The Atlanta Georgian. (Atlanta, GA.) 1906-1907, August 18, 1906, Image 10

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l THE ATLANTA GEORGIAN. THE OMNIPOTENT RIGHTEOUSNESS OF GOD SATURDAY. AUGUST lh. 13> | j By REV. EVERETT DEAN ELLENWOOD,! PASTOR UNIVERSAUST CHURCH T HERE Is no more reliable Index of • the Intellectual status and the progress In civilisation of any people than may be revealed by a study of the conception of Deity constituting the basis of Its system of religion. Even as we believe that,the habits of a man's mind may be determined by. an Inspection of his library, so may we read his soul's estimate of God In ths attitude which he preserves toward the visible social order of which he Is temporarily a part. Ths World's Freedom In the Knowl edge of God. The world is happily coming con atantly to a more complete realisation of the great significance of the words of Jesus, “And this Is life eternal, that they should know Thee, the only true God.” Through the growing knowledge of the true character of the "one true God” must come the world’s spiritual, political and economic salvation. And the value of the “eternal life” so eagerly sought and longingly waited for by religious souls the world over, since man became a conscious being, shall be greatly enhanced by the dis covery of its possibility as a present attainment. The most serious draw back to religion, according to Its crit ics, Is that It deals entirely too much with futurities. If these premises be true—and they Will scarcely be disputed—then It would appear that the supreme busi ness of leaders of religious thought everywhere Is to endeavor by all means to be brought to their aid, to spread abroad in the hearts of men the knowl edge of the truo character of Him In whom our souls have believed.' In this educational effort let it al ways be remembered that truth alone Is to be served, regardless of grievous damage or even demolition resultant to the time-honored credal products of patient. If bigoted, scholars, and to tra ditions hoary with age and venerated, If not venerable. “Ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free," was the promise of the founder of Christian ity, but freedom for the human race, whether It be political, industrial or spiritual, has ever been purchased at the cost of sacrifice. Even as scien tific truth knows no halting place, but must ever stand ready to forsake the precious holdings of yesterday for the more valuable revelation of today, so shall that spiritual truth for which our hearts strive be won to us, not by our tenacious grasp of the picture of God caught by the theological camera of a by-gone age, but It shall come to us gradually, through those varied expe riences of life, wherein, like the pa triarch of old, we meet God face to face. And whenever the clamor of the heart thus taught of God shall demand the forsaking of the teachings of the schools and the philosophy of the creeds, the eager pursuit of spiritual truth shall make this sacrifice a Joy. Ths Soul'* Demand for Righteoutneaa. However much of Justification for his philosophy the pessimist may find In the world’s halting progress toward their God. perfection, yet we can not fall to re joice in the universal yearning of the normal soul after righteousness. Man may Indeed be' “prone to evil as the sparks lly upward,” but he does .not Instinctively' deslrfe it. Buffeted 'and beaten to the earth by the power of temptation, momentarily triumphant over the weakness of his undeveloped spiritual self, and groaning In despair for the frequency of his sins, he Is yet able to cry out, with St. Paul, “that which I would not, that I do. O, retched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death!” We believe, with rejoicing, that we have come forth from God; therefore, “original sln“ can not be a fact unless W’e are willing to declare that evil was pre-exlstent In the heart of the Eter nal. Total depravity of the human soul may be a theological fact;,it can never be a spiritual truth. If then we recognize with constant encouragement the universal longing of the human soul after righteousness, the constant desire for spiritual ex cellence and wholesome ethics, surely the simplest reasoning from premise to conclusion must Justify us in a be lief In the essential righteousness of a God able to Inspire In Hls creatures such Instincts of moral and spiritual perfection. And even as the righteous ness of God Is proven by the righteous Instincts of ^Ils creatures, so shall the righteous Instincts of Hls creatures be constantly nourished to full fruition by an Increasing confidence In the es sential and unfailing righteousness of REV. E. D. ELLENWOOD. The Soul's Quest of Power. Then, as we find that the longing for power, the desire for unconquer able strength, the Insatiable yearning for triumph unending, are instinct In the human heart, shall we not most naturally conclude that the God, from whose heart came these germs of vic tory, Is one against whom even the gates of hell shall not be able to pre vail? We shall learn also that the conscious power of the spiritual man Is limited only by the reach of hls con fidence In the absolute omnipotence of hls God. / “All things are possible to him that belfeveth,” crystalizes from an ideal Into a triumphant reality In the life of man whose faith and whose theology set no bounds to the abllty of the Al mighty. His watchword Is the splen did declaration qf St. Pau,l “I can do all things through Him that strength- eneth me.” The world’s need of faith In a God of omnipotent righteousness. The supreme need of the world today Is for men and women who are abso lutely convinced of the all-conquering righteousness of God. No individual less capably endowed may hope to successfully cope with the conditions which are presented by our complex civilization. From men and women In spired and sustained by the splendid courage of this faith must we look with confidence for the solution of those per plexing social and economic problems which are the legacy of the present generation. Shall we not, therefore, with that Justice born of the primal instinct of self-preservation, reject as an Influ ence positively , baneful to the social order, any system of theology which would teach men to believe In a God indifferent In beneficence and Impotent In righteousness, a God whose “arm Is shortened that He cannot save?" A God of absolute and unqualified righteousness must surely desire that righteousness shall prevail throughout the whole of Hls physical and moral universe. A God of unllmted ability to execute the demands of His right eousness which shall surely bring to complete realization in Hls universe the ideals of Hls own. Inherent per fection. This Is surely a logical con clusion to be grasped by even the sim plest mind. It Is the philosophy taught by the human conscience, the only Bi ble of whose Infallibility and divine In spiration we may be absolutely cer tain. The Final Harmony of All 8oult With God. There can be but one satisfactory answer to this line of reasoning, viz.: “The final harmony of all soqls with God,” the ultimate triumph of good over evil In every human life and throughout the universe. Herein Is no loss of human Identity, no merging of the Individual will Into the unit consciousness of the “over soul,” no surrender of that precious conceit of "man as a free moral agent.” Rather Is there In this belief the strengthening of the Idea of Individ uality, the making of the puerile hu man will omnipotent through Its en dowment of the divine will, the change of "man as a free moral agent” from Ideal to a glorious reality, by crowning him with that priceless fr dom from sin which shall enable m eternally, to choose the good and «’ stlnctively to reject the evil. n ‘ “Our wills are ours, we know not hn» Our wills are ours tp make thine*.” uern The human will Is not lost to it s P0JI sessor when It Is persyaded into L!' mony with the divine will. ar * A Safe and 8ane Theology. Surely this Is a safe and sane the. ology. It vindicates the honor of God* It maintains the Inherent Integrity 0 f His offspring. It throws a gleaming ray of hope across the darkest prob- lems of human weakness and human error, while the echo of a strain of eternal harmony gives promise n f a triumphant and all-pervading melodv whose diapason shall one day drown the discordant clamor of earth’s self. Ishness and greed. It enables us to sav with Job, “I know that my redeemer liveth,” and It make* It natural for ua to believe that “Not one soul shall be destroyed Or cast as rubbish to the v>ld, When God hath made the pile complete l It defrauds death of hls most poign. ant sting and snatches from the grave Its victory, and, for the hour that now Is, It gives' a dignity, a sanity, and an Irresistible Impetus to every normal activity of life. >••••••••••••••< MtHIHMIMIHtMMHIINII HtHlltHHIHHIHHI .............I THE EIGHTH WONDER OF THE WORLD By REV. JAMES W. LEE, ' PASTOR TRINITY METHODIST CHURCH A TERMINAL railway station cov ering 20 acres of ground In the most populous part of New York city, may be put down ns the eighth wonder of the world. The station Is bounded by Seventh avenue on the east. Tenth avenue on the west, Thir ty-first street on the south and Thir ty-third street on the north. Over this territory there stood residences, stores, hospitals, churches and every conceiva ble kind of establishment to be found In such a center of a great city. This entire stretch of land with all above It and below* It, was bought out by the Pennsylvania Railroad Compa ny three or four years ago. St. Mi chael’s church, convent and school stood In this region, and the authori ties were loth to part with their place of worship and school. There was de lay In the negotiations but finally the church people consented to give up their land and belongings, upon condi tion that they be permitted to worship In the church and use the convent und school property until the Pennsylvania Railroad Company could build them a church, convent and school on another site covering Just as much space as the old ones and equally adapted to their use. Ho on West Thirty-fourth street the railroad company has built a new and magnificent church, convent and school to* house the 8t. Michael congregation. It |ls now about ready for occupuncy mid so at last the workmen are taking down the top part of the old church. The pastor of this hitherto historic ctyurch Is Rev. John A. Gleeson, who succeeded Rev. Arthur Donnolly, call ed to ^succeed Rev. Father McGItnn when he resigned on account of the Hfnry George labor controversy. The excavations for the. Immense railway station now* go dow*n as deep ns from 45 to 60 feet. One can stand on the street above and see the men below* drilling, blasting, loading cars with dirt and rock, building retaining wul^s to Inclose the space, and per forming all sorts of feats with a view to clearing out and leveling this hole In the ground for the vast superstruct ure to rise above It. The retaining wall around this site Is built of concrete and anchored to bed rock. The problem the engineers faced In opening this lo cation was not taking down the houses thi\t stood upon It—that was easy—but the proposition of carrying three streets, two bearing trolley car lines and having sewer and water pipes un derneath, the third carrying trolley lines and an elevated road, across a cut GOO feet In breadth and ranging from 45 to 60 feet In depth, so ns not to disturb traffic and the running of the cars. • On Eighth avenue a 6-foot brick sewer crosses the territory. In order to cross this cut It was necessary to put u new Iron sewer pipe Into the place of the new* brick one, making of It a sort of round bridge, supported from beneath. Think of the people liv ing nt the first tin this ground with blasting going on down under their hearthstones, but all so quietly and ac curately ns not to disturb the Inmates of the dwelling places. In order to give the denizens above opportunity to sleep it was ordered that no blasting should be done In the night time. It Is estimated that from the ter minal station proper, and from the power house to be built on the south side of lL-it-will.be necessary to take out two million cubic yards of dirt and rock. This Is enough to furnish foun dation for a city of moderate size. This enormous amount of eurth and stone Is taken away on cars and used to drive back the sea and bog elsewhere, thus securing more land now covered by water and marsh. Above this deep 20-acre hole In the ground Is to be erected the most com modious and beautiful terminal rail way station on the face of the earth. The area of Solomon’s Temple In Je rusnlein was only 12 acres; that of the pyramids ■ nt Cairo, Egypt, Is only about 11 ncres; the terminal station In St. Louis covers 10 acres; but here we are to have a railroad central house covering twice ns much ground. Through this, arcades will be built for surface and elevated cars to pass Just as they did before the Pennsylvania rnlhvny people ever had such a dream ns they are here transmuting Into hard staggering fact. Hut the station Is only the center of this twentieth century dream. A great car house In the midst of New* York city would do the Pennsylvania rail road no good with arms of the sea cut ting It off from connection with the wide stretching lines of Iron reaching out to all parts of the American Union. Something else must be done on the part of the* modern masters of power, to make this center of delirium com plete. Ferries could not reach this un derground mansion. In order, there fore, to bring the rolling passenger coaches loaded with human freight from all parts of the wide, wide world, It was necessary to open underground, and under sen the roadways, running out In both directions from the central terminal station. The main rnlhvny station is only the hub of a series of spokes In the shape of tunnels, which to connect the Island of Manhattan DR. J. W. LEE. with tho outlying land of the country. The rnuln spokes In this wheel, pro jected out of that Intelligence of the engineers ns If from Fulryland, have been named 1 the North River division, the Terminal division, and the East River division. Together with the sta tion huh under the city of New York, the various tunnel spokes connect the continental nmlnlund of America, and the metropolis. As far as this side of the Atlantic Is concerned, It Is proper to say of the Pennsylvania railroad that there Is no more sea. One of the engineers of this dafing movement re marked that Hudson discovered the river that bears hls name, but that he was the first man who had ever stood under It. There Is nothing In the wild est romance, or In Anderson’s Fairy Tales, or In the Arabian Nights Enter tainment half so marvelous ns the methods devised by the engineers to tunnel beneath the Hudson and under the East river. Four tunnels run from the main ter minals from Seventh avenue, eastw*ard under the East river In pairs. Two of these enter the East river nt tho foot of Thirty-fourth street, two others nt the foot of Thirty-third street. Each tunnel under the river Is Just large enough for one train to pass. These East river tunnels are being made through fine quicksand. Thus It has been necessary to devise some method to keep the water from filtering down from above, and also to keep the 34 pounds of air pressure, necessary to keep the water out, from going Into bubbles through the top. This diffi culty has been met by (lumping clay on to the bottom of the East river. Tho clay furnishes a blanket to hold the wa ter up, and keep the enormous air pressure from the 250 horsepower com pressors back. The tunnel is mnde by forcing w*hat Is culled the shield, somewhat larger in diameter than that of the tunnel, through the quicksand. These shields are gradually advanced to the unln- vnded territory at the bottom of the river by hydraulic rams, supplying a pressure of 6,000 pounds to the square Inch. As this* shield advances the: sand and raw .material Is thrown back into tho tunnel and carted away, while the bed of the river Is held up at the opening of the shield by the tremen dous pressure of the air. The men here actually work in the center of an air bubble equal to 34 pounds pressure to the square inch. Shifts are frequently made, so that It Is Impossible for a long while to stand it. But, strange to say, the workers, while In the realm of this highly compressed air are stimulated to the point of enthusiastic activity. Thr only danger from working in'such en vironment Is that when the - pressure .Is relieved too suddenly the laborers are seized with a new kind of disease called ’’the bends.” It Is a sort of paralysis. Physicians are in constant attendance and are giving careful at tention to methods of relieving this new* ailment. One remedy Impressed me as very interesting. As soon ns the laborer, emerging from this place of toll, Is seen to be affected by the bends, he Is taken at once Into a small Iron house with two compartments, one of which Is for air pressure of as much per square Inch as that In which he worked. When he Is placed In this iron compartment for a while he Is re lieved. After this, the pressure Is taken off so gradually that he suffers no further trouble. Our modern poets no longer w*ork with words, they work with mechuni- cal devices Invented for conquering nature. The poets of New York are longer the Bryants and the Sted- mans. Our American poets are no longer Longfellow, Whittier and Holmes. They are the men like Satn- uel Rea, C. M. Jacobs, Alfred Noble and E, W. Molr, the masters of the situation, who have this vast enter, prise of the Pennsylvania Railroad in charge. Back of all this one should picture a quiet room In a corner of the Broid street station of the Pennsylvanki Ra.1- road Company In Philadelphia. There sits a man of retiring disposition aid very few* words, Alexander J. Cassat by name. When he became presldett of the Pennsylvania Railroad less that ten years ago, hls imagination bega to work along channels hitherto un surveyed by man. Hls dream Is being, realized. He is planting the Pennsyl vania Railroad In the heart of New York, and hls plans.* before long, will result In the possibility of a man who takes a passenger train In Atlantn. Ga.,: being able to go right through thp subterranean regions of New York to Boston and Portland, Maine, without change. Mr. Cassatt found that passenger trains were being delayed by freights; he has, therefore, built an entirely new railroad from New York to Pittsburg. He found that the four tracks cULthla main line were so close together nbat when a train was wrecked on one yf them It delayed the trains seeking tV move along the parallel lines. He separating the tracks now*, so that pas- “ senger trains may proceed without ob struction. Hls vision saw* the necessity for these improvements. Hls practical mind saw* the possibilities of working them out promptly and economically, and hls personal tact and diplomacy made It possible for him to go to Paris and accomplish the hitherto Impossi ble and unimaginable feat of borrow- Ing $60,000,000 upon exceedingly fa vorable terms from the conservative bankers of France, with which hls gi gantic schemes might be carried out. THE CHOICE OF THE HIGHEST "Our God whom we serve? is able to deliver us from the burning flery fur- nnce and He will deliver us • - * Hut If not—” Daniel III, 18. By REV. JOHN E. WHITE, PASTOR SECOND BAPTIST CHURCH L ET us stop Just there. Let us leave the tent thus. unfinished *nd with a glaring hiatus, for the Hebrew children have come down in their minds through this brave tent arid have looked squarely Into a gulf of awful possibility. ”Our God whom we serve Is able to deliver us and ho will deliver us. • • • But if not.” • “But If not." That Is awful. “But If not." That means a horrible death. I do not care this morning If I do not eay one word about the great de liverance that did come to these men In the fiery furnace. That was grand. Nebuchadnezzar appreciated that, for you know how w*hen he saw* them walking unburned In the flames he Was astonished and rose up In huste and spake and said unto hls counsellors: "Did we not cast three men bound Into the midst of the fire.” He appreciated that. But that was not the grandest thing. There Is something here he did not appreciate. There Is something here finer and more wonderful If you will permit me to say thut, than the faithfulness of God. It la the fatthful- nesi of these men who said: "Our God w*iom we serve la able to deliver us from the burning, fiery furnace, and he will deliver us. But if not” • They.walked right up to the fire and confessed the posslbll|Ly that God might not 'deliver them und were un-' dismayed. This Is the really great thing about this story. Their deliv erance has Its lesson, but It’s no such lesson as this. Here Is the highest cast of faith. In the Bible and In human history we can find very many sorts and kinds of faith. Thla is the highest sort and kind. There are degrees in the-quality of faith Just as In any oth er of the cardinal graces. I say here Is the highest degree. I want you to look at It. The Highsst Faith. If we recount the degrees of faith I suppose we would have to start with that very common faith among men that very common faith among men. Is professional, formal, creedal. A set of fair weather conceits, which we call our faith. It Is ornamental and quite useless except for ornament. It glit ters In modern ritualistic nnd worldly minded Protestantism like the broad ened phylacteries used to glitter about the shoulders of the Pharisees. In a strain, at a test. It turns out to be no faith at all. It Is like the faith of the hoy during a protracted meeting tn Virginia who declared that he had faith enough to do what Peter failed at, faith enough to walk on the wa ter. The challenge accepted, they went down to the river to test It. The youttg faithful took a look at the wa ter and then sat down and rolled hls pants up above hls knees before bo would venture. It was no faith nt all. There Is an example of faith given us by Mark In the story of the woman ship the golden Imago thout bast set up.” I say this Is the highest faith nnd I say It on tho unchallengeable authority of Jesus t’hrlst. He Is “the author and finisher of faith.” And this was hls faith. In the garden of Gethsemane he finished, he perfected faith when he said: “Fnther, let this cup pnss,” but If not—If not—I will, drink It. I will not falter; I will not (all., The record of thp passion of Christ from that moment till he cried, “My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me?” Is the record of a moral heroism meant for every one of us who comes to the brink of disappointed prayer when God leaves us to stand alone, leaves us to receive the full shock of failure, leaves us to the Just had faith enough to touch : fuge of our faith only, without support, the hem of Christ’* garment In the I without proofs, and without anything crowd and Matthew* tells us of the j to fal^ back on except our own moral lm Just bad faith enough | heroism. • Humble Heroes, life Is full of fiery furnaces be- poor man who Just lmd fal to cry, “Lord. I believe, help thou mine! unbelief.” 1 suppose we may call this l “llttlf faith.” But It Is by tp> means to be despised. In 1st Kings we hav the record of a great faith. Elijah fac ed the hosts of Baal on Carmel nnd challenged their god to meet hls Je hovah In a great trial of fire. They tried nnd but no fire came to but up the sacrifice. Then this man of faith set hls face toward God and wrestled passionately in prayer, not a doubt In hls heart, not n fear and no thought of the possibility of failure. We call that a grand faith. A faith that would not take ”no” for an an swer. And that Is a grand faith. But It Is not the highest faith. Here Is the highest faith, the faith that could say, “Our God w hom we serve Is able to deliver us from the burning, fiery furnace, and he will deliver us, but If not”— The highest faith Is the faith that an stand for God to full, the faith that an risk disappointment. “Our God can. our God will deliver us, but if not”— Well, wlmt If not? Well, “if not.” It doesn’t make any difference. “If not,” It doesn’t alter our position. “But If not, be It known unto thee. Oh, King, wt will not serve thy gods, nor wor- Are You Still Paying Rent? If so, I am Surprised! Rent Receipts Remind me of Money ’ Thrown Away. Do you know that the Standard Real Estate Doan Company of Wash ington. D. C.. will tell you a home-purchasing contract wicreby you can buy or build .a home anywhere In the United States and pay for It In monthly paymenta for less than you are now paying rent? They will lend you from ft,000 to (6,000 at 6 per cent, simple interest, al lowing you to pay It back in monthly Installments of $7.50 on each thousand borrowed. For prospectus and plans of our proposition, call on or write J. St. Jullen Yates. State Agent, 321 Austell Bldg.. At lanta, Ga. Bell phone 2663-J. Atlanta phone 1918. Truthful Hustling (cents Winled in Ertrj Count) in the Stott cause It Is so full of experiences that lead men nnd women to face Inciirn ble griefs nnd Inevitable disappoint inents. And I do not refer altogether to sudden and crushing bereavements. There are burdens that do not crush, but lacerate our shoulders. There are blows thnt do not blind us, nor dull, nor deaden, nor stun our hearts by their business, but are none the less terrible because they do not. They are the ever constant, ever present Inward sorrow* we must not expect to escape. They are a part of the environment In which we are placed, of the chain we have oursajvea made or of tempera ment we have Inherited. And they make their appeal to our moral he roism every day. A young man I know very intimately has confided to me hls deepest per sonal experience. He says that all hls life he has felt In himself yie capacity for heroic suffering, the capacity for playing a noble part If the call was ever made on him for It. When he was a boy he used t«> sit nnd hear hls fnther and hls comrades of the civil war tell over again their battles and that when he would hear them he would go out i>f floors with his whole soul afiume and tell God and the stars what he felt In him, that he could be a soldier, that ip could stand up before bullets and annon without blinking and then he could go to bed nnd He awake sorrow ful that the. w ar was over, that there ’no chance for him to he the hero he* felt-he could be. The subject of hls reverie very often, he says, has beVn to imagine himself fit hard nnd heroic situations, when upon hls coolness and courage life de- j vended. And it was not in hls mind that he could be nfrntd and fall the opportunity. Now* hls life has not led him to such opportunities, but Into l>carcful ami quiet labors. And he says he never reads of deeds of heroism or REV. DR. JOHN E. WHITE. of public men like \ President Roose velt and Governor Folk but hls heart flushes with the consciousness that had the fortune of hls life made It possible he would dare to do as these men have done. And the man hears all the time a suppressed and disappointed hero In himself and does not complain, but he says “God can do great things with me If He would, but If not—I am go ing on Just the same and be brave and true and nobio In my soul and do what I may Just the same.” * I do not believe hls ease is unusual nt all. There are thousands of po tential heroes who never come to light. You know Gray’s Elegy. It was written tell just such an exi»erience as I have related. A country boy who never had a chance. “A youth to fortune ami to fame unknown.” Sweet Is the mu- of that Elegy—Its rurnl peace, “the ing herds ‘Winding slowly o’er the lea,” the drowsy tinkling* that lull the distant folds.” but the heart of It and the immortal power of It Is this boy never had a chance, who lived with gold in hls heart umlug, with he roism unrevealed, n grand sould blush ing like a flower unseen and wasting Its sweetness on the desert air or like a gem of purest ray serene condemned to dark uncovered caves of the ocean. That is the power of it that grips the life nnd holds it. It is great because true. It Is great because the poet leaning over the grave of that country lad spoke what we know ns true of ourselves, of hundred* who never “Perhaps In this neglected spot Is laid A heart once pregnant with celestial fire; Hands which/ the rod of empire might have swayed Or waked to ecstacy the living lyre. Some village Hampden that with dauntless breast The little tyrant of hls fields with stood Some mute Inglorious Milton here may rest Some Cromwell guiltless of hls coun try’s blood.” Here thousands nnd thousands come to stand and say God could deliver me from the burning furnace of poverty and Isoldtlon and could make use of me for larger things, nut If not, I will be w’hat 1 am and do what I may whether He does or not. 4 Moral Heroism. Sometimes the burning fiery furnace comes through a constitutional dis position to doubt. The spiritual strug gles of many people w*ould appall you should you be let Into their secret lives. "Would appall you!” No, I am wrong, for you would in their struggles recog nize your own. I was in a company of Christian men recently, every one of whom Is consecrated to Christ and Hls cause. One of the nifmber craved the coun sel and comfort of hls friends on the subject of hls doubt—not intellectual doubts, but the fear and sorrow of hls heart which came-over him at times when he prayed. Another then con fessed a similar grief, but more intel lectual in Its character. We drew close together and closer and our hearts were full for a space. We had every one hls flery burning furnace. And we came to this at last: “Our God Is.able to deliver us and He will deliver us, but If not, w*e will be true to our deepest selves, and not fall Him though He may seem to fail us some times. What better are we than our Lord, and did He not come to that j place and cry, 'Why hast thou for- j saken Me?’" I Now, I know* where this text leads I some of you. It leads you to the bet ter hours of your life, when, though many friends were around you, you were treading the wine press alone and were actually in the burning flery fur nace, and there was no deliverance. Perhaps I pain you by reminding you of the place at which your faith for a time went to pieces, where you doflbt- ed God, doubted prayer and religion and everything except the undoubta- ble presence of this heart-ache. You do not like to reciyi it. You sometimes feel that you have wounded your faith and sinned against your Christian pro fession. Will you permit me this morn ing to stand here in the presence of the Hebrew heroes and the suffering Christ and say this, that If you have sinned it is not because you have doubted and feared, but because you have some times failed to be brave In spite of your eclipsed faith, or should I say you haven't found refuge In the Inner for tifications of your faith—your moral heroism w*here God Is most surely en trenched? “Our God whom we serve Is able and He will deliver us, but If not—” So I am putting a plea thnt find* us all. The one thing for us all—the sure thing for us all—Is make much of tho best that Is In us, and follow* the light we have. Our highest faith Is not taking the Bible word for word, nor a professional attitude toward God and Providence, hut In being true to what w*e feel In ourselves, to be our duty. If this seems to be a! that Is left you and you couldn’t gq otherwise If you tried, then believe in.*, that is God’s will and that Is God’s |*rth for your life. “Our God W’hom we serve Is able to deliver us from the burning fiery fur nace, and He will deliver us, but If not —well If not, we will let It make no 1 difference In our courage; we will not turn to false gods; we will not lower our flag; w*e will not fall the call of our own hearts and be anything lew good or less.noble than we think God would have us be. AWNINGSI TENTS UPHOLSTERY /AAIER t V0LBER& 130 So. rorijrtt St ROUND TRIP ‘Summer and Convention Rates, t Round trip summer excursions from all points East to Pacific Coast and Northwest, from June 1 to September 15th, with special stop-over privileges, good returning to October 31st, 1906. Summer Rates to Colorado, June Istto Sept-30 Use the splendid through service of the SOUTH ERN PACIFIC from New Orleans, UNION PA CIFIC from Kansas City or Chicago to all points West, Northwest and Southwest, including palatial steamship service from San Francisco to Japan, China, Australia, etc. Through Pullman Tourist cars from Washington, Atlanta, Montgomery, etc., and from St. Louis and Chicago to California. WRITE ME FOR LITERATURE AND INFORMATION, J. F. VAN RENSSELAER, General Agt., 124 Peachtree Street, Atlanta, Ga. R. 0. BEAN, T. P. A. G. W. ELY, T. P. A.