WW WTtlWPT s i- ) 1 A ) A SE1UI0N roil SUNDAY AN ELOQUENT DISCOURSE DY THE REV. D. D. VacLAUAlN. ftulijrrt: I,ur mul din Vinton f fio.lI.no ) tlip Vnly IntPf jirrlcr of 111" Kln;iloiit tif llf iiini, of All lh r-ilrltuUll- l lio r.Utlla S.jf. lU (Mii.i.YN, .". V. Sunday morning in St. M. i:. fhur.h, t!i? Jcv. Dr. DojmM 1). M k Latum, j Bstir tbi! Si' -rin L'hurrii, lUihutcr, prtui-ii",! In tin; u:i;tv I lotiri'.ritloiH tht final a 'I' ll,, i in u km , i s hi "iu it on "The (iriatiMt 'I In,;,; i i t,,,' II, n;eoml nii'.ijtvt, ;- "Low un 1 tin' Vmon ot t'U'l: or, tin: J-yu Tnat !m All Wonder." Th-j text v.di i-1 1 1 l (.'ormihians xuiT'J: '"for noiv tve hi J 1:1 it minor, darkly, hut thi n laca to fare." )r. . I.icLaunn mud: Love in tin- only murjireUT of God. We jaw lat uiii!;iy that to love only ura ih Sjnc rrvcliuiiiiid mmle, and that to jK-npct only can juTti-it divino di.tcloHurc lie i". '1 hi' cunvenm truth is eaually valu- V natneiv: "Jhut love 19 the on.y inter i t of (luJ, of nil ia the kingdom ol J, of nil Kpintualitie. Nor must you a' that tliix is strange or arbitrary. 'e ' K'ucht in all our ttcrvici'd to d.Hcover imalogy between the lana of the spirit j re alm imd the law with which we are iili.ir. i ion will find that this, namely: That, love h tlu only inturpretcr, ia part of the! t"' discipline d life in erery direction, ital Koine one has well said: "iovo me fartln est. hear quickest and fcelj deepest." j Two lllustratiom of that proposition; have been given; ono with restard to thel realm of nature. I At tia fay that two men fire journeyiii'; through your LK-autiful park; one Bees tho imieral conformationJ Jtie general outane ot street ami ewcep o field and Hhininiering lake, and he notice mat there are treea borJerinii the drive and walks, but that in all. die haa hi ryca chierly on the trround. lie doea not heur the birds: or. if he doea. it i not to discern one eonster from another. Now, take the other. Thia man not only see the general conformation of the landVape,1 the uoncral plan of tha artist who laid if out, put he seea tho trees, he aees, he dis tinguishes one from another, lie notes the flowers that spring; he notca not only the songster that singn, but he knows its life and story. lie Hues the nhimmoring pond and lake and tho reflected overhang-; ans foliage and is ministered to by them., At the end of the journey the latter man! is enriched in his mind and heart. What1 has made the difference between the two men? The one has been, and is, a lover of nature. He ia a atudont of nature be-i cause he loves it. And nature is kind; na-j ture knows her lovers, and so eho makes, disclosures to him that the other man doea not get. Two men visit the Metropolitan Museum of Art; and let me say to those who may not have seen those art treasures it is worth a visit and much study. -. One of these men hurries tlrrounh it in a perfunc tory way. O, he notices there are iargo pictures and small ones, but he haa no time for those little bits of paintings that dora the walls. If there is a biir pilt frame on one of the pictures, ho admires it greatly, but it is a bore, and he hurries out, and wonders why people find so much in the art galleries of the world. The other man discovers in some small picca the product of a master, and he atands entranced before it for hours; and you will see his eyes suffused with tears, and if you notice you will see hia lip ia tremu lous. He pays no attention to the fr is; he sees the soul of the artist, and ho is profoundly stirred. I hare seen men aH in tears before some masterpiece in. tha galleries of Europe; their soul finds the soul of the artist. They interpret him ic 'his finest moods; they have coma to know him. - Such men come nearest to interpreting the Creator, Himself; for of all the eons of men none stand higher than the nrtut. He who can take a piece of raw material, , piece of ordinary canvas, and make it "ripple like a river, make it roar like- tha mighty ocean, carrying a ship full rigged upon its bosom; a man who can make it blossom into a rose, or who can paint upon it a battle scene, preserving the heroism and valor of men; a man who can, by -color, lay before you all that is beautiful, all that is divine ia -the world.' surc-lv titands first among the sons of God, and nearest to the Maker Himself in that he is a creator. The lover of art sees this. To him these things are disclosed, while the man who does not love sees little. The 6ame is true ' between men. To whom do you disclose yourseitr wno is able to interpret you The man jvho hates you? Surely not. He is always misreading you, misinterpreting your motives. It ia tho man who loves ou. He interprets you. he knows you 'So I think the nronosition is justified ', tnat love is the only interpreter of Uod this brings me to tiie tirst point 1 desire o bring to you this morning, namely, this: That there is a time in the lite of overy man when he 'has no Tiaion of God and Diritual realities. I wish you to mark tuat. There is a time in the life of every man when ho haa no vision of God and spiritualities. It covers all that-period of hi3 lite dunng which he la unresener ate, when there is absolutely no vision of XJod and spiritual realities. The Apostle Kaul will justify that assertion, for you N frill find him saying in this same epistle, IK ,iatural mtm pefceiveth not the AqJ'lungs of the spirit of God, for they are H jiolishness unto him. and .he cannot know .'Lhera because they are spiritually indeed. Tha natural man is not in the realm in which he can interpret spiritual realities This mysterious torce in the organic kinedom we call life. Who knows the or tramc kinzdom we call life? Who knows ' what it is? But we know it is there, and we know it weaves bodies in which it dwells; that it ia a miracle and that it per forms miracles of transformation. We are acquainted with it. They would not call it a miracle were they to know what it is "When, life is busy, it ia performing these transformations, hut the atom cannot un- derstacd the results ot Jue forces: they are J , foolishness unto it. They arc utterly con itrarv to all it knows of the operation in itg Now, do you know there is another kins- comr A third kinadom. which is sowe the organic and in which all higher life forces dwell; a third kingdom whvee force is the spirit of the living; God. And until a man has come into tho life of that kinz' dom everything that we ray transpires in it is foo.ishnees to him in the natural kingdom, just as Paul says, 'Tor the nat ural man receiveth not the thingi of tha spirit of God. for they arc foolishness unto him, and h cannot know them, for they are scintuallv ludsed.' He has not en terd that third kingdom. He does not know ita law. He does r.ot understand its nconomena: in fact, he does not see them AVhich things? "ye hath not seen, nor ar heard, neither have entered into the heart of man. the things" What things. Paul? ''The tkisffs-that God hns rr-;p-red for them that love Him." So tv is a time when there is absolutely r '.tn of Jod, and no vision cl :c. und it Is vanity "vdu.iL'e lli.it i.,cu WIi in the church and out of it shall m-ojiiizo that (jri-st fact. Had mn out of the church discovered that great fart, tiny would have 1'ti'ii aaved from imuiy (allure, a lo1iiy llunii in another connection ;iyt: "It w.vl fri inony a Lludor free u.J, ai'd foolikh notion." Not until a man I; as icon touched by tho fing'-r of (lol will hia ears he opened to tlio harmonic of the third kingdom; not until his eye haw hid the vuioii of that kingdom and hi. lu'irt made capable , rHrivinn tlmt kingdomnot until th-no transformations lave come to him, rnn a m.vt know spiritual rcuhtirs nt nil. Ho I iill'.rm tlmt there is i tiin,' in the life of ever? tnan whta thue U absolutely no vU- i : on of iijd n:ul iu 1 1.410,1 of npii uu ii real I-iet me now notice in t'.i; n-eond place that there m a ti.ne whi-n the vi im if God anil uritunl rcali'.iiM w eniinitii-al. "f,r now in a mirror darkly." Tint word "darkly" is a translation ot 4 Greek phrase- meaning, "in a riddle." anil thus you, who have a revi.-ed l'.ihle, will find that the phrase "in a riddle" is placed in tin; inari;in, lor what l'aul mtiint is thin, "For now we see in a mirror, in a riddle." Of course, they did not have tho mirrors which we have now in the apostolic a:,'o. Him forevennorc. IVlovcd, we will never all meet together here, but we may all meet together yon der. We will never all see each other, therefore, here. Let us so live that wo shall all see each other yonder, when wo have come up, like Ilim, to meet the hosts out of jrrcat tribulations, it may be, having our roi washed and made white in tho blood of tho Iimb. Till then, good bye. That which they had was a metal polished on one Burface; sometirnea of silver, but usually it was a round piece of metal pol ished as well as they could do it, to which was attached a handle. Now, you can see such a mirror would not reflect clearly, as our splendid mirrors do, the images that were before it. Now it is that furnished the Apostle l'aul with this striking illus tration: 'Tor now we sea in a mirror, in a riddle." W hy, the gospel itself, is as a camera ob-sc-.ira, in which we see reflected the things of eternity. What we see u not the thing iUelf, but only the reflection of it. What we see cannot be the thing itself, but only i-. ., n .. . .... . ... me rtaieewun 01 u. iuat is wnai tue gos pel is. The fourfold gospel does not give us the living Christ; it only gives the im age of the living Christ. It ia imperfect in bo far as man has had part in it, and in so far aa the reflector wiil give only an im perfect image of the reality, and we must never torget the lact that what wo are lookins unon in sniritu.il thine is not thn objects themselves, but only the retlec- ons. Nor must we forzet that the defi nition is made enicrmatic. that the obiecta look like riddles to us also, because the eye of the soul haa net a clear vision. What we ee, depends on what our heart is. How often we are troubled by the mists and fogs that arise from the lower levels of our own lives. How ofteu you and I know what it is to be lost in the fogs that settle down upon us as the racing yachta were lost the other day in their final reach for the cortl; utterly lost, hidden themselves and hidden from an about them; and like the challenger, we are apt to cet out of our course and lose time in the race for the goal, bo we must not forget that both the mirror and the eye that see3 contribute to ward the enigmas of our life and the enig mas that surround us. Let ua look for a moment or two at ife's riddles as they relate to God Him self. Now, I have a deal of sympathy for the multitudes of men who find it hard to see GcxL They hear from tho pulpit of 'God's oinni.ieitnce. Hia omnipresence. Hia eternity, He fills immensity, God it spirit." now, what sort ot an idea can a man get from thM description of the Eternal? And h iwara, You must lore God," that th am 90W of tM gospel in a wopd. so far aa duty ia- concerned, ia thia, 'Thou shalt love th Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind." And he says to us. 'TTow can I .ove Kim? lie ia inconceivab.e to me. I cannot form an imago of Him. I cannot see Him to know Him, to love Him." Ptow liod understands thia a heap better than many theologians do. So lie said, the "Utterance of God," the Word, shall come into human relations; He shall take on Him, the nature of man: He shall de scend the ladder of divinity, emptying mmseu:, until lie reaches the lower rungs of humanity, until He shall move in the valley of human life so that men can touch Him, so that men can hear His voice, so that men can look upon Ilia face and in hearing Him and in touching Him and in seeirg Him, they shall hear and touch and see the living God. God cannot be seen by any eye there ii no mirror large enough to reflect Ilim. and even in that which is '"the express image of Hi3 person." the Christ I have been talking about, we have been seeing, as I said only a moment ago, only the reflection of Him.t Wo do not see Jesus; we only see the imago of Jesus in this fourfold or fivefold mirror, the New Testament. I am saying thia in order to relieve skeptic minds of real difficulties. I am saying this to relieve Christians of real difficulties. The one thing we need to cultivate above all else is sincerity. We should not say that we see God when we do not. We should not pretend to have larger visions than we possess. When it is impossible for us to haveta clean, clear cut definition, we should simply wait and realize with the Apostle Paul that what we see is really in a mirror, and makes it look like riddles to us very often. We are puzzled over the mystery of the incarnation. How could God come down and clothe Himself in an infant of days. Our unenlightened friends are trying hard to eliminate the miracle of the incarnation from theology. They had better realize their limits; there are lines in the imago we cannot understand. The mystery of toe Trinity. Who can comprehend that augus doctrine? We must simniy wait. Then t are r,o many things we ra:mot coninass that if we try to we shall rind ovrselve hopolesaly landed in the foTs. We just want to remember that what we have, even in the Bible, is onlv a mirror in which we se as only m a riddle, the realities. Now let us notice again life's riddlen as they relate themselves to ourselves. What s'range creatures we are. What strange things you aid I sometimes do! How tui pecountably we sometimes act! WTiat rid dles we are to ourselves! Can you under stand whv von took a given course the other day? You step aside from your own ideals and your own predeterminations, as to what your career should be. Can you understand why yon said those things the other day? Why rcu were so blind as to do those things? How often men. have sa'd to me, I cannot understand myself; I do not understand why I did that thing. Wny, really, I cannot explain it." Yon cannot, nnssved person, you cannot explain why you re-rain in a sUte of alienation from Cod. If what the Bible says ia true, there i ten dinar over you aa endless hell, or b'.iss. Now, wouM you not think that surh alternatives, "a kingdom or wrath," open to you, von. would snttie the great riues tion? Why, ome oj yon have lived for sixty years with the greatest problem in the universe 6tJ crp.ivrd. It haa beta iiy j,t r rr r? fi "i witii & pntt man. turn who had )i?d until they wero thirtv jr forty or fifty years old, and many of tnoni have a:d, I cannot uulers'and why I did not yield it f ir. What riid. m ur to ourselves! Ifow atrantely we ai.t! l!o-v often nca fJ in tacir atrng?t tMjiijtl Why, rua would ay, for hatunee, laat an i-ijati won.. never he found a I quaking conard, wLinlnj urtdir a juuJ:icr i trip; a man uho could defy tun kin; and, 1 wha: U wor. ilci'y th wunian, the vvifs j of t!. kinf. fa'.i'nq do-vn and akir thnt j no mlpht u Kiijvh u rot tho only one. i i' ns9 men tb;it ya know hae fai'oi, when i tey failed, i:i their very :rj:i--.it iioint. ! v hat an cuifiwi we are ti oare;ve. Who i cvn undflratand lunelf? I giv mp in i;now my own sej U'an a.l e.so buide, nave God and Jcus Chris:. I'.ut lool: at tho enigma of so nuny liven. TaVe, for irtance, the problem of personal fuirerinr. Why is it that there ia so much suffering? Why is it that some of the best I peop;e are cruciuea o awtuliyr Why is it that soijio of the most retinal soil's havo the arrows driven furthest into their quiv ering hp'irta? Do you know why? Can you txplnin it? Can you explain the re verses that come, and come to the very lest of people? Do you know why some of the noblest of men and women are re duced from comfort, from afliuenee, through the meanness or their own chil dren or through the riiniality of touted friends, to almost penury? I know a woman of a refined, sensitive spirit, who has been for more than a third of a century crunlied to a wooden man. home preacher, of course herself consent ing, more than a third of a century united her to that wooden man. I am not draw ing upon my imairination I have thorn right in my mind; I know them. Not only a bhx-khead of a man, but a man with a wooden heart. Just tho opposite of his wife in her aspirations, refinement and sensitiveness. It waa hard for me all the time I knew them not to despise him as I would a dog, and I think tho only son and daughter did almont despise their own father as they would despisn a cur. Now, why was that woman crucified to that man? Here ia a yonng woninn with two or three bairnies, wee bits of toddling things, clinging to her skirts, and that man ia stricken down in the pw'rae of manhood just when he is needed. How can we talk of the consolation of the gospel in such a case. I have not spoken at funerals for years; I only read the word of God and try to prayt bearing up to God the hearts that are before me. 1 will not attempt to explain what ia inexplicable to myself. All I can say ia what Jeaus said, "Vrnat I do thou knowest not now: bat thou shalt understand hereafter.' And behind that I stand, waiting. It is mockery to under take to explain to the soul in such a posi tion the enigma that appals and over whelms her. I said a moment ago, for I must not leave you under a dark cloud; I said a moment ago, of this woman who was crucified for thirty years, that she was one of the Eaint liest and noblest women I have ever known, and what I have said of her ia true. One 01 the most faithful in the church, loyal to the pastor, foremost in missionary work and one of the most noble soula I knew, and I am not sure but tnat there ia the relation of cause and effect. Is not that, wooden man the cause of the beauty of her character? Haa not his imperfec tion of nature, his coarseness, driven that soul to communion with Him who is tha chief among ten thousand and the One al together love?y?. And haa not her contact with Hia transformed her into His like ness, whom sho loves, not having seen? May it not be that we grow in spite of our weights, and that thee deprivations, these afflictions, thia hard disposition, if yon please, may it not be that they are woighta intended to develop ua into tha larger manhood and the greater nobilities of the soul? Look at Jeans Chris:. The story in brief is the incarnation, ia the ministry, is Gethsemane, is tho cross, ia the grave. Would Jesua ever have become the world's -Saviour had He not known Gothsemane and the agony cf the cross? Could Ho have touched the heart, the soro heart of the world, had He not gotten clown to the very lowest deptjw and felt again -end again the iron in His sensitive soul? It may be, fellow sufferer, it may oe eentle woman, that your deprivation, that your losses, your heart disappointments will minister to your transformation and to vour final exultation, until you shalt be in spirtiual stature able to stand even shoulder to shoulder with the Man who was acquainted with sorrows and griefs. Now, in conclusion, tnere is a time com ing when we shall have the perfect vision. "For now we see in a mirror darkly, but then face to face." A young girl fifteen years of age, a lauarhter loving, happy Christian girl, was suddenly thrown upon a bed of severe sick ness; indeed, ail one side was totally par alyzed and she was stricken into almost to tal blindness. Her family physician, after making a very careful examination, said to the sorrowing friends. "She has seen her best days, poor child." And thw laughter loving maid resnonaea, ' doctor, now uwi is not true; my best days are to come when I shall see dhe Kin in His beauty." And so, beloved, our best days are to come. Your best days and mine, the doys whn all the miats have rolled away, when all the clouds have been dissipated by the shining of His face, the day when all he enigmas of life shall be so'.vpd. tha day when we shall see the Kim? in His beaut'-. Jonn savg. "Beloved, now ere we the children of God, and it is rot vet made manifest what we shall , be." We know that if He shall be manifested we shall be like Him, for we shall se Him even as He is. You and I to be liko Him who nendeth not to be told about man, for 11" k''w what was in man. Y'ou and I to be like Him,-who was independent of gravity of all material substances and forcn? Yon find I to be like Him who on the Mov.nt of Transfiguration shone fo that tin discip'es we're dazr.led even of the sp'.cndc- of His garments? You and I to be like Hi"i whom John saw in that divine thfoacy recorded in the last book of the Bib'e, '----der in glory. You and T to be lik? Hi?n who has overcome and is now rittin" on he throne of the universe. That i3 what. He baa said. "H' that overcometh will I rive to sit with Me on Mr throne, f;?p . I also overcame and am sat down with My Father on Ilia throne." Y? s'.ia:: sec ri'.r. We shall see Him face to face. Ev?rv VTObTem will be solved. We shall be wi.l. niro forevermort. Deloved, we will ripver oil meet together here, bnt we may all meet together yon der. We will never all see each other, therefore, here. Let us so live that we hall all tee esch other yonder, when ve have come up, like Him, to meet the hot9 out of great tribulations, it may bo, havinff our rope washed and made white in th9 blood of the Lamb. Till then, good-bye. Oar Xlty Life. A few people live their lives liko a novel, 'taowinff that every chapter haa a bearing on the wheels and that & continuous thread rum through all. 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