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THE ATLANTA GEORGIAN.
SATURDAY, AUGUST IS, U«
THE OMNIPOTENT RIGHTEOUSNESS OF GOD
| By REV. EVERETT DEAN ELLENWOOD,
PASTOR UNIVERSAL1ST CHURCH * i
T HERE is no more reliable Index
of the intellectual status and
the progress in civilization of
any people than may he revealed byl
a study of the conception of Deltyl
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
the attitude which he preserves toward
the visible social order of which he is
temporarily a part.
Tht World’s Froodom in tho Knowl
edge of God.
The world Is happily coming con
stantly to a more complete realization
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
GodT 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 td religion, according to Its crit
ics, Is that It denis entirely too much
with futurities.
If these premises be true—and they
Witt scarcely be disputed—then It
would appear that the supreme busl-
negs of fenders 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 true character of Him in
whom our souls have believed.
In this educational effort let It ql
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
splrltunl, 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 forsnklng 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’s Demand for Righteousness.
However much of justification for
his philosophy the pessimist may find
In the world's halting progress toward
perfection, yet we caA npt fall to re
joice In the universal yearning of the
normal soul after righteousness.
Man may Indeed be "prone to ’evil
as the sparks fly upward," but he does
not .Instinctively desire it. HufTeted
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 Ht. Paul, "that
which I would not, that I do. O.
wretched 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 sin" can not be a fact unless
tve are willing to declare that evil was
pre-existent 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 recognise 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 «1n the essential righteousness of
a God able to inspire In His creatures
such Instincts of moral and spiritual
perfection. And even as the righteous
ness of God Is proven by the righteous
instincts of His creatures, so shall the
righteous Instincts of His creatures
be constantly nourished to full fruition
by an Increasing confidence In the es
sential and unfailing righteousness of
their God.
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 his con
fidence In the absolute omnipotence of
his God.
"All things are possible to him that
bolieveth," crystallzes 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 of St. Pau,l “I can do
all things through Him that strength
ened 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
seif-preservntlon, 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 His physical and moral
universe. A God of unlimted ability
to execute the demands of His right
eousness which shall surely bring to
complete realization in His universe
the ideals of His 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 8ouls With
God.
There can be but one satisfactory
answer to this line of reasoning, viz.:
"The final harmony of all souls 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
an Ideal to* a glorious reality, by
crowning him with that priceless f rP -l
dom from .In which .hall enable him
eternally, to choose the good and he
sttnctlvely to reject the evil. "
"Our wills are ours, we know not how
° ur „ are cure to make then
The human will I* not lost to It. no.
sessor when It la persuaded Into har.
mony with the divine will.
A Safe and Sane Theology.
Surely this la a safe and sane the-
oloffy. It vindicate, the honor of God
It maintain, the Inherent Integrity of
HI. offspring. It throw, 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 of a
triumphant and all-pervading melody
whose diapason shall one day drowii
the discordant clamor of earth's self.
Ishness and greed. It enables us to say
with Job, "I know that my redeemer
liveth," and It makes It natural for us
to believe that
"Not one soul shall be destroyed
Or cast as rubbish to the v>ld,
When God hath made the pile complete.
It defrauds death of his moat poign
ant sting and snatches from the grave
Its victory, and. for the hour that now
Is. it gives a dignity, a sanity, nnd an
Irresistible Impetus to every normal
activity of life.
THE EIGHTH WONDER OF THE WORLD
By REV. JAMES W. LEE,
PASTOR TRINITY METHODIST CHURCH
A TERMINAL railway ztatlon cov
ering 20 acres of ground In the
most populous part of New York
city, may be put down as the eighth
wonder of the world. Tho station Is
bounded by Seventh avenue on the
east. Tenth avenue on the west, Thlr-
ty-flrst 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.
Thin 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 nnd 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 Anally the
church people consented to give up
their land nnd belongings, upon condi
tion that they be permitted to worship
In the church and use the convent and
school property until the Pennsylvania
Railroad Company could build them a
church, convent nnd school on nnother
site covering Just as much space as the
old ones and equully adapted to their
use.
So on West Thirty-fourth street the
railroad company has built a new and
magnificent church, convent nnd school
to bouse the St. Mlclfael congregation.
It Is now about ready for occupancy
and so at last <h© workmen are ,taking
down the top part of the old church.
The pastor of this hitherto historic
church is Rev. John A. Gleeson. who
succeeded Rev. Arthur Donnelly, call
ed to succeed Rev. Father McGIInn
when he resigned on account of the
Henry George labor controversy.
The excavations for the immense
railway station now go down as deep
as from 45 to 6o feet. One can stand
on the street above nnd see the men
below drilling, blasting, loading" cars
with dirt nnd rock, building retaining
walls 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 abpve it. The retaining wall
around this site Is built of concrete nnd
anchored to bed rock. The problem
the engineers faced in opening this lo
cation was not taking down the houses
that 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 nnd an elevated fond, across a
cut 600 feet In breadth nnd ranging
from 45 to 60 feet in depth, so ns not to
disturb traffic and the running of the
cars.
On Eighth nvenue a 6-foot brick
sewer crosses the territory. In order
to cross this cut It was necessary to
put n new Iron sewer pipe Into the
place of the new brick one, mnklng of
it a sort of round bridge, supported
from beneath. Think of the people liv
ing at the first on this ground with
blasting going on down under their
hearthstones, but nil so quietly and ac
curately ns not tj> 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 it, it will be necessary to take
out two million cubic yards of dirt nnd
rock. This Is enough to furnish foun
dation for a city of moderate size. This
enormous amount of earth 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 nole In the
ground is to be erected the most com
modious and beautiful te'rminal rail
way station on the face of the eqrth.
The area of Solomon's Temple In Je
rusalem was only 12 acres; that of the
pyramids at Cairo, Egypt, Is only
about 11 acres; the terminal station
In St. Louis covers ID acres; but here
we are fo have a railroad central house
covering twice ns much ground.
Through this, arcades will be built for
surface and elevated cars to pass Just
ns they did before the Pennsylvania
railway people ever hnd such a dream
as they are here transmuting into hard
staggering fnct.
But the station is only the center o?
this twentieth century dream. A great
car house in the midst of New York
city would do the Pennsylvania rail
road no good with nrrns 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 bo 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
conches loaded with human freight
ffoin all parts of the wide, wide world,
it was necessary to open underground,
and under sea the roadways, running
out in both directions from the central
terminal station. The main railway
station is only the huh of a series of
si»okes in the shape of tunnels, which
are to connect the Island of Manhattan
DR. J. W. LEE.
with the outlying land of the country.
The main spokes in this wheel, pro
jected out of that Intelligence of the
engineers as if from Fairyland, have
been named the North River division,
the Terminal division, and the East
River division. Together with the sta
tion hub under the city of New York,
the various tunnbl spokes connect the
continental mainland 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 daring movement
marked* that Hudson discovered the
river that bears his 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 as the
methods devised by the ehglneers to
tunnel beneath the Hudson and under
the East river.
. Four tunnels run from the main ter
minals from Seventh avenue, eastward
under the East river in pairs. Two of
these enter the East river at the foot
of Thirty-fourth street, two others at
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 hns
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 dumping clny
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 made by forcing what
Is called the shield, somewhat larger
in diameter than that of the tunnel,
through the quicksand. These shields
are gradually advunced 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 the tunnel and *carted away, while
the bed of tho 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 Cf an
air bubble equal to 34 pounds pressure
to tho square inch.
Shifts arc 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. The
only danger from working in such en
vironment Is that when tho 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 as
the laborer, emerging from this plnce
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 work
with words, they work with mechani
cal devices Invented for conquering
nature. The poets of New York are
no longer tho Bryants and the Sted-
mans. Our American poets are no
longer Longfellow, Whittier and
Holmes. They are the men like Sam
uel Rea, C, M. Jacobs, Alfred Noble
and E. W. Moir, the masters of the
situation, who have this vast enter
prise of the Pennsylvania Railroad I
charge.
Back of all this one should plctut
a quiet room In a corner of the Bma
street station of the Pennsylvania Ital
road (,’ompany in Philadelphia. Thor
sits a man of retiring disposition an
very few words, Alexander J. Cassatt
by name. When he became president
of the Pennsylvania Railroad less that!
surveyed by man. His dream is being
realized. He Is planting the Pennsyl
vania Railroad In the heart of New
York, and his plans, before long, will
result In the possltylity of a man who
takes a passenger train In Atlanta. Ga.,
being able to go right through the
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 of this
main line were so close together that
when a train was wrecked on one of
them It delayed tho trains seeking to
move along the parallel lines. He Is
separating the tracks now, so that pas
senger trains may proceed without ob
struction. His vision saw the necessity
for these improvements. His practical
mind saw the possibilities of working
them out promptly and economically,
and his personal tact and diplomacy
mnde It povlble for him to go to Paris
and accomplish the hitherto Impossi
ble and unimaginable feat of borrow
ing $50,000,000 upon exceedingly fa
vorable terms from the conservative
bankers of France, with which' his gi
gantic schemes might be carried out.
THE CHOICE OF THE HIGHEST
"Our God whom wo servo Is able to
deliver in* from the burning fiery fur-
mice nnd He will deliver us * • * But
If not—" Daniel III, 18.
By REV. JOHN E. WHITE,
PASTOR SECOND BAPTIST CHURCH
L ETT us stop Just there. Let us
leave the tent thus unfinished
and with a glaring hiatus, for
, the Hebrew children have come down
In their minds through this brave tent
and have looked squurely 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 say 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 when he saw them
walking unburned In the flames he was
astonished and rose up in haste and
spake and said unto his 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 that, than the
faithfulness of God. It is the faithful
ness of these men who said: "Our
God whom we serve is 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 i»ossibll|y that G«hI
might not deliver them nnd were un
dismayed. This is the really v 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. This is the highest
sort and kind. There are degrees lu
the quality of faith Just ns in any oth
er of the cardinal graces. I say here la
the highest degree. I want you to look
at It.
The Highest 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 nil. It* is like the faith of the
boy during a protracted meeting in
Virginia who declared that he hnd
faith enough to do what Peter failed
at, faith enough to walk on the wa
ter. The challenge accepted, they went
down to the liver to test It. The
young faithful took a look at the wa
ter und then sat down and rolled bis
pants up above his knees before he
would venture. It was no faith at all.
There Is an example of faith given
us by .Mark in the story of the woman
who Just bad faith enough to touch
the hem of Christ’s garment In the
crowd and Matthew tells us of the
poor man who just had faith enough
to cry, "Lord, I believe, help thou mine
unbelief." I suppose wo may call this
"little faith." But it Is by no means
to be despised. In 1st Kings we have
the record of'a great faith. Elijah fae
ed the hosts of Baal on Carmel and
challenged their god to meet his Je
hovah In a great trial of fire. They
tried and but no tire came to burn
up the sacrifice. Then this man of
faith set his face toward Got! nnd
wrestled passionately in prayer, not
doubt in his heart, not a fear and no
thought of tho possibility of failure.
We, call that a grand faith. A faith
that would not tnke "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 whom we serve is able
to deliver us from the burning, fiery
furnace, nnd he will deliver us, but if
not”—
The highest faith Is the faith that
can stand for God to fail, the faitfi that
can risk disappointment "Our God
can, our God will deliver us, but if
not"—
Well, what If not? Well, "If not.". It
doesn't tnnke any difference. "If not,"
It doesn't alter our position. "But If
not, bo It known unto thee. Oh, King,
we 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 loan Company of Wash
ington. D. C., will sell yon a home-purchasing contract whereby yon
can buy or build a home anywhere In the United States and pay for
it in monthly payments for less than you are now paying rent? Thoy
will lend you from *1,000 to *5.000 at 5 per cent, simple Interest, al
lowing you to pay It back In monthly Installments of *7.G0 on each
thousand borrowed. For proa pectus and plans of our proposition,
call on or write J. St. Julian Yates. State Agent, 321 Austell Bldg.. At
Ianta, Ga. Bell phone 2653-J. Atlanta phone 1918.
Tnrthful Hustling Agents Wanted in Enrj Cunt) in Ike Still
whip the golden Image thout hast net
up." I nay thin In the hlghext faith
and 1 nay It on the unchallengeable
authority of Jesuit Christ. He Is "the
author and flnlHher of faith." And
this was Ills faith. In the garden of
Octhsemnnc he finished, he perfected
faith when he said: "Father, let this
cup pass," but if not—If not—I will
drink It. I will not falter; 1 will not
fall.
Tho record of the passion of Christ
from that moment till he cried, "My
God. My God, why hast thou forsaken
me?" Is the record of u moral heroism
meant for every one of us who comes
to the brink of disappointed prayer
when God leaves us to /itand alone,
I leaves us to receive the full shock of
! failure, leaves us to the re-
| fuge of our faith only, without support,
without proofs, nnd without nnything
to fall hack on except our own moral
heroism.
Humble Heroe*.
Now, life Is full of fiery furnaces be
cause it Is so full of experiences thnt
lead men and women to face Incura
ble griefs and Inevitable disappoint
ments. And 1 do not refer altogether
to sudden and crushing bereavements.
There nre burdens that do not crush,
but lacerate our shoulders. There are
blows that do not blind us, nor dull,
nor deaden, nor stun our hearts by
their business, but ure none the less
terrible because they do not. They are
the ever constant, ever present Inward
sorrows we must not expect to escape.
They nre a part of the environment In
which we are placed, of the chain we
have ourselves made or of tempera
ment we have inherited. Anil they
make their appeal to our moral he
roism every day.
A young man I know very intimately
has confided to me his deepest per
sonal experience. He says that all his
life he has felt In himself the 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 to sit and hear his father
and his comrades of the civil war tell
over again their battles nnd tlint when
he would hear them he would go out
of doors with Ids whole soul aflame and
tell God and the stars what he felt In
him, that he could be a soldier, that
He could stand up before bullets and
cannon without blinking nnd the** he
would go to bed und He awake sorrow
ful that the war was over, thnt theie
was no chance for him to be the hero
he felt he could be.
The subject of his reverie very often,
he says, has been to imagine himself
In hard und heroic situations, when
upon Ills coolness and courage life de
pended. And It was not In his mind
that lie could be afraid and fail the
opportunity. Now his lift- has not led
him to such opportunities, but into
peaceful nnd 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 und Governor Folk but his heart
flushes with the consciousness that had
the fortune of his life made It possible
ho w ould dare to do as these men have
done. And the man bears'ail the time
a suppressed nnd disappointed hero In
himself and* does not complain, but be
says "God can do great things with
me If He would, but if not—l am go
ing on Just the same and^be brave nnd
true arid noble in my soul and do what
I may Just the same.”
I do not believe his case Is unusual
at all. There are thousands «»! po
tential heroes who never come to light.
You know Gray’s Elegy. It was written
to tell just such an experience as I
ha\o related. A country boy who never
had a chance. "A youth to fortune and
to fame unknown." Sweet is the mu
sic of that Elegy—Its rural peace, "the
lowing herds winding slowly o'er the
lea," tin* drowsy link lings Unit lull the
distant folds." but the heart of It and
the immortal power of It is this boy
ho never had a chance, who lived
Ith gold In his heart nndug, with he-
>l*m unrevealed, a grand sould blush
ing like a flower unseen and wasting its
etness «»n the desert air or like a
gem of purest rav serene condemned
to dark uncovered caves of the ocean.
That Is tiie power of It that grips the
life and holds It. It Is great because
It's true. It is great because the poet
leaning over the grave of thnt country
lad ipoke what we know as true of
ourselves, of hundreds who never 1
ninoupt to much In the .world’s eye,
when he said:
"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 his fields with
stood
Some mute Inglorious Milton here may
rest
Some Cromwell guiltless of his coun
try’s blood."
Here thousands nnd thousands come
to stand and say God could deliver me
from the burning furnace of poverty
and IsoljRlon and could make use of
me for larger things. But if not, I will
be what I am and do what I may
whether He does or not.
Moral Heroism.
Sometimes the burning fiery furnace
comes through a constitutional dis
position to doubt. The spiritual strug
gles of many people would 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 His cause.
One of the number craved the coun
sel and comfort of his friends on the
subject of his doubt—not intellectual
doubts, but the fear and sorrow of his
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 his fiery burning furnace.
And we came to this at last: "Our
God is able to deliver us and He will
deliver us, but if not, we will be true to
our deepest selves, and not fall Him
though lie may seem to fail us some
times. What better are we than our
Lord, and did He not come to that
place and cry, 'Why hast thou for
saken Me?’"
Now, I know where this text leads
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 alono and
were actually In the burning fiery 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 doubt
ed God, doubted prayer and religion
and everything except the undoubta-
ble presence of this heart-ache. You
do not like to recall It. You sometimes
feel that you have wounded your faith
and sinned against your t’hristian pro
fession. Will you permit me this morn- I
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 bruve 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 where God is most surely en
trenched? "Our God w hom we serve
is ^ble nnd He will deliver us, but If
not—”
So t am putting a plea thnt finds us
all. The one thing for us all—the sure
thing for us all—is make much of the
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 nnd Providence,
but In being true to what we feel In
ourselves, to be our duty. If this seems
to be all that Is left you and you
couldn’t go otherwise If you tried, then
believe me, that Is God’s will and that
Is God’s path for your life.
"Our God whom wo servo 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 mnke no
difference In our courage; we will not
turn to false gods; we will not lower
our flag; we will not fall the call of
our own hearts and be anything less
good or less noble than we think God
would have us be.
AWNINGS
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