Phineas F. Bresee - A Prince In Israel - Media Sabda Org

On the other hand, intelligence, or, as we sometimes express ourselves by that word which seems
to us broader and fuller, culture seems to have a tendency toward being self-contained and
self-efficient, and irreverent of its own ideas and to draw away from the humility, devotion, and
spiritual intensity of piety, and set up its own esthetic forms and ceremonies. This has been the
history of the ages. This is the difficulty today. But for this we should scarcely have been here today.
Places of Cleavage
Our colleges and places of learning are largely places of cleavage in this matter, and have such
a tendency to divide the one from the other, and are at the same time such a power in fixing and
controlling the lives of students, thus tending to turn culture against piety, when they ought and need
to be melting pots in which piety and knowledge blend.
The first great end in this world is piety. See the old confession of faith. Saintliness is infinitely
above scholarship; yet without scholarship, it is shorn of much of its possibility, and runs constant
risks, which it ought to be protected against.
Culture without piety is bright and cold and selfish and worldly. To educate a man without piety
is likely to make him worse. The gleam of light is brighter and shines further, but it leads into the
wilderness of doubt and despair. We can ill afford that the boys and girls of the church shall be
spoiled in the making.
We have built this place. May God let the strands drop down from heaven and call us to take their
ends and weave them into an institution where the Holy Ghost with infinite glory can mold culture
into young life after the pattern of the heavenlies, where men like Enoch shall have the testimony
that they are pleasing God; and like Abraham will get visions of a city that hath foundations. Like
Moses may they see the bush of truth all aflame with the divine Presence. May it be a place where
men shall be filled with the message of Chrysostom and Savanarola and Jerome and Luther and
Whitefield. This is a sacred trust given us from the skies. For it we pour out our lives, as David
poured but the water brought him from the well at Bethlehem.
"Be Still"
The following outline of a sermon preached by Dr. Bresee, at the Southern California District
Assembly, at Pasadena, Cal., in June, 1915, is perhaps the most comprehensive and far-reaching in
its scope of any that he ever preached:
"Be still and know that I am God" (Psalm 46:10).
The greatest question of all ages, in every department of human thought, is the question of God.
The deepest scientific questions involve it. It fills human philosophy.
The deepest longings of the human heart, and all the great problems of life are involved in it.