Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 159, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 July 1917 — SEEING THE UNSEEN [ARTICLE]

SEEING THE UNSEEN

The Invisible World Becomes the Real World Through the Eye of Faith. Text —“And Elisha prayed, and said. Lord, t pray thee, open his eyes, that he may see. And the Lord opened the eyes of the young man; and he saw; and, behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha.”—n Kings 6:17. “The entrance of thy word giyeth light,” says the psalmist. No book in the world is so full of the light of truth as the Bible. This is not only true of the New Testament of our Lord Jesus Christ, but it is also true of the words of Jehovah In the Qld Testament. There are three things notable about the Old Testament. First, it is a revelation. This Is what It purports to be. It Is no attempt of a great thinker to solve the hard problems of life. Revelation alone explains the Book of books. It gives us truths from the mind, the heart, the mouth of God. Again, the Old Testament is a prophecy. It heralds a better age to come. It is a preparation. It looks forward to a consummation of a great divine purpose. It points to the lifespring from on high visiting men. It makes ready the way for the coming of God's only begotten son. And thirdly, the Old Testament is a history. It is a record of God’s dealings with his people. It shows him time and again revealing himself to them, and taking a hand in their fortunes. It is this third feature which gives the Old Testament so perennial an interest, and makes its study so practically helpful for us. In this Scriptural history, in these thrilling narratives, we see God’s dealing with men, we learn his providential ways, and we know how to expect him to -act with us. Of all these historic incidents related in the Old Testament, it seems to me this one we have chosen for our text is one of the most suggeiw Hve and beautiful. The Invisible World. The great truth revealed here Is the fact of an invisible world. This material world which we see, touch and feel, we are certain of. We know it exists, and we shape and mold our lives with respect to its wants, and so we live amid two worlds; there is another world than this outer, material one. All around and about us lies an invisible world. We are inhabitants of a world seen and of a world unseen; a world of time and a world of eternity. This invisible world, too, is peopled. A whole concourse of existences and agencies fill it that we never dream of. They are, also, of a higher type and quality than any earthly ones. These are symbolized here by “horses and chariots of fire.” The other great truth taught by this grand Old Testament scene is the providence of God over his servants. This is shown in a marvellous and wonderful manner. When Elisha, without sword or shield, is surrounded by mail-clad barbarous hosts, so that by all material tests his death is imminent, he is really not in the slightest danger. The powers and forces of tho invisible world are incomparably stronger than those of this finite one. And so the pibus soul- can ever calmly say: “I will fear no evil, for thou art with me.” God and his holy angels girdle me with a cordon of fire. The Great Lesson. The great lesson of this majestic Biblical narrative is the closeness with which we are surrounded by the spiritual world. It Is just as real as this visible one. /Its inhabitants are spiritual personalities far stronger and mightier than we who are flesh and blood. They do the will of God in heaven, and they hold themselves ready at the command of the Almighty King to do his will upon the earth. And our fortunes are very much more in the keeping of these invisible hosts than they are dependent upon the earthly causes and forces,that we see, and that man is blind who walks through life without recognizing this fact. We need then to have our spiritual eyes opened, that we may see and take into our spiritual eyes and purposes this invisible world that everywhere overarches and presses upoix us. It is the worldly man, who sees only with his carnal eye, who Is impractical, and who must fall in his blindness. But the Christian, with, true vision, sees two worlds, and walking by the invisible, G»e God who saved endangered Elisha Svill be his preserver ip life ancLin death. —Rew Junius B. Itemensnyder.