The North Georgian. (Cumming, Ga.) 18??-19??, June 15, 1906, Image 3

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THE PULPIT. A BRILLIANT SUNDAY SERMON BY DR. D. D. MACLAURIN. Subject : The Unknowable. Brooklyu, N. Y.—Sunday morning the Rev. Dr. Donald D. MaeLauriu, pastor of th-, Greene Avenue Baptist Church, preached on 'To Know the Unknow able: a Prayer.” The text was from Ephesians iii: 17-1!): "To the end that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, may be strong to apprehend' with all the saints what Is the breadth and length and height and depth, and tJ know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge.” He said in the course of his sermon: * Who can know the unknowable? Is not this in the nature of a paradox? Wherein can one be so strengthened as to become able to apprehend that which is really teyond the reach of his apprehension? Has not Paul here erred in a prayer otherwise luminous, spiritual, profound and possible? Has he not introduced here something that ordinary mortals cannot grasp? Well, I think that it will be as well for us to go slowly in our disposition to criticise him. It is ... safe rule to these apostolic men know what th*ey were about. I am convinced that Paul not only knew by experi ence the things he said; but that he was inspired by the Holy Spirit in all his writing. WhsA about life? What about the duration of sentient existence? What about the continuity of that which we call ourselves? Tell us, thou biologist? Perhaps thy science is more exact than that of the mathematician or the man who philosophizes about time. Tell us, if you can. what is life? Hast thou ever seen it? No—never! Hast thou ever touched it? Only indirectly. Cahst thou tell us what it is? No! Then space runs into infinity, time runs into forever and forever, and life runs into God! And we know some thing about all of these; and yet there Is no limit to their vast extent. It has done us good to investigate them — it is a noble exercise—it is enlarging to the mind and the heart to come into contact with concepts so sublime -and mighty as these. So it is with this matter which Paul prays that we shall comprehend. We shall not be able To master it, and yet we can by studying it apprehend something to its immeasurable depths, something of its infinite length, some thing of its all inclusive breadth, something of its mighty altitude. And so Paul prays that we shall be so rooted and grounded in love that we shall be able to apprehend with all saints, high and lowly, rich and poor, • ancient and modern, the dimensions of ciri'isL’s love. Now, let ns for the of !•*<>*wye-?* -deduv* a few of the terms of our wealthy text. To the end that ye, being rooted and grounded in love. Love here means love toward our fellow creatures. In deed, it always means that in the Bible unless it is otherwise defined. It means the affection we should have for the men and women of earth, the people of whom we are and to whom we belong by race connections. It is to be a reflection of God’s love for the race. Its energy is to be meas ured only by the energy of the Divine love. Its inclusiveness is to be lim ited and measured only by the inclu siveness of the Divine love. Out of the heart :tre the issues of life. When lore is in the heart every thing is love begotten. Foundationed, like a building which has been settled, as a whole, and will never show cracks or flaws in the future through fail ures in the foundation. Here, then, is the idea of the soul being so placed as to make it strong for the noblest life. The two meta phors supplement one another—they belong to each other. The former, rooted, gives us the idea of organic life and growth; the latter, founda tioned, gives us the idea of strength derived from the union of parts. A Christianity which is not rooted is always unstable. A Christian love that has not penetrated into the depths is not a love of a permanent or en during character. O that the love of every one of us may penetrate into the very being of God! That the ten drils of our affections may twine themselves about the heart of the incarnate God! Then shall we be stable, then shall we grow. To the end that ye, being rooted and foundationed in love, may be strong to apprehend with all the saints. Strong for what? That you may know j the love of Christ in all its mighty dimensions! And this is a most nat ural evolution. To acquire love is to obtain finer powers of percepting. There is nothing like love for sharp ening the wits. The eyes and ears •of a loving mother are immeasurably •quicker than tlie senses of the love less. It is not true that love is blind; love is endowed with sight of enor mous range. But while he was yet afar off His Aatlier saw Him. Do not be surprised, therefore, to find that when we are rooted and grounded in love we obtain finer pow ers of apprehension. But what are divine love and grace! The holy pano rama is stupendous, and even with •our sharpened spiritual senses we cannot take in the infinite glory. And so the apostle tells us that we are to Apprehend it with all the saints, with the help of all the saints! It takes all of us to survey the vast estate. One Christian sees one aspect of the glory and another beholds another. The Matterhorn, seen from Zermatt, is one thing; from the Eggisborn it is quite another. And so with these stupendous wonders of divine glory. Each Christian is to behold his own share of the marvelous revelation. Matthew will discern one aspect, and Mark another, and Luke another, and John another. Each individual will behold some individual glory. The furrow of one field abounds in won ders: what then of the infinite estate? 1. Let us notice, how wide is the compass of love To the end that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, may be strong to apprehend with all the saints, what is the breadth? llow broad is its conq.iss? Why, my friends, the love of Christ is so broad as to take in this whole world! The love of Christ comprehends all men, all people, reaching to the utmost stretch of human sin. or sorrow, or need—it i the great gospel whosoever. How broad is this love of Christ! There is actually no limitation to it. Do you mean that Jesus Christ can love tiie man who has lived a wicked, yes. a vile life—who now bears upon ids face the marks of the beasts—who is so repulsive that we shudder to look upou him—that man, that poor wreck of a thing—that man in the gutter, that man disowned by his own father, and, listen to it, his own mother, and all his friends? Will not that man’s excesses shut him out from the love of Christ? No. No! Even for that man. defiled, wretched, Jesus Christ has love. He hates the sin; but loves the sinner. He came to seek and to save just such broken lives as that! 2. llow far it will carry us. There are a great many really good people who fear to become open disciples of the Christ and unite with His church because they fear that they will not be able to hold out. as they say. Their ideal of the Christian life is so lofty that they fear they shall not be able to continue in well-doing to the end— so they , stand aloof. Then, there are v a great many Chris tians in the churches who are fearful all the time—fearful as to the issue of their life, and many are especially afraid of death. They have a horror of it; they are afraid that it will come to tnem m an hour when they may not be ready for it; they are afraid that it may bring a pain that they may not be able to endure —and so they are full of terror. And then there are Christian men and women, and young men and wo men everywhere, who are asking, “Is this Christianity able to carry us through this life?” Is it strong enough to carry us up the steep sides of the mountains of difficulty we meet in life? Is it strong enough to carry us safely through the valleys, where there are hissing serpents, and where the voiled vampires have their homes, and where crouching beasts of temp tation are ever ready to spring upon us in an unguarded moment. Is this love of Christ able to carry us all the way through? On the high seas of life, in the stresses of all weather, when the billows roll and dash against our frail bark—is there a pilot able to guide the ship through the mighty seas? Oh, look at what God has done! First: He has promised to provision 'us. look at the eleventh verse of the eighty-fourth Psalm: “For Jehovah God is a sun and a shield; Jehovah will give grace and glory; no good thing will He withhold from them that walk uprightly.” That is actually in the Bible. I sometimes think that we treat the Bible as if it were a huge joke—that these words do not mean what they actually say. Listen to tnem again: “No good thing will He withhold from them that walk up rightly.” And these words are con firmed by our Master’s own teaching. Second: He has promised to protect us. “I will lift up mine eyes unto the mountains.” Well, that may not be a wise thing to do. Is it wise to look at our difficulties? Is that what it means? But the Psalmist is not done: “From whence shall my help come?” No wonder, when you are looking at the mountains of difficulty, that you should say that. Now listen. “My help cometh from Jehovah, who made heaven and earth.” Is that not good enough? No wonder Paul said: “What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us?” 111. From what depth will it rescue us? The depth indicates the distance that love reaches. It goes down to the deepest forms of sin. It reaches to the greatest sinner. Wherefore, also, He is able to save to the utter most them that draw near unto God through Him, seeing that He ever liveth to make intercession for them. I shall nev6r forget hearing one of the foremost Africans in a powerful speech in the City of Washington, D. C. He was pleading for patience. He pleaded with the people to give his race a chance and time, and he said; “Oh, think of the depths—of the depths of impotence and super stition and poverty out of which and up from which my race must come!” Ah, yes! But we were in lower depths still. Down beneath the black man, wearing shackles ourselves had forged about our feet and hands— the shackles of sin. It is up out of these depths our God must lift us. IV. The height unto which He lifts us. For this Love is not only broad as our needs, continuous as our pil grimage, reaches down to the depths where we are. but it also lifts up to the highest altitudes of the Divine Life. The way to measure is to be gin at the cross and the foul abyss of evil and go up to the throne. This wondrous Love lifts up from the low est degradation and sin to the glory of Sonship in the courts of heaven. How high will it lift us? O, God, Thou knowest. Well, after we add all our powers together and seek to apprehend the love of Christ in its length -and breadth and depth and height, the superlative glory is all beyond us! It passeth knowledge. Even when we are filled unto all the fullness of God, the overflowing is infinite! Let us soon see to it that we use our indi vidual power to its utmost. Let us see to it that every capacity is hal lowed- Let qs open tty innermost chamber and let in the King, and by the ministry of His love toward us these highe-r perceptions may become ours. MINERS KILLED BY CONSTABLES Parading Strikers Precipitate Con flict By Firing Upon Guards. TEN ARE SHOT DOWN Two Instantly Killed and Eight Wound ed, Three Fatally—Employment of Non-Union Men Resented. The new mining town of Ernest, Pa., on the Buffalo, Rochester and Pittsburg railroad, was the scene Fri day of a conflict between a detail of state constabulary and striking coal miners in which two strikers were killed and eight others wounded, three of them fatally. A body of strikers, headed by a brass band, marched from the Anita mines in Jefferson county to receive one of the mine officials expected from Punxsutawney. On the way to the station the marchers encountered a detail of twelve members of the state constabulary. As they passed a member of the band fired his revolver at the troops. No one was struck, but the constabulary immediately re taliated with a volley from their car bines. \ When the smoke cleared away ten strikers were lying on the ground and the others had fled precipitately down the hill. After the excitement had subsided the wounded miners were removed to Adrian hospital. As the result of the shooting a mass meeting arranged for Friday was canceled and Sheriff Wettling has ordered the arrest of the leaders of the parade. The mines at Ernest are owned by the Buffalo and Rochester Coal com pany. The strike began April 18. Three weeks ago the plant was start ed with non-union men and a detail of the state constabulary has since been guarding the coal company’s property. BEEF PACKtRS HOUSE fLEAMNG. *—■" 'nt liiey Make Almost Tragic Haste to Apply the Whitewash Brush. In response to a request from the house committee on agriculture, Presi dent Roosevelt Friday forwarded to Representative Wadsworth, chairman of that committee, the report made to him by a committee of the depart ment of agriculture regarding condi tions in the Chicago meat packing houses. Accompanying the report was a let ter from the president in which he points out that there is no conflict in the substance between the Neill- Reynolds report and that of the agri cultural department experts. It is said in the latest report that the pack ing house proprietors are manifest ing almost “a humorous haste to clean up, repave and attempt to plan for future changes.” New toilet rooms are being provid ed, with new dressing rooms and clean towels. The report says this haste toward reform “would be amusing u rt was not so near tragic.” The president says his investiga tions have not been completed, but “enough has developed, in my judg ment, to call for immediate, thorough going and radical enlargement of the powers of the government in inspect ing all meats which enter into inter state and foreign commerce.” DISMISSAL FOR GRaFIER AIKEN. Railroad Clerk Who Accepted Stock of Coel Companies is Fired. Joseph A. Aiken, chief clerk of Monongahela division, has been dis missed by direction of President Cas satt. In his testimony before the in terstate commission, sitting at Phil adelphia, Aiken said that while his salary had averaged between S3O and f 120, he owned nearly $75,000 worth of coal stock. He admitted having received checks from coal companies and also gifts from company stores. BROWNINGS CAUSED BY STORM. Nine People Find Watery Grave While Crossing Niagara River. During the height of a heavy storm which swept over Detroit, Mich, early Friday. Nine persons were drowned on their way across the river to a resort in Canada. Trees are down all over the city, and much damage has been caused to wires and telephones. POULTRY BE-HEADER. 50c. It is a necessity to Ask y° ur ever)' butcher, grocer Dealer and household. It does the to show lt work quick as a wink. No muss, to y° u ’ no fuss. Made with the best cutlery steel blade. Castings brown enameled h, x. finish. Agents wanted. 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