Belington progressive. [volume] (Belington, W. Va.) 1912-1927, 1912-09-05
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SERMON 80
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I'm THE BEGINNING. :,

! Text .In the beginning God created the
heavens and the earth'-Gen, l, l.
The text is terse Divine reticence
Macauley begins bis history of England
i with these pretentious words, II pro-
pose to write the history of England
4 from the accession OF King James H.
down to time which Is within the
memory of men still living" The BIZ
bic begins the marvellous story Of crea
ton with the simple statement, In the
beginning God created the heavens and
the earth" In the New Testament
John begins with like simplicity, I'm
the beginning was the word, and the
| word was with God and the word was
4 Cod Two sublime chapters. | find
their like nowhere in literature. Like
the Rockies and the Andes, the back
bone of mighty continent hey tower
through tIiz. plain of human literature.
The making of a universe is here de-
scribed. If you can call this brief burst
of splendor description 1t is really but
divine exclamation point. On one
small page is spread earth making and
star making Vegetation, animals and
man are described as wildly as If light
ming had written the page. To put the
making of universe into single
statement needing neither colon nor
comma bewilders me. | find myself
breathing short and quick. | feel Pm
standing In the dim gray of -dawning
morning. God Is near. | can sense
the thrill Of his presence moving glo-
riously through this stupendous begin
ming of things material This genesis
Of creation Is not only sublime but ten
able. feel an intellectual necessity in
getting past the thing to the maker Of
the thing Make me breathe freer.
Time was when | was satisfied with
the thing called myself free
thinker then. Huh! was bound
hand, foot and brain
Genesis |.
How long did it take-six days, six
periods, six million years or sixty bill
lion? | don't know Fiat creation
or evolution? What matters? We are
not told how all was built only Of the
Builder It's presented In a series Of
pictures. When 1t begins there IS
darkness. desolation, chaos When it
ends there's sunshine. sparkling water,
green grass and an earth ready for its
coming master-man And the book
account Genesis /? 1t wasn't given
to teach science but salvation; not
geology, but God. II it had been writ
ten to teach science it would have to be
10000 times larger than Encyclopedia
Britannica and then rewritten often to
meet the changing conditions Of man
and his growing capacity A divine
revelation must be limited by the ma
ture and capacity of the being who
receives the revelation. Translate a
modern textbook of geology and put
1t into the hands Of an ancient Egyp-
tian 1t would be incomprehensible.
Why? Because the race had slowly to
come up to It
The Start of the Pendulum.
I'm the beginning must begin
with something. What shall it be?
Motion? What started motion? How
/ COlltS IL LuttL we udNC PidHStdlf nv
ton In opposite directions? Start with
fire mist? Who kindled the fire? Or
is the start a single cell possessing in
telligence? How much? Supreme?
None less will answer But supreme
intelligence spells G-o-d 1T is all law"
suggests a wiseacre. But law is not
force. but form; process, not pow
er; motion, not mover. Law is
only name Behind the form is the
force, behind the process the power,
behind the motion the mover. And
that thing is what scientists now call
God 1.-THE universe is one mighty
thought" Sure And that necessi-
tates one mighty thinker and requires
capital T. There's no escape from
God Push back your Interrogation
from any point, and, 10, .in the be-
ginning Godn' Thirty two times God"
occurs in the first chapter of Genesis.
Take out God. chaos is left
Tho Gyroscope of the Universe.
The most stupendous and amazing
thing we know is the universe. The
earth says. | am here, plains, noun
tains, forests. rivers and seas, ac-
count for me if you can. We stand I'M
der the midnight sky and watch the
march through the centuries of those
millions upon millions of the starry
host through spaces of stellar light
years SO far reaching as to stagger
our imagination. No beginning-no
beginner? l watched new monorail
car the other day. 1t maintained per
feet equilibrium even OF curves and
going at terrific speed. 1t kept erect
like a spinning top by means Of gyro-
scope. heavy fywheel inclosed In
vacuum and spinning around at the
rate of several thousand revolutions
second. 1t will run three hours by it.
SELF If by any accident the electric
power which turns it should be shut
of Not even savage from Africa
mouid SOW fbprn had hpan M ovolvar