That evening, as they were all sitting in the library, he told his wife and son of their request, and said he had not fully made up his mind what was best to do. At this point Walter spoke up and said, with a smile on his face: "Father, do you remember one evening when we were having our Bible lessons you promised to preach a sermon on creation?"
"Yes, son, I remember."
"Why not preach that sermon as a farewell, for I know you can do so now with understanding."
The father looked at his son, smiled, and said: "Not a bad idea; what do you think of it, wife?"
"I think it would be grand and might be the means of showing some poor sufferer the truth. How thankful I am for this truth, and how I wish the whole world would know the Christ Truth."
"Then it is settled, I will tell the directors of my decision in the morning;" which he did, also telling them on what subject he would preach.
CHAPTER XVI
THE FAREWELL SERMON
The appointed Sunday dawned clear and balmy, and by the time the services commenced, the church was filled to its full capacity, the new minister officiating; and when it came time for the sermon, he announced that the Rev. Williams would preach his farewell sermon, and that the subject would be "Creation." The pastor slowly arose from the seat he had been occupying and leisurely walked up to and into the pulpit. He slowly allowed his gaze to roam over the crowded church, then began his sermon in a clear, full voice:
"My dearly beloved brethren, once again, after more than six months"
vacation, I stand before you for the last time as pastor. I have been in your midst for more than fifteen years, trying to point out to you, to the best of my ability, the way to salvation. In that time I have made many staunch friends--friends to be proud of, friends that were true, friends that were friends in time of storm as well as sunshine, friends that have stood the test of time, and I hope will stand the test to the end of time, for a severe test of their love and friendship for me and mine is coming."
By this time every eye was fastened on him, and each individual ear was strained to catch his every word.
The Rev. Williams now opened the Bible he had carried to the pulpit with him, and said:
"As has been announced by your pastor, the subject of my sermon is "The Creation." In explanation I might say that just before, and during the time of my vacation, I was carefully studying the Bible relative to this subject, and I discovered the fact that during all the time I was studying for the ministry, and these many years that I have been an ordained minister, I had not become acquainted with the true facts regarding the creation of man. It was the discovery of this, with many others I have since made, that compelled me to send in my resignation, and in my sermon to-day I shall endeavor to make plain my discovery.
I say my discovery, although it was not mine originally, but another"s whose illumined spiritual sense is as far above mine as the blue vaults of heaven are above the earth. I will now read to you verses from the first and second chapters of Genesis. No doubt, you are all more or less familiar with them. Genesis, Chapter I, 26th verse, reads: _"And G.o.d said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness, and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth."_ Chapter 1, 27th verse, reads: _"So G.o.d created man in his own image, in the image of G.o.d created He him; male and female created He them."_ Chapter 1, 31st verse, reads: _"And G.o.d saw everything that He had made, and behold, it was very good, and the evening and the morning were the 6th day."_ Chapter 2, 1st verse, reads: _"Thus the heavens and earth were finished, and all the hosts of them."_ Chapter 2, 6th verse, reads: _"But there went up a mist from the earth, and watered the whole face of the ground."_ Chapter 2, 7th verse, reads: _"And the Lord G.o.d formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and man became a living soul.""_
As he finished reading this verse, he laid the Bible down and said, "I now wish to call your attention to chapter I, 26th verse. Therein is stated that G.o.d made man in His image and likeness. Chapter I, 27th verse, reiterates this statement so as to more fully emphasize this great truth. We now come to the question of what is G.o.d. We all agree that G.o.d is Spirit. If this be true, then man must be spiritual and not material, else he would not be the image and likeness of G.o.d, Spirit. In chapter I, 31st verse, we read that _G.o.d saw everything He had made, and behold, it was very good._ Now I want to ask, is sin, disease, trouble, affliction, or death good? It has been said that under certain conditions sickness might be good. I also thought this at one time, but in no way can we conceive of sin as being good.
Then G.o.d never made sin, neither did He make disease and death; then whence came they? Is there an evil power that creates these dreaded things? If we believe this, we will have two creators, or G.o.ds, which cannot be true. Let us see if the Bible will not throw some light on this seeming mystery. Chapter 2, 1st verse, reads: _"Thus the heavens and earth were finished and all the hosts of them."_ Now this is all of creation, G.o.d has finished His work, yet in the same chapter a little further along we read: _"But there went up a mist from the earth and watered the whole face of the ground."_ In the next verse we read: _"And the Lord G.o.d formed man of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul."_ But G.o.d had finished His work some time before, at least so it was stated in some of the preceding verses. Is there a second creation, or is this simply one of the contradictions spoken of by some of our Bible critics? We can not conceive of an all-knowing G.o.d having made a mistake when He created man spiritually in His image and likeness and then later making another man materially from dust.
"I wish to call your attention to the fact that the Bible does not state that this _dust man_ is made in the image and likeness of G.o.d, in fact it does not state that he was made at all, it simply says: "And the Lord G.o.d _formed_ man of the dust of the ground." Then this dust man at best was only _formed_ and never made. Neither does it state that G.o.d had anything to do with the forming of this dust man, as it does of the spiritual man made in His image and likeness, but states the _Lord_ G.o.d formed him.
"Nowhere in the first chapter of Genesis, which is the true or spiritual creation, does the Lord G.o.d create anything; it is only after that _mist_ (spoken of in the 6th verse of chapter two) arose from the earth that the _Lord_ G.o.d _formed_ the dust or material man, or anything else. Then the mystery of this seeming second creator, the Lord G.o.d, and his creation or forming of this dust or material man and material world must lie within this _mist_, and it does; this mist that arose was simply a misapprehension that arose amongst the people, wherein they believed themselves to be _formed_ of dust or materially, whereas in truth they were created spiritually. And this _Lord_ G.o.d spoken of that formed the dust man is not the real creator, the true G.o.d, but is man himself, who, through his own false idea or belief, formed man of dust, in other words, by his misapprehension of his true nature, man thinks himself material, when, in reality, he is spiritual, and it is through this mistake that all this evil or materiality seems to exist. But it is no more real than the dust man, and gets its seeming reality in the same way through a delusion or misapprehension of the truth. The proof that evil is not real, does not exist, and was never made, is contained in the Bible.
Genesis 1, 31st verse, is this proof; it reads: "And G.o.d saw _everything_ that He had made, and behold, it was very good, and the evening and the morning were the 6th day." I wish you to note that this verse says _everything_; this includes _all_. Then everything that really exists is good, it cannot be otherwise. Our G.o.d, our Creator, could not make both good and evil, else He would not be perfect, for evil is an imperfection and an imperfection can have no principle, hence no reality. Evil has the same reality that a lie has. What becomes of a lie when the truth is declared? It ceases to exist; so with evil; it being unreal, it ceases to exist, when Good is declared.
"Now, Beloved, I will quote you the greatest command given to man by Jesus Christ: Thou shalt love the Lord thy G.o.d with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind." I will now give you my interpretation of this great commandment: Thou shalt love the _Good_, thy G.o.d, with all thy love, and with all thy intelligence, and with all thy thoughts. Oh, if we could only do this, there surely would be no evil. Do we obey this greatest command of our Master? No. For instead of loving G.o.d, we fear Him, and lay every evil that befalls us at His door.
If there be a cyclone, a flood, a cloudburst, a railroad disaster, a conflagration, an earthquake, an epidemic, we say it is the will of G.o.d.
Oftentimes we labor long and faithfully to accomplish a desired result, and just as we think we have success in our hands, we fail, and all our hopes and desires are destroyed; again we say, it is the will of G.o.d. If we see any of our brethren sick, we claim it to be the will of G.o.d. If we see the father of a family taken away, we bow our heads and say G.o.d"s will be done. If we see a family of children left motherless, again we bow our heads and say G.o.d"s will be done. If we see a beautiful infant s.n.a.t.c.hed by death from the breast of it"s heart-broken mother, we meekly bow again, and, with heart full of sorrow, say, it"s the will of G.o.d. I tell you it is not the will of G.o.d, the will of Good. There is no good in it, hence not of G.o.d"s making, but is the work of evil, or devil, in other words, the work of a delusion, the believing of a lie. And when we stand meekly by and see evil destroy our health, our hopes, our happiness, our homes, without a protest, we are abetting the devil in his work. The Bible says G.o.d gave man dominion over _all_ the earth, so rise in the might of your intelligence, your Mind, and destroy this evil, this illusion, this lie, with the sword of truth, in Christ"s name. G.o.d, Good, is with you in this work, and with Him for you, who can stand against you? Too long has man been robbed by evil in the name of good. Jesus Christ said: "Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." This truth has been revealed and is in our midst; "seek and ye shall find." St. John, the most beloved disciple, said: "G.o.d is Love." Can you believe a father who is Love would destroy the hopes of His children, make them suffer through accident, sickness, and poverty, and after three score and ten years let them die, in other words, kill them? Even the lowest of earthly fathers would not do this.
Jesus Christ said: The last enemy to overcome is death." This surely does not mean that we must submit to death, but the opposite, or overcome death. Christ"s bidding us to overcome death shows that death is an evil. Then all things that are allies of death, such as sickness, poverty, accidents and the like, must be overcome, and when we have overcome all these things there will be no death to overcome; therefore I bid you awake from this delusion, this dream of life in matter, to the truth of life in Mind, in G.o.d. Simply believing in G.o.d is not enough, you must know G.o.d. Again I say, awake and work out your own salvation, as St. Paul said you must; salvation, is not believing, but knowing. In the words of one of the prophets, _acquaint_ thyself with G.o.d and be at peace. Search the Scriptures, they contain the truth of life. Use your reasoning power, and do your own thinking-for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Christ is risen and is knocking at your door, let Him in, and He will show you the way out of trouble, sin, disease, and how to conquer death.
"Now, Beloved, in conclusion, I would like to call your attention to my family, as you all know my son Walter was a sufferer for years from a disease that materia medica says is incurable; you now see him in your midst, a well and strong young man. I had long ago come to the conclusion that it was the will of G.o.d that he was sick, but through his own realization of the great truth that G.o.d made only the good, he was healed--in a like manner his mother, my wife, was healed of the same dread disease by _one_ who _knew_ that the good only was real, and proved it by destroying this seeming evil, which to us is known as tuberculosis. My wife is also in your midst, hale and hearty, as proof of my statement. And as I have also acquired this understanding of G.o.d, I cannot consistently preach the gospel in the old way, hence my resignation from this church and the ministry, and now I must echo the words of that great man, Martin Luther: "Here I stand, I can do no otherwise, so help me G.o.d." Amen."
A PARTING WORD
Nearly, all my life I was an inveterate reader of fiction, trying in this way to forget my troubles and pain, as many thousands of others are doing to-day. During all this time there was a book in existence the study of which would have banished all my misery, but I knew it not. It is with the hope that in this way I may reach a few of these thousands and get them interested enough so they will seek the truth in the way pointed out herein, that this work of fiction is put upon the market. "Seek and ye shall find," and when found, hold fast that which is true and you will come into that peace that pa.s.seth all understanding.
THE AUTHOR.