. If we give it thought, We
/ see at once that back of the pulpi
stands the church. Were we to cues
ton the presence of this church ant
pulpit very likely we would say tina
we wanted a church and then built it
that we decided to organize, to build
to have a choir, a janitor, perhaps
ventilating system, ushers, a Bibl'
school, a prayer meeting. Sunday ser
vices, a pulpit, a preacher.
But this is not true. Back OF
church lies a long historic process
without which no church could b.
organized to-day. Out of the ciasl
of innumerable interests the church
energies, not as an arbitrary creation
! but by way of a seleefive process
By selection and rejection 1t bear!
witness to certain powerful and per
sistent human meanings. It sums VI
a history; it becomes at last a sym
boil.
The organized universe as mar see:
II is very transitory. Like clouds il
the air, the systems take shape and
disappear. Nothing is stable, nothing
remains. You recall that only the
other night we were reused from
early sleep by the house rocking OF
its foundation. I leaped to the fool
only to find it twisting horribly under
my feet. Even as l called to the dear
ones, and CROPPED my way through the
Keeling building, / had a vision in the
darkness of some vast unhuman being
of another creation, who had strayeo
this way. Her head was lost in the
sky-depths, and as she moved across
the world toward some awful un-
known purpose her sweeping gar
ments struck the tiny building In
which we lived, and the solid earth
shook under her tread. Nothing Is
stable; nothing remains. The roses
of to-day are born of yesterdays
death; cities crumble, nations dis
appear, civilizations perish, planets
die. and suns blow in dust down the
void. Everything Is momentary
leeting; change, decay, death; this is
the order. True of the moth, equally
true of the star to which it aspires.
The church witnesses to mans SUI