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THE SOUL'S VISION OT GOD
Tabernacle Sermon by Rev. Len. G. Broughton.
Text: “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they
shall see God.’’
EORHAPiS never in the history of the
world has there been as much search
ing for God as there is at this time.
I say that in spite of the fact that there
seems to me that there never was a
time when the world was more wicked,
certainly in recent years, than at this
time; but, somehow, there is every
where a longing for God.
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Everywhere we go we find man searching for
■God, but, I am sorry to say, for the most part,
his search is in vain. The reason for this lies not
in the fact that he is insincere in his search, for
he is sincere. Nor does it lie in the fact that God
is not there, for God is everywhere.
God is where the scientist goes; God is where
the man of letters goes. We cannot go in any cor
ner that God is not there. Man’s failure to find
God is not because He is not findable. And it may
not be 'because of wrong methods that God is not
found. I would not criticise the astronomer who
endeavors to find God in the skies, nor the scien
tist who, with his microscope and chemicals and
pick-axe, tries to find Him. Nor would I say any
thing against the method that is used. God is to
be found through all these lines and means of in
vestigation. We should be very careful w’hen we
are standing firm for the truth that we do not
condemn everything that is intellectual. The man
■who seeks closely through his microscope, or his
telescope, or his history, is to be commended, for
God is there, and the only way to find Him there
is through the means that He has ordained. But
while this is time, I say, again, that, as a matter
of fact, God is not generally found in this kind
of search, and the reason is given us in our text:
“The pure in heart shall see God.”
Give the scientist a clear spiritual eye; remove
by divine process the pigmentation of sin that lies
in his spiritual vision, and he will see God. David
saw God in the skies; he saw God everywhere.
But there was a time when he could not see God;
he could not see Him anywhere. His heart was
impure; his spiritual eyes were blurred.
And so with respect to the man today who
searches for God. God is not to be found unless
man’s spiritual vision is perfectly clear and trans
parent. If man’s spiritual vision is transparent,
God is to be seen everywhere. Everything God ever
made becomes sacred to Him, for God, the Creator,
could not create a thing that is not sacred. When
our eyes are clear and our vision perfect, God
stands out before us in all the majesty of his glory
and power, and we see 'Him.
But I do not want to speak only of the necessity
of a clear spiritual vision, but, also, of the result
of it. “The pure in heart shall see God”; shall
see God everywhere.
I. GOD IN HIS CREATION.
They shall see God in His creation.
A friend of mine told me of an incident that
happened while he was at Niagara. He and his
bride had gone there on their honeymoon. One
day they were seated on a rustic bench, and two
well-dressed men came strolling up, and stopped
not far from where they sat; they were hid by some
bushes. The two men stood there for a time, per
fectly quiet, and then one of them said to the
other: “Oh, my God! If I just had that great
power harnessed and hitched to my mill, I would
soon manufacture every bit of cotton that is made
in the States, and have a corner on the cotton
goods of the world!” The two men then walked
off.
After awhile there came another couple, who
looked like ministers. They stood looking at the
magnificent falls with field-glasses which they car
ried with them, and, finally, one said to the other:
“Oh, the majesty of God!” Then they sat down
and talked about the majesty of God and, finally,
knelt and prayed, then got up and went away.
Now, you tell me that there is no difference be-
The Golden Age for March 7, 1007.
tween those two couples. There is every material
difference between them. The first couple saw no
God. All that they saw was commercialism. All
they saw was the great whirling water that could
generate great currents of power, that, when hitch
ed to machinery could turn thousands of spindles
and make millions of dollars. They saw wealth;
they saw no God. Why was it that they did not
see God? It was because they had no spiritual
vision. Their spiritual eyes were filled with the
pigments of commercialism. They were sordid and
self-centered.
I do not believe that half the members of our
churches have any vision of God. When they
look out upon nature and see the wonderful handi
work of God, it is not to His glory that they see,
but to the glory of man. How much can man get
out of it?
Now, take that second couple. When they stood
there and looked upon that magnificent sight, the
first thought that came into their minds was the
majesty of God. That was the first thing that I
saw when I saw that place. I never thought about
humming factory spindles and the like.
Those men saw God! Why? Because they had
a clear spiritual vision. They were not self-cen
tered. They were not absorbed with commercial
ideas. They were prepared to go out into the
great arena of God’s glory and behold His majesty.
So it is with us in all departments of life. One
great need of the world today is the vision of
God, and the only way to get a vision of God is
through a clear spiritual atmosphere with a clear
spiritual eye.
11. GOD IN THE BIBLE.
Then, again, the pure in heart shall see God in
the Bible. The Bible is the most wonderful book
in all the world; the most widely-read book; the
most universally cherished book, and yet, I am
sorry to say, that much of the reading of the
Bible is without any thought of God. Many men
read it that they may tear it to pieces and destroy
it; and many others that they may criticise; many
others that they may bolster themselves up in
some kind of faith or doctrine; many others from
sheer habit, because they have been taught to
read it. Now and then one reads it and studies
it with the thought of discovering God. I would
to God we had more of the latter kind. The only
way that man can understand the Bible is through
a spiritual eye that is free from all selfishness and
sin.
Learning cannot give a man a knowledge of the
Bible. All the wisdom of all the sages of all the
ages has never been able to interpret one verse.
Wisdom is all right. Wisdom is used of God, and
blessed of God; but wisdom is only used of God
and blessed of God in the interpretation of the
Scriptures when the spiritual eye is perfectly
clean and clear.
Bob Ingersoll knew more about the Bible than I
expect to know. He knew more about it than 1
want to know, but he was ignorant of the book
itself. Why? Not because he did not have a brain;
not because he did not have culture sufficient, but
because the Bible is a spiritually-revealed message,
and can only be read and understood through the
medium of the (Spirit.
“The natural man can discern the things of
God,” says the Apostle. I remember, some years
ago, a friend took me to see a woman in New
York City who was bed-ridden, and had been for
a number of years. In addition to that she was
blind, deaf and dumb. She was one woman, when
I looked upon her, that I felt had a perfect right
to be blue and despondent, but she was the oppo
site. 'She had learned to read her Bible by the
touch of her fingers. They had a peculiar table
made with a great Bible on it in raised letters,
and they would roll that table over her bed, and
she would read the Bible from morning till night,
and read at night if she was not asleep; and I
pledge you my word, I never saw such a bright
face. When I looked the tip ends of her fin-
gers I saw the explanation of her brightness.
They looked like hprn. They had been so hardened
by constant feeling over those raised letters; she
was afraid that she would lose the sense of touch
by reason of this hardening. That woman had
more insight into the Bible than all the higher
critics of the work. She had discovered God in
the book that He gave. Everything in it pointed
her to God. She had no physical eyes; she had no
physical ears, but she had spiritual eyes and ears,
and they were clear and transparent. She saw God
through her spiritual eye; she heard God through
her spiritual ear.
11l GOD IN THE CHURCH.
Again, the pure in heart see God in the church.
I pity the man who thinks that he can connect
himself with the church if he wants to, and he
need not if he does not want to. The church is
a divine institution. It is an institution with di
vine requirements for membership. It is an insti
tution with divine requirements resting upon those
who are in it. It is an institution with di
vine blessings promised to those who live
up to it. I am frank to say that many of
the churches, indeed, all of them, have much in
them to criticise. I have never found one that did
not. Even that intimate band of disciples that
gathered about our Lord had one out of twelve
who was a devil from the beginning, and if that
were true of the little band of followers of the
Lord himself, it certainly ought not to discourage
us if now and then we stumble on some in our
own churches to criticise. God is in the
church, with all of its mistakes, and with all of
its short-comings, and with all the things that it
ought to do that it does not, and the things that
it ought not to do that it does.
Think of it! What would this world be without
the church; and then think, too, what would the
church be if everybody in it was just like me?
I believe there is needed a revival of two things
more than anything else at the present time.
First, a revival of the consciousness of God.
Second, a revival of the sanctity of the church—
that God is, and that the church is God’s insti
tution. 1 ■
IV. GOD IN HUMANITY.
The pure in heart shall see God in humanity.
A friend of mine was telling me that at one time
he was visiting a large manufactory. The presi
dent of this institution was showing him around
the factory, and they came to a machine that cost
thousands of dollars. It was one of the very few
machines of that kind in the world. It did the
work of more than fifty men, and was operateed
by one man. He was a great expert who had been
trained very carefully through a long period of
time for that important position.
Said my friend to the president: “That is a
wonderful machine. Let me ask you a question.
Will you answer it?”
“I will try,” said the president.
“Well, the question that I want to ask is this:
Which of the two things had you rather see hap
pen; that machine break down so that you could
never get another, or that the man break down?”
“Well,” replied the president, “that is a hard
question; but to be perfectly frank with you, I
had rather the man would break down, because
I could get another man and train him, though
I should lose a great deal of money. But if the
machine should break down it would cost me thou
sands and thousands of dollars, and, perhaps, cause
the loss of my business.”
I have no doubt if every one were as frank as
that man we would have other statements like
that. What does it reveal? Does it not reveal the
fact that man is worth less than a machine? It
has come to this, that man, made in the image
of God, is worth less to this world than a machine;
oh! pity the age! That president never thought
of the sufferings of that man and the heartaches
of his family. He, like that man at Niagara, was