The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1910-04-27
THE PULPIT.
A SCHOLARLY SUNDAY SERMON BY
THE REV. DR.. w. c. STILES.
Theme: The Divine Mobility.

Greenwich, Conn.-The Rev. DR..
W. C. Stiles, of Brooklyn. editor OF
the Homiletic Review, preached in
the Second Congregational Church
here Sunday. DR.. Stiles had as his
| subject, 1.-The Divine Mobility In
the course of his sermon he said:
Our attention has often been called
to the abiding quality of divine life
and of the inner powers of the spirit,
and we are accustomed to set these
realities over against the things that
change and pass away. The Psallnist
is re-echoed by the Apostle Peter in
the sentiment which expresses the
frailty of the outward things-"the
grass withereth, the flower thereof
| falleth away" and Jesus, referring to
the enduring quality Of His word,
| said: Heaven and earth shall pass
away" In all these ap~prehensions of
the contrast involved, we have dWelt
lightly upon the passing away OF
things and have usually fixed our
thought upon that element of eternity
! that lies within them. But has 1t new
err occurred to us that there must be
profound significance also in the 9TH
er side of the truth, that wher the
, heavens and earth pass away and the
flower falleth and %withereth, and the
whole universe in like manner is seen
to be a constant panorama of fuI and
change, there must be some divine
| Significance to this phenomenal uni
verse. When Paul comes to apply 1t
- L.. NV oornor hn Cn0aRC nf that
career as a continual forgetting OF
things that are behind and C. constant
reaching forth unto things that are
before. 1t Is as though he thought
the soul could eve stand still; and it
is certain that there is nothing more
inclusive; nothing more completely
filling all the consciousness of the life
of the man than the mobility Of the
| world we live in and of the lives we
live.
1t is of this I am reminding; you:
first, as a fact of universal expert
ence. The heavens and earth do pass
away; the flowers do fade; human life
does move on; the old order chang
eth; every day is a new day; old
things have passed away. Behold,
all things have become new" might
be written at any moment Of our
career A fact of such wide signlt-
canoe is worth while to inquire about.
Doubtless we may complain with Au-
gustine that our hearts are restless
until they rest in God, but is there nc
significance in a. restless heart, and do
we, after all, really wish u hearts
to be at rest, in the last and best
thought with which we contemplate
the highest possibilities of the soul?
Is there meaning in the passing
/ away of the heavens and the earth?
That is a great fact, and one that
must have some meaning or other for
us. We do not look on the same
stars-not precisely the same-as
those that shone upon the Egyptians
who built the pyramids, and who
built the lines Of their east and west
faces by the pole star, from which
these lines now have swerved enough
TO prove that the heavens have been
changing; and the time will come
when future inhabitants Of this earth
will no longer look upon the same
consultations In the same places
where now we see them.
1lO" HuCh - = "lShI olSh eA1tA
nation be OF this far more ~changeful
earth. We speak lightly of the ever
lasting hills. When they built the
great Eads Bridge at st. Louis, on the
; east side of that river they sent the
bores down something like 100 feet
through the fine silt Of the river bed
before they struck the solid limestone
below. That 100 feet of sand, spread
with various thickness owe wide
areas of the valleys of the Mississippi
and the Missouri, is nothing more
than the remains of what men call the
everlasting hills, washed down
through milenniums of time to make
the great fertile areas Of the valleys.
You who have lived by the sea know
what constant changes are going on
with the coast-upbuilding here and
washing away yonder; on our Pacific
coast great mountains lifted up,
sometimes with great earthquake
shocks that destroy cities; on other
coasts sinking down to give way to
the dominance of the sea. Yes. the
heavens and earth are passing away.
A fact, I have said, of such wide
reach in human experience must have
some significance and must need some
Interpretation. I think, therefore,
we may inquire, in the next place,
whether the change and iuX Of on
ward movement may not constitute a
universal law of the world and of all
life? is not this as it should be?
| Do not things move On and disap-
pear? Do not the old facts decay
and the new facts appear, because
this is, in a way, the divine method
for all of us, and for the universe in
which we live, the providence of God
accompanying us in our journey and
educating US on the way? Surely. If
we should come to such conclusion
as this, it would dissolve some OF the
p%erplexing difficulties that besiege our
minds and embarrass our lives. For
one thing, it would teach us that n
of the great dominant arts of a hu-
man soul must be the art of letting
go Of things with which God is
through. 1t is death or the beginning
of death for a man in a living world
to hold on to the things that no
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