The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1911-08-11

F., tHeir true medSure tdkeu, regardless OF
how many titles may follow their
names. The moderately educated as
well as the illiterate need such testi-
mOny to come from every pulpit. And
J if it does not soon come our civilian
ton will be wrecked
All. Seeing Eye Not Omnipressnce.
| Thou. God, seest me-" The eye Of
| the Lord is in every place" These
Scriptures give us the proper cOncep
| ton Of the Almighty. AS with the te,e
scope. the microscope, the telephone,
etc, man can enlarge his range of
vision and hearing, so by powers still
more wonderful the Almighty is cog
infant of all the affairs of the Uni
verse. We grant that our feeble minds
! are unable to comprehend so great. so
universal an Intelligence.
We cannot know in what manner the
| angels, the spirit servants Of God, are.
| as His eyes, in every place, to take
cognizance of our affairs. We cannot
| know in what manner the electric or
! lightning fash serves as a Divine mes
senger. But we can believe that a
| Soul so Infinitely high above us pos
sesses powers of information as far
! beyond our comprehension as the tele-
Phone and wireless telegraphy and
electric light were beyond the compre-
tension which our fOrefathers had of
these things in their day. 1t is easier
! to believe that so great a Being as
hn Sh ha a
| all wisdom and all power than to be-
lieve Him deficient of these. The
Scriptural argument is good one:
HE that formed the eye. shall He not
see? He that formed the ear. shall He
not hear?"
God In Heaven and In He'll.
The creeds handed down TO us from
the dark past declare that God is ev-
erywhere present-omnipresent This
is as unthinkable as 1t is foolish and
unscriptural. Taking advantage OF
this error of Orthodoxy" the Adver-
sary has turned many away from be-
lief i'll a personal God. He who is ev-
erywhere Is nowhere. The result is
the absurd view which has taken hold
on some otherwise intelligent people,
to the effect that good and God are
synonymous Hence log of wood
that is good for something, that can be
made into something useful, is said to
have good in it, and, hence, to have
God in it-ditto, q piece Of iron, bed,
a chair, q table. The folly grows into
saying that God is everywhere and is
in everything. Thus faith in 'god
of nature and happen-so" takes the
place of faith in the God of the Bible,
whose residence is in heaven, but
whose intelligence and power extend
throughout the Universe, in thousands
of ways of which we are only learning
through electricity, radio activity,
ETC., besides angelic messengers that
can come and go like the wind.
Our text, misunderstood, is supposed
to teach Divine omnipresence, whereas
it really teaches Divine Omniscience
and Almighty power. The Lords pres
ence, as represented in His intelligence
and power, are everywhere Nowhere
could we go to be beyond His reach
and beyond His knowledge. Were this
thought thoroughly impressed upon
every human mind, what a vast diff
ference it would make in human con-
duct from that now seen-in Wall
Street, in banks, in palaces, in novels,
In saloons. in gambling houses-every-
where 1t is the great lesson needed
by the whole world. Everyone who
believes this should join with nature
in attesting Divine Wisdom, Power,
Justice and Love.
But really the undermining of faith
in the God OF the Bible has been ac-
complished largely by the misrepre-
sentation Of the Bibles teaching. Our
text, for instance, is supposed to teach
that God is in heaven with the sanity,
rejoicing with them and enjoying their
pleasure and that He also Is in hell
with the insanity, looking upon their
sufferings and tOrtureS and planning
with devils for their everlasting con-
tinuance. Thinking minds are reject
ing such nonsense, but, alas, they are
rejecting the Bible, too, hence have no
foundation for better, truer faith.
Every educated minister knows that
l tell the Truth to the common people
when / say that the word hell in our
text has not the slightest reference to
a place Of torture. or even Of conscious
ness Indeed this is true of every Oc-
currence of the word hell, from Gene
sis to Malachi. In every instance the
translation is from the same Hebrew
word, sheOl, which signifies the Craze,
the tomb, and is shus most frequently
translated.
urge upon all ministers Of educa-
ton to join with me in explaining to
the public the true meaning of the He
brew word sheOl and the Greek word
hades. Whatever may have been their
thought Of expediency in the past they
should see that the mistaken views of
the meaning Of these words are un-
dermining the faith of ChristendOm.
The Psalmist really said, ''If l as
cend up into the sky, Thou art there;
if | make my bed in sheoI (the gravel,
behold. Thou art there. In the
uttermost parts Of the sea, even there
shall Thy hand lead me and Thy right
hand shall hold me-" The thought Is
that the Divine Power is everywhere,