The Penn's Grove record., 1910-04-08
THE PULPIT.
A SCHOLARLY SUNDAY SERMON BY
THE REV. DR.. w. C. STILES.
Theme: The Divine Mobility.

Greenwich, Conn.-The Rev. DR..
w. G. 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 Psalmist
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 apprehensions 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
er occurred to US that there must be
profound significance also in the 9TH
er side of the truth, that. when 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 fux and
change, there must be some divine
signifcence>t to this phenomenal uni
verse. When Paul ome to apply 1t
to his own career, he speaks of that
career as a continual forgetting of
things that are behind and E constant
reaching forth unto things that are
before. 1t is as though he thought
the soul could lever stand still; and 1t
is certain that there is nothing nor
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 l 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 signifi-
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 no
significance in a restless heart, and do
we, after all, really wish our hearts
to be at rest, in the last and best
thought with which we contemplate
the highest possibilities of the soul?
Tr thnra ranonino In tho noCoinO
away of the heavens and the earth?
That is a great fact, and one that
must have some meaning OF 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.
How much truer might such affir-
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 $50 feet of sand, spread
with various thickness over 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. 1 think, therefore,
we may inquire, in the next place,
WuSIuGT lie CAdA6C anu u ~
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 n d1sap-
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, ii
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 one
of the great dominant arts of a hui
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
longer have life in them. The flower
will fade and the grass will wither,
but we may not make very much OF
storing the withered stock and the
faded petal in the old scrapbooks OF
our lives. How many a mai has be-
come old and soul and useless hold
ing on to the things which he should
let go! The only salvation in a NOV
ing world is to keep moving with the
world, and to keep pace with the di-
vine spirit that every morning makes
all things new. Let the children,
eager with curiosity for every new
scene, teach us, for they shall have
finer lessons for us than we can ever
have for them. We speak OF the
good old days." "the old Gospel
"the faith once delivered to the
saints" but there are no good old
days, and for us there is no old Cos
pei, and we do not want the faith
that was delivered to the saints. Any
thing that was delivered yesterday
was for yesterday. We are to go into
the larger place; we are to breathe
the new airs of the new morning.
There shall be perfume of sweeter
flowers for us above the graves of
those that faded for the man OF yes
terday.
1t often happens that daughters