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VII
OF THE
MARBLE
COLLEGIATE
CHURCH,
NEW
YORK
CITY
The man who does not know God has not begun to live.
He may eat and drink, make merry, accumulate a fortune
or wear a crown; but he has not entered into that better life
of high hopes and noble purpo ses and aspirations which make
us worthy of our Divine birthright. For "this is life enternal,
to know God."
To put ourselves into just relati9ns with God is literally a
matter of life or death. All the ologies are worth mastering
but THEOLOGY
is indispensab le. We must know God.
But where is He? "Oh, that I knew where I might find
Him! Behold, I go forward but He is not there, and back~1ard but I cannot perceive I-Iim; on the left hand where He
doth work, but I cannot behold Him; He hideth Himself on
the right hand so that I cannot see Him !" The horizons
recede as we approach them, and the darkness thickens as
we grope like blind men feeling their way along the wall.
There are three roads which are vainly trodden by multi:tudes who pursue thi s holy quest. Each of them is marked,
"T his way to God"; .and ,each of them is a cul de sac . or
blind alley, which leaves the soul still groping and crying,
"Oh, that I knew where I might find Him!"
The first of these paths is Intuition.
.
There are no natural atheists. All are born with an indwelling sense of God. We do not enter on conscious life
like the inferior orders; but "tra iling clouds of glory do we
come from God who is our horn en. In regions of darkest
paganism there are traces of two innate convictions; namely,
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The Fit1tdame1itals
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Se1,ises.; that is, of Natt11a] Science, wl1ich reache s its conclusions on the evidence of tl1e physical senses.
This rules out faith, which is the sixth sense divinely
given to men for the apprehension ~f spiritual truths. To
undertal,e to solve
a11y
of
the
grea
t
problems
which
have
to
.
do with .our spiri tu,a.1 life by th,e testimony o;f the fin_g
er tips
is to l1ave one's labor 01 one's . pains; since, in the nature
of the case,. ,,s,piritual ,thing s are spirituall .Y discerned''. To1 .
undertake to grasp a sp iritual fact by the p'hysical senses
is as preposterous as it woi1ld be to insi.st on se,eing with
the ears or hearing with the eyes. Faith i.s not. cr,edu1ity,
nor is it unsubstantial, n or is it believing witl1out ,evidence .
On the contrary, it is both substantia l an,d evidential: only
it is ''the substance of . things hoped for, the evid,en ce of
t.hing s not seen'' .. To reft1se to exercis ,e this .sixth sense or
. power of spiritual . apprehension is to sl1ut oneself out forever rom the possibility of appr ehe11ding Go d ~r any o,f
the great, intangible, but real truths which center in Him.
Yet we are constant]y hearing, in certain quarters, of the
in1portance of pttrsui11.g ott r theological studies ''by the scientific method''.
With wl1at result? ''W ,e have a world of
facts'', tl1ey say, ''and fro .m . the se facts, by the inductive
pr ,ocess, we rnust arrive .at our conclusio ,ns'' '. It is like an
example in Algebra: God is the unknow n term ; let this , 'be
expr essed by ''x'' : th ,e p ro hl em then ~s to resolve ''x'' into
known terms by th ,e use of a multitude of seen and tangible
facts. Can it be done? Go on and pursue yo,ur research ,es along
the line ,s of evolution, until back of cosn,os you come to chaos,[
an.cl back of chaos to the nebula, and ha,ck of tl1e neb11]ato the
primordial germ; and that last infini tesimal atom will loo~ up
at you with t'he ,old question on its lips, as loud as ever and
involving .a probl .em as deep as wl1en ,you began, ''Whence
ca1ne I?'' What is your answer? God?' Call it '' God'' if yo ,u
please; in fact, however, it is s.imply an impersonal indefinable,
inescapable something or otl1,er which, for l.ack of a better
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The Fundamentals
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The sottl o,f sinf 'ul man is like a child lost among strangers,
wild-eyed , lips trembling, eyes searchi11g vain]y for a familiar
. face. Al1, l1ere the motlier ,com.es I Ahd the child is sobbing
out its happiness on her br east. ''Cuddle doon, my bairnie 1',
So is it when the sinner find.s Christ; or sh,all we not rather
say, when Chri st, th,e seeking God, finds l1im?
If, th en., we a,r e ever to Iea.rn the .ology it mu st be ,as di,scip1les, sitting in a docile attitude at the feet of Cl1rist. He, a.s
the i11carn.ate Son, is our authoritative Teacher,
What,
there ore , ha s He to say about God?
- As to Hi s being, He ha s little or nothing to say; for the
obvious rea son that God' s being is the s11bstrattun of Christ'~
entire doctrine, with out which it ,vould be as insignificant
as a painted ship upon a painted ocean. l\1oreover, ,all His
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light of the world' ' ; and this light must ever be reflected in
the life of His dis.ciple.s, .as He said, ''Ye a.re the ligl1t of the
world ; let your light so shine before men that they may see
your good works and glorify God''. This holiness is not merely
freedom from moral contamination; but sucl1 a sensit ive, aversion to sin as makes it impossible for God to 100,k with complac1ency upo,n any cre~ture ,vl10 is defiled by it. Hence the
appeal .to the cultivati ,on of .a ho1,y life; since '',vithout holiness
no man sha.lI see Go,d''.
Out of this atm :os.phere of holiness proceed two attributes
\vhi,ch, like op ening arms , embr,ace the world. 0ne of th,em
is Justice, or regard for la\iv. No teacher ever lived, 11ot even
.Mo,,se,s, who emphasized as deeply as d.i,d Jesus t.he integrity of
the mora.1 law. He de,fended not only the law its.elf but th e
penalties affixed to its violation. The Deca1ogue is not so
sev,ere an arraignmen t 0 !sin as the S,ermo n on the , Moun .t,
which rings with the inviolability of law.
The other of the outstretched arm :s is Love. The fullne .ss
of D ivine love is set forth in the words of Jesus: ''When ye
pray sa.y, 'Our Fat .her', .,. It was wisely obs.erve d by Mad .ame
de .Stael that if Jesus had nev,er do,ne an)rthing in the world
except to teach us ''Our Father'' He wo,uld h.ave ,conferred an
inestimable boon upon a11 the children of men. God~s love is
manifest i.n the unceasing gifts of His providence; but its
crowning token is the grace of salvation : ''God so loved the
world that He g3.ve H is only begotten Son, that whosoever
believeth in Him shou1d not perish but h.ave everlasting life''.
And the reconciliation between Love and Justice is found
at the Cro .ss, Here ''mercy and truth are me.t togeth ,er ; rigl1teousness and peace have kissed each other''. As law is s.acred
an,d invio1able, i.ts pen .alty m.u st b,e inflicted; it must be. inflict,ed
e1ther upon the maleacto,r 01 upon some competent substitut e
who sha.11volunteer to st1ffer fqr him. It i,s the only begotten
S,on who ,vo]unteers, saying, ''Here am I, send Me!'' The justice ~
'of God is shown in the suff er ,ing inflicted upon His only begot-
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But every ,nan must f'or himself make answer to that argument. Each for himself , must figl1t his way into the tru .th. It
is like the grapple which Jacob had with an unseen .antagonist at
'the br ,ookside. As, the, nigl1t wore on he came to under ,stand
that Omnipotence had laid hold upon him. Then came a
sudden ,vrench an ,d Jaco ,b fe'll, disabled. God had thrown him I
H ,e sank a helple ss man, but, clinging still, crie d, ''I will not let
Thee go except Thou b,Iess me l'' And thereupo n the bless ,ing
was given, a blessing which God had waited through the , weary
years to bestow upon him: ''Tl1y name shall be called no mor ,e
Ja ,cob, 'th "e Suppl ,ant ,er', but Is ,rael; for as a, prince hast , thou
pre ,vail ed with Go,d''. Then and , there he rec eive,d his guerdon
0f knighthood and entered in,to the higher lif e. At the clo,se
of that conflict the light of morning was g]owing on the hills of
Edom: how significant the words, ''And the sun arose upon
hi,m I''
,
The new life had begun ; th,e Jong ,quest, was ,over ; Jacob had
found God. And he went his way llll1l()ingon his shrunken
thigh., to bear throu ,gh all the after years the token of ' that
struggle until he came to heaven's gate,. at peace with
.
It is thu s that every man finds God; in a close grapple that
ends 'in self surrender, an 'Utter yielding to the beneficent
power of God.
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