Show MEA MEASURING GOD GODBY BY YARDSTICKS Rev Frank Pay Fay Eddy Preaches a Sermon on the Sub Subject Subject AND DISCUSSES TIiE TE DEITY SHOWS DIFFERENT WAYS GOD IS t p CONSI CONSIDERED ERED Rev Frank Ray Fay Eddy preached on Measuring God by Human Yard Yardsticks Yardsticks sticks at the Unitarian church yes The sermon began with a comparison of the results achi achieved ved by Job who did not find satisfaction for hIs reason in the answer he received from Jehovah but who did find satis satisfaction satisfaction faction in a sense of nearer communIon rilon nIon with God Thus the only result of his seeking was a deepening of his spiritual lIf lIfe a gain In the faculty of worship This Mr Eddy said was the usual result of seeking the new truth in religion Rationality was ever with half a loaf but in proportion to earnestness Is gaIned a new sense of Intimate communion with divine things The futility of human yard yardsticks yardsticks sticks In measuring God was expressed in the following words I do not aim to be exhaustive in cata cataloguing cataloguing the different kinds of yardsticks we e finite humans have invented to meas measure uro ure the Infinite God A number of rell reli religious I yardsticks however may mav be men mentioned mentioned by way ot of illustration one ne Is tra tradition tradition written and unwritten ThIs would include legends and folklore traditIons that live In the language ot of a people It would Include all Bibles the written traditions tra of supernatural events And It would include practically aU all religious in institutions In so far as the they by ceremony and ritual rehearsed and fostered traditions All this tradItion whether pre preserved served In legend In sacred book or 01 state stata stately l ly ceremony Is after aU all but one of these yardsticks Tradition as Yardstick Taking Christian tradition as an ex cx example ample so long as we devoutly b lieve we have tave an actual history or of how God made the world of lila his dealings with the first pair In the gard garden n of Eden of his rela relations relations to the patriarchs an prophets and ando o of the later sending of Jesus Christ as a savior as long I SQ say as we can devoutly believe all this we seem to have haye a very good yardstick with which to measure God and his activities But Christian tra tradition does not the modern ques questioner questioner ThIs If h a yardstick that has been dis by many as inadequate an and Incorrect Another expedient Is to measure God Godby Godby by symbol or ty by substituting something known and understandable for tor the In Infinite Infinite finite ani incomprehensible Thus most poly have a thought behind them The various vanous deIties represent soot sent phases of oC the one one oner r i believe the development mt of the doctrine of the divinity of Christ Is due to this very 1 tendency as lb is the worshIp of the Virgin Mary and the SaInts In the Ro Rowan Rowan wan and Greek Catholic churches The creeds are still other yardsticks a rd sticks being explanations of the designs of God to toward ard men They are whittled out oct oJ of the woof of but usually are flourished chiefly by the generation that produces them Definition Another Yardstick We may add to the above the yardstick of definition We attempt to measure God by telling what we think he Is or Is not For Instance we wc glibly say he Is the theone theone one supreme being and eter eternal eternal nal or that he omniscient omnipotent and omnipresent and behold we do not In the slightest st degree know what we mean by our definition If we ac pt the pantheists assertion that God is simply the life or eternal energy all things we can partly understand but are not satisfied We are unwilling to admit that Herbert Spencer exhausted the subJect sub subject when he termed God the unknowable yet we can add little more than to en endorse endorse dorse the phrase of Matthew Arnold who denned defined the Infinite one be tind the veil eil as The Power not our ourselves ourselves selves that makes for S So after examining and trying all the various yardsticks we are arc left Uk like Job without an answer r except the challenge of an problem m We cannot measure God or fathom his providence The modern noco is that th the theold old yardsticks ks ar are delusive that all his seeking brings Is the l of a power in the universe that produces a certain order physical and spiritual and that as asa asa a human humn being behl partially free lie be can work with th or against thIs order Element of Mystic But this Is tot not all We cast aside the tho various ks as moro more or less use useless less There abides always the mystical element In religion that Intimate personaL communion that cannot be much less weighed md and measured I can cannot I Inot not explain It but perhaps can partiallY illustrate my meaning comparing our hu human human man relations as parents and children with that of God and men We Ve can trace the evolution of the sense of Ir hr the race we e can show the resulting moral relations and can gather facts and figures to prove our pet theories of child chil government and education In all this we are using ou au yardsticks of oC science and facts The sUbject IS within reach and andis andI I is measurable and we arrive at some ible facts and compiling or of figures there Is a something which we all feel when we gather our little ones in our arms a mystical sense of f JOY and corn com communion munion ot of soul with soul that is after all the real tie that binds parent and child together The Tho deep sense of love pro protecting on the side of the parent and con on th the part of the child Is the sw sweet t and holy hob bond that abides and unites And this mystical thing cannot be measured with th an any of our yard yardsticks sticks Some such essential relationship there Is between God and man Our human souls pant after the divine soul soulas ns as the hart for the tho water brooks There is this indestructible mysticism in hu humanity inanity manity that makes man ever ver a God seeker In his seeking he be never neer satisfies his reason but does find a communion with divine things whIch feeds his hun hungering hungering gering soul Dogmas Passing Away In conclusIon Mr Eddy said he firm firmly firmly ly believed that the old yardsticks of religion would bo be less and less used in the future In place of their dog dogmatic matic scale of values we learn the so sorn rn satisfaction of philosophy ThIs philosophy he thought would resemble In many respects the nobler type of stoIcism But with it will be mixed the mystical element In which after atter aU all abIdes the significance and power of religion The faith or of th future I firmly b bUEe be beHove Hove UEe will 90 e philosophic and will dis discredit discredit credit the old yardsticks he said nut But I as firmly believe It wIll unite with It broad philosophy something of the mysticism of Jesus knowing the kIngdom of heaven not as a place to tob tob b gained but as an experIence in lov by loving ing and serving The musIcal program Included a solo The Homeland by MIss Nellie Ma Mahan Maban han ban and an anthem by Unity quartet quartette tet te |