Show ABLE SERMON BY REV W M PADEN Large Audience Hears Interest Interesting Interesting ing Discourse at First Presbyterian Church CHRISTIAN PR PRAGMATISM TRUTHS RE OF TOLD TOL TOLA TOLDA A large audIence greeted Rev Wll Wil ri 41 P den at the FIrst PresbY Presbyterian terian church Sunday Sunda morning when Dr Paden preached on Christian Pragmatism He took for hIs text the words found In John If any man willeth to do His will wilI he shall know of the teaching whether it be of God The was reallY based upon an attempt to find a uSe for Professor Profesor James famous book on pragmatism or orto orto to find and use the truth contained in inthe inthe the book on the meanIng of truthful ways In part Dr Paden said The religion of Christ was practical When the Jews Questioned among themselves concerning the value nd source of HIs teachIngs He told them to set what He taught to work and so find out Its value He had laid down certaIn princIples as the tha will of God The practical man resolved doubt by sayIng Well let us try and see He goes to work and finds out This Is good everyday common sense As Lord Bacon has saId The question whether or not anything can be l Is to be settled not hot by arguIng but by tryIng ThIs appeal to action or ap appropriation appropriation is as old as the Psalter O 0 taste and see that the Lord Is goOd Blessed Is the man that In Him Such active trust Is the ro roOt t energy as welt well as tile ot of truth The ancIent motto Is a good one Practice is the way to knowledge ThIs precept Is as old as Moses Then shall we know If we follow on to know saId he What one does has to say the least a great deal to do with what he knows We learn not only to todo todo do but what is most worth doIng by practice As one says There Is only one way in which we can come to real realand realand and adequate knowledge ot of the divinity and reality of the facts and truths of ChrIstianity and that is by trial A good understanding have aU all they that do His commandments This means that we are not the only people who are healed trained and made sure of the truth as we walk or run rui In the way of His commandments We are not alone In thIs school of experience There are of them fur further further ther on than we These havIng more experience are arc better authorities Be Beware Beware ware of measuring possibilIties by your own Individual attainments A Narrow Man ManOf ManOf Of all the narrow men I know of the narrowest Is the man who rejects his fathers findIngs concerning religion because his father has been dead a few y ars or who rejects hIs neighbors findings because forsooth he hImself has not got on that far The practical man must accept much as true and valuable which he has neIther the time nor a to verIfy As Professor James Jame has said Truth Jives In fact for the most part the credit system You accept my verification of one thing I yours ot of another We trade on each others truth Mens beliefs at any time are so much experIence funded We baik on each others ex experience and testimony Without such trust In each other We could not trust oUrs ourselves or even God When there therefore therefore fore we speak of the evidential value of relIgIous experIence we mean not merely your experience but the col collective collective of the Christian community The experience of others thus becomes the brIdge over which we pass to an experience ce of our own One ot of the surest tests of such knowledge is agreement among those who have or have had access to the facts This is isas isas as true of the realities of religion as it itis itis is of the realities of history or sc science ence That multitudes which no man can number have found In the religion of Christ the way whIch arrives the truth which satisfies and the life which abounds and abides adds to the em emphasis emphasis of the Masters promIse If any man man be willIng to do His will he shall know of the teaching whether It be of God Of course the religion of ChrIst Is true whether we try It or not The truth was in Jesus whether we find It or not The fact that you make no use of the supernatural In no wIse Indi Indicates cates that there Js is no such thing Your experiences do not create the truth they only verIfy It they do not make It they only unveil or reveal It they do not make heaven they only enable you to get there But In order to know by experIence you must not only have I correct Ideas but use these Ideas In ac accord accord cord with the unseen realities Our ul ultimate ultimate reliance must be not on our ex cx experIences but on Him not on our see seeIng seeing Ing more and more satisfactorily but upon our seeing HIm as the object of our and longIngs and in inthe inthe the end seeing Him as He Is Determining Values Fruits follow tollow the truth they do not constitute it And yet we have the highest authority for testing a tree by Its fruits So the practical man tests the importance of a belief bellet a rule of ac action action tion or a pIece of ore by saying Let Letus Letus us assay it or put It to the test and see what It Is worth As Mr r James Jamesw w would uld perhaps put it What Is the practical cash value ot of your belief bellet What worth the while results from this or that lIne of action Does your prom promising promising ising specimen of ore carry notable values Can you ride your Idea has hasit hasit it any go In It wIll it march Does your open toad road lead to anything worth seeking If you have any truth In you or withIn sight or promIse It should have practical consequences The ques question question tion Is not how do you feel or what do you opIne or think or believe but what are you doIng or goIng to do As AsKing AsKing King of Oberlin would say Not Ideal emotion but ideal action Is the aim AxIoms are not axioms until they have been felt In our pulses The most origInal thing in us Is Impulse to ac action lion tion Beliefs are rules for action You have a plow Wh Where re are your furrows Ot Of course the wIseman wise man will not base all hIs judgments of value or worth on his own personal needs or satisfactions AgaIn we must remember not only that there are other people but that there are other circumstances We must reckon with the lIfe to come with the future Like Paul we must thInk of the profit of the many There are also uses which lie beyond our present ken That Is profitable w which ich Is expedIent or useful on the whose whole or In the long longrun longrun run The temporarily satisfactory Is often false fase That WhIch Is for the time disagreeable Is often both profitable and true The seemingly useless may maybe maybe be actually full ot of values The school schoolboy schoolboy boy would be over who Should refuse to grant that two and two make tour four until he knew what use was to be made of the admission Such Sucha a practical youngster might ask what Is the use ot of goIng to school What Is the use use of at good morals or gentle man manners mann ners n rs What is the use of anything Must Trust God Now as a matter of training the wholesome child has hal to take a lot of thIngs on trust he has to do a lot or of things becauSe his more experienced senIors insIst that they are worth while We cannot enter even the kingdom of science without such trust In test testimony mony To be willing to do Gods will we must trust Him Then comes the experIence whIch leads to knowledge or Intimate acquaintance There Is a famous book called The Practical Reason Its aIm was to get getaway getaway away from speculation and to find a working basis for morals and religion The outcome ot of Its contention Is some something something thing lIke this Live and act as It If God freedom and Immortality were reail ties and you will find them so And Andas as if God you will know that He is i sooner or later you will wll find It out anyhow Do your duty as far and andas andas as fast tast as you know It and you will grow not only In knowledge but In grace whether you do your duty or not you may grow in a kInd of knowl knowledge knowledge edge and you will in the end find out that the duty you ignored Is a stern reality and in the saddle Act as It If you were sure you must live for better etter or for tor worse and forever and you will begin to know the push and the pull pul the power of an endless life sooner or later you will wUl find out that you are in for It forever anyhow Act as you think a Christian ought to act and yoU will not only become a Christian but you will have reason for the faith that is in you sooner or later we must recognize the validity of Christs claim to our trust and servIce anyway for forwe forwe we shall aU all appear before the judg meat ment seat scat ot of ChrIst ChristS S 1 |