This world, after all our science and sciences, is still a miracle, wonderful, inscrutable, and magical and more, to whosoever will think of it.”

Thomas Carlyle, [1795-1881] following Plato, [437 B.C.] pictures a man, a deep pagan thinker, who has grown to maturity in some hidden cave and is brought out suddenly to see the sun rise. “What would his wonder be,” exclaims Carlyle, “his rapt astonishment at the sight we daily witness with indifference! With free, open sense of a child, yet with the ripe faculty of a man, his whole heart would be kindled by that sight… This green flowery rock-built earth, the trees, the mountains, rivers, many-sounding seas; that great deep sea of azure that swims overhead; the winds, sweeping through it; the black cloud fashioning itself together, now pouring out fire, now hail and rain; what is it? Ay, what? At bottom we do not yet know; we can never know at all…”

To meditate on the three Persons of the Godhead is to walk in thought through the garden eastward in Eden and to tread on holy ground. Our sincerest efforts to grasp the incomprehensible mystery of the Trinity must remain forever futile, and only by deepest reverence can it be saved from actual presumption.

Some persons who reject all they cannot explain have denied that God is a Trinity, subjecting the Most High to their cold, level-eyed scrutiny; they conclude that it is impossible that He could be both One and Three. These forget that their whole life is enshrouded in mystery. They fail to consider that real explanation of even the simplest phenomenon in nature lies hidden in obscurity and can no more be explained than can the mystery of the Godhead.

Every man lives by faith, the nonbeliever as well as well as the saint; the one by faith in natural laws and the other by faith in God. Every man throughout his entire life constantly accepts without understanding. The most learned sage can be reduced to silence with one simple question, “What?”  The answer to that question lies forever in the abyss of unknowing beyond any man’s ability to discover. “God understandeth the way thereof, and he knoweth the places thereof,” but mortal man never.

How different are we who have grown used to it; who have become jaded with satiety of wonder. “It is not by our superior levity, our inattentions, and our want of insight. It is by not thinking that we cease to wonder at it… We call that fire of the black thundercloud “electricity, and lecture learnedly about it, and grind the like of it out of glass and silk: but is it? Whence comes it? Whither goes it? Science has done much for us; but it is a poor science that would hide from us the great deep sacred infinitude of Nescience, whither we can never penetrate, on which all science swims as a mere superficial film. This world, after all our science and sciences, is still a miracle, wonderful, inscrutable, and magical and more, to whosoever will think of it.”

These penetrating, almost prophetic, words were written more than a century ago, but not all the breath-taking advances of science and technology since that time have invalidated one word or rendered obsolete as much as one period or comma. Still we do not know. We save face by repeating frivolously the popular jargon of science. We harness the mighty energy that rushes through our world; we subject it to finger tip control in our cars and kitchens; we make it work for us like Aladdin’s jinn, but still we do not know what it is. Secularism, materialism, and the intrusive presence of things have put out the light in our souls and turned us into a generation of zombies. We cover our deep ignorance with words, but we are ashamed to wonder, we are afraid to whisper “mystery.”

What God declares the believing heart confesses without the need for further proof. Indeed , to seek proof is to admit doubt, and to obtain proof is to render faith superfluous. Everyone  who possesses the gift of faith will recognize the wisdom of those daring words of one of the early Church fathers: “I believe that Christ died for me because it is incredible; I believe that He rose from the dead because it is impossible.”

Reflection upon revealed truth naturally follows the advent of faith, but faith comes first to the hearing ear, not to the cogitating mind. The believing man does not ponder the Word and arrive at faith by a process of reasoning, nor does he seek confirmation of faith from philosophy or science. His cry is, “O earth, earth, hear the Word of the Lord. Yea, let God be true, and every man a liar.” It was both the sinfulness of humanity and God’s plan to save humanity that put Jesus Christ to death on the cross. It was not an afterthought but it was part of God’s eternal plan!

That rough-looking diamond is put upon the wheel of the lapidary. He cuts it on all sides. It loses much-much that seemed costly to itself. The King is crowned; the diadem is put upon the monarch’s head with trumpet’s joyful sound. A glittering ray flashes from the coronet, and it beams from the very diamond which was just now so sorely vexed by the lapidary. We may venture to compare ourselves to such a diamond, for we are God’s children; and this is the time of the cutting process. Let faith and patience have their perfect work, for in the day when the crown shall be set upon the head of the king, Eternal, Immortal, Invisible, one ray of glory shall stream from us. “They shall be Mine,” said the Lord, “in the day when I make up My Jewels.” “Better is the end of a thing than the beginning thereof.”  Ecclesiastes 7:8

In 1951 was the inception of the Korean War between America and North Korea. That conflict raged on for two years and an “armistice” was declared in 1953. Since then Korea became North Korea and South Korea. A demilitarized zone was created and American Soldiers have been there since then. It is amazing to see the mysteries of God’s mercies. At 1:00AM Pacific Standard Time, February 25^th 2008, where Politicians, Diplomats or the Military could not go, the New York Philharmonic Orchestra was playing at  Pyongyang  East Theater in North Korea– The United States National Anthem – The Star Spangled Banner and the North Korean National Anthem.  It was an amazing site to see Lorin Maazel conducting the New York Philharmonic as he continued with Dovark’s Symphony # 9, Gershwin’s – An American in Paris, and music from such great minds such as Wagner and others. I think the most striking moment was looking into the seated crowd, Americans and Koreans alike, shedding tears of joy. I can only imagine what they were thinking! Perhaps, just perhaps, they were thinking, after all, we are just alike, so why do our respective Governments continue with their phantasmagoric rationales and internecine policies. You see for me, that amazing site represents hope for the future. I believe it will be well with the souls of world leaders to take a page out of this extra ordinary event and see that people of good will can come together, and in so doing they can help to make a better world for all people, irrespective of beliefs, nationality, color, creed or class!

It may also be well for each and every one of us to realize that irrespective of whether we are rich or poor, smart or dumb, highly educated or of little intelligence, through the eyes of God, we are not better than each other, we are just “different.” The One who holds up the foundation of the world on “nothing,” created each and every person individually for a special purpose and “we can all make a difference in this very troubled world.

PLEASE NOTE THAT ALL GLORY IS TO GOD! In addition I would like to acknowledge great writers from the past such as Plato, Thomas Carlyle and others, for without their great wisdom this document would not have been possible.

Sheriff G Al