Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1911-08-08

| of understanding TO see. 1t is time
| that these great truths were being en-
| phasized and that the boastful gentle
men who ignore them should have
| their true measure taken. regardless of
how many titles may follow their
] names. The moderately educated as
| well as the illiterate need such a testi-
mony to come from every pulpit. And
| if il does not soon come our civiliZa-
| ton will be wrecked.
| AIS Seeing Eye Not omnipresence.
'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 tele-
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 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-
hension which our forefathers had of
| these things in their day. 1t is easier
to believe that so great a Being as
the One who formed man should have
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 hearW
| 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 it is foolish and
7 unscriptural. Taking advantage of
| this error of Orthodoxy" the Adver-
sary has turned many away from be-
lief in a personal God. He who is eY-
| 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 a 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, piece Of iron, bed,
; a chair, table. The folly grows into
saving 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
| plea sure and that He also is in hell
with the insanity. looking upon their
F.! 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 I say that the word he'll in our
| text has not the slightest reference to
| q 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 thus most frequently
translated.
| 1 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
hGdeS. 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 IN.
dermining the faith of Christendom.
The Psalmist really said. eff 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,
that whether we live or die nothing
can separate us from Gods Wisdom
and Power and from the ultimate ac-
| complishment of our Sescue from the
power Of the grave. which God has
purrosed and has promised shall be
dore through the great Messiah For
His Kingdom we wait and pray.
Is This View Unorthodox?
The word orthodox signifies correct
| in doctrine" am ready RI admit