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WHAT IS RELIGION?—Ill | : By REV. JAMES W. LEE, - PASTOR TRINITY METHODIST CHURCH tead xpress I. has taken man a long time to con- the thought contained in tangible •tj» around hln(l into term* of science, is only within recent years that he be^n able to reduce It to the !s of systematic, accurate, verifla- h now ledge. All the andlonts knew the constituent elements ol( mate* 1 bodies they were able to express four general terms which they m e(f earth and air and fire and ter. Man has divided and subdtvid- these huge masses until now, in- of four terms through which to his knowledge, he has about fcventy- He has not only named the ements, he has weighed them and easured them and .determined their (Unities. He has learned how to group particular elements so as to get com pounds of one sort and then how to ike the same elements and group them ifferently an d get compounds of an other sort; how to make carbon, hy drogen and nitrogen stand together so ^ to give him bread, and then by forc ing them to change sides and swing corners to give him prussic acid. He lias changed caloric from an igneous fluid into a mode of-motion and by so doing lias started the countless wheels ,f toll. He has changed astrology into astronomy and out of the wheel of fortune that once stood In the heavens he has made a useful and universal dock by which sailors ride the sea. He m converted alchemy Into chemistry, and while not finding the philosopher’s „tone. which turned everything It touched into gold, he has found some thing better In the secret of prepar ing his food so as to turn disgruntled dyspeptics into amiable men and worn- He has driven the gods and god- from the classic mountains, the dryads and the genii from the woods, hobgoblins and ghosts from the dark ness and closed the career of the for tune teller and the quack and the fake among Intelligent people. He has changed the doptor from the conjuror into a rational physician, who no longer puts drugs of which he knows little into bodies of which he knows notnlng in the days of Voltaire, and who n<» longer givps prescriptions on a level with that or which Montaigne speaks which consisted of the left foot of a tortoise, the liver of a mole, the-blood from under the left wing of a pigeon tnd rats pounded to a fine powder. He im increased his vision a million fold by finding the telescope and the gift of ins hearing by discovering the tele phone, and the sense of his smell by.the Invention of the chemical test. He has taken down the thought habitations of the fathers and replaced them by oth ers bo wide and high that many ear nest people long accustomed to close mental quarters have been afraid they coum never move into them without catching in the wide cosmic spaces their death of cold. He has found the *® c . re . t sending his messages on the undulations of the luminiferous ether, and a recent professor of science has declared that we are in thinking dis tance of the time when, if a father wants to talk to his son, he knows not where, he will only have to call in a loud electro-magnetic voice, heard by the son, whose ear Is electro-magneti- ned to the same pitch and by no other and say, “Where are you, John?" The low reply will come back: “I am at the bottom of a slate quarry in Wales, fa ther," or ‘I am out three days from Southampton on the Atlanta/’ or “I am spending the day with a friend on his sheep ranch in Australia.” (I. The thought in material facts man has organized Into science has been in them from the beginning He failed through the ages to And It because he sought for the theory of things in his Imagination rather than In the objects themselves. He developed wonderful mental systems to account for and ac commodate the nature of things, but he found when put to the test thkt they failed to get hold of the real order of facts. Then he would Invent other thought schemes _and And that they also failed to get hold of what he saw without him. He devised mental traps to catch the heavens in, but learned after a while that the planets did not enter them. He constructed in tellectual machinery for reducing the atoms to order In his mind, but the molecules refused to turn in the direc tion of his intellectual wheel work. Things evidently had ways of going somewhere, but the roads he built for them they refused to travel over. There was surely an outside program of real ity, but hls Inside sketches dlrl not con form to it. So for thousands of years he found hls universe of thought turn ing one way and the universe of fact turning another. In modern times an cient methods have been abandoned. *Mnn learned from costly experience that they would not work. They kept him from his estate. They constantly misled him. However promising they might appear to be, he found when he followed them , that they always left him outside the plantation he felt be longed to him. Though he fashioned them, he found they were shackles and not instruments of progress. Though he invented them, he learned that they 1 formed a prison tor his rnfntf rather than a means to its freedom. The mountains were stored with wealth, but hls theories paralyzed enterprise by misguiding hls energies. The sun was a solar engine with unlimited power to let, but hls theory of heat led him away from it and left him to trudge rather than ride in a palace car. But weary at length of self-devised methods that baffled him and threw him back upon himself, disappointed and impotent, he conceived the Idea of inducing hls theories from a study of facts. This was new and heretical, but the wisdom of the plan was vindi cated by results. It had been the cus tom to settle the order of things by resolution. Men in convention assem bled felt it incumbent upon them to determine the shape of the earth by vote. If the majority declared it to be flat, that was an end to controversy on the subject. The thought of actu ally investigating an object in order to And out its constitution and place and movements was foreign to the minds of those called to administer upon the affairs of the world and Its interests. Many of the poor, lone students, here and there, who attempted to look into facts to learn how they worked, paid for their experience by the loss of their daring heads. In modern times, how ever, the revolt from the bondage of unworkable theories has been so prb- nounced and widespread that there is no longer any attempt to burn the. men who think. Their motives are often misinterpreted, but they are no longer reduced to ashes. Explorers who have used modern methods in manipulating nature have found so much to bless mankind that they are beginning to get credit for being useful members of society. Darwin at last sleeps peacefully In Westminster ab bey. It is inevitable that methods which have been so efficient In the study of nature should *how be applied to the subject of religion. Thinkers have failed to reach the complete reality of man and God by self-devised theories as thoroughly as they failed for thou sands of years to grasp the meaning of nature by Imagining methods. The facts of religion, when approached by the modern scientlflc method, are us ready to yield results as rich for the spirit ns have the facts of nature yield ed results for the enrichment of oUr temporal well being. We have sent over into the Promised Land the Calebs and Joshuas of physical science and REV. J. W. LEE. grapes for the satisfaction of the but, instead of sending over other Ca lebs and Joshuas to And out what there in 'Canaan for the spirit, we have been accustomed to turn back to wan der Jn the wilderness, eking out a mis erable existence on the manna our Very wretchedness provokea^from the pity of heaven. The picture may appear overdrawn, but It is not. We are rev eling and luxuriating in the wealth science has won from the facts of na ture, hut how few there are who are rolling and growing great and magniil- cent in the wealth science can win from the facts of religion. The facts are crammed with the religion the spirit needs, but we do not address ourselves to the consideration of them as we do to the facts of nature. Hence, our spirits hobble along on crutches, while our bodies Ay through space in palace cars. Our spirits live In floor- iess huts, while otir bodies flourish In steam-heated palaces. Our bodies ure magnified to the point of bursting and our spirits are minifled to the point of collapsing. The part of us that ought to fly Is held to the dust, and the part of us that belongs to the dust is per mitted to attempt the experiment of flight. The spirit is down where the appetites ought to he. and the appe tites are up where the spirit ought to be. And all this comes largely from the truth that science has brought so much more from the facts of nature for the body than from the facts of religion for the spirit. We have been afraid to approach the facts of religion with the scientific method. We are like the old-time guardian's of nature, who f were afraid for fhe facts of it to be I really investigated as they w r ere In themselves, lest the explorers might And something to destroy their pre conceived ideas of it. It is true that the thories one holds should never be abandoned until lie. has' found others which more clearly and completely account for and accommo date the facts of which they are the subjects, but he should always remem ber that the theories he holds are not the facts. They arc vulunble only In so far as they enable him to grasp the real,meaning of the facts with which they deal. * III. The facts of religion ure as Indubita ble and self-evident as the facts of nature. They disclose relations, and therefore contain thought as clear and distinct as that found In material facts. They have not yielded up their con tents as completely as have the facts of nature, because they have not been approached by the scientific method. Religion Itself Is a compound reality, made up of elements one-half qf which are human and the other half divine. The human elements of religion arej 1. A sense of dependence in man upon an unseen power higher than himself and other than himself, yet related to himself. This sense of help lessness in the presence of invisible but enduring forces grows out of the activ ity of imagination and affection, com bined with the constant and Insistent agency of the conscience. It Is more than the mere sense of dependence, such as the primitive man feels upon the boat lie Is using to cross the river, or upon the cave he is using to protect him from the storm. It Is a feeling of inadequacy and weakness in the pres ence of a mysterious power, the things about him only serve to represent and advertise. He feels himself Invested a strange something or some one back of them, of which they bring him In timations. Thjs vast and awful some thing speaks to him out of the storm. He hears Its voice in the thunder. He beholds its face In the burning sun. He sees its fury in the lightning. He feels Its placid moods mirrored In the beau tiful moon. It sleeps under the rocks; it flows in the river; it stands in the mountains and sings in the waterfall. It roars in the Hon, flies in the bird, blooms in the flower, and resides in the deep shade of the forests. All na ture is alive with It. Whatever the something is, that confronts him and looks at him and speaks to him from out the Inside of animate and inani mate objects, the savage feels he Is known by it and approved or con demned by It, and that upon it he Is dependent for his well-being. There is a vague nebulous sense with him that hls Interests will be best served by getting on good terms with It. Coupled with a sense of dependence and relationship, we And In man as man, from the savage to the civilized saint, the sense of obligation and re sponsibility to an unseen power. He prostrates hhpself before it; he prays to It; he sacrifices to it; he lifts up altars and bow* before them to ship It. Everlastingly and universally hls conviction is. he must please or placate, or propitiate the unseen mys tery upon which he feels himself de pendent and to which he feels -himself responsible. The primitive man and man through ail the stages of progress is ever engaged In bringing about an atonement between himself and the power that encompasses him. “Creeds change All outward forms Recast themselves. Sacred groves, temples and churches Rise and rot and tall. Races and nations And the various tongues of men Come and go and are. Recorded, numbered. ✓ And forgotten In the repetition And the drift Of many ages. All outward circumstances May be different, But there lives no man. Nor ever lived one, Who, in the silence of hls heart, Feeling his need. Has not cried out, 8haping some prayer To the unchanging God/' The divine elements of religion are: t. The revelation the unseen One makes of Himself through nature, From the beginning of time outside objects and forces have united to form a sort of literature through which some great being was uttering Itself or himself. What meaning the mystery back of things was trying to make known through mountain and grove and river and sky the savage was not able to determine, but that bJs imagination and emotion and conscience were deeply stirred by the interpretation ,he did put upon their significance to him na one doubts. Hls religion, crude and gro tesque as it was, bears witness to what he felt the power back of all things was trying to say to him. He saw in the bird an idea from the unseen One that provoked this religious feeling. The stars above him, the forests around him, the waters beneath him, were to him so many great languages Ailed with Ideas expressed by One upon whom-he was dependent, and to whom he was responsible. He differed from the modern student of nature In that he only felt that things had a meaning, while the scientist today knows exactly what the meaning Is» He saw packages In which he felt something wus wrapped up, while the modem inan has untied the bundles and found out what ihelr contents are. He saw the alpha bet of creation, but had not learned the names of the letters, nor how to put them together In words. He was a poet with a soul boiling with feeling, but was like Vesuvius before the sub terranean (Ires broke through Into rivers of flame. He was the forerunner of Wordsworth, who saw In the cloud an elf telling tales of the sun, and said that the dead Lucy Gray was still seen by many on the wild, and that “the white doe of Rystone is the daughter of an Eternal Prince/' The savage was the civilized man before starting to school. He was Darwin thousands of years before the naturalist lived. He was man before he had learned to count and read and write and cipher. He was the saint before- he had learned to say; 'As feel the flowers the sun In heaven, But sky and sunlight never see, So feel 1 thee, O God, my God, Thy dateless noontide hid from me. As touch the buds the blessed rain, But rain and rainbow never see. So touch I God in bliss or pain, Hls far vast rainbow hid from me. Orion, moon and sun and bow, Amaze a sky unseen by me, God’s wheeling heaven Is there I know, Although Its arch I cannot see/' Convention Sermon Delivered at Carteravifle, Ga. THE GOSPEL OF THE KINGDOM “Go thou and preach the Kingdom of God.” —Luke, lx, 60 By REV. JOHN E. WHITE, PASTOR SECOND BAPTIST CHURCH This lx the xermon delivered by Dr. White laxt Tuexday night at the open ing of the Baptist conference at Carters- vilie. It attracted more attention than any sermon of recent months.—Editor. for the past twenty-five years the definite direction of Christian faith has !«n Christo-centric. There is a steady movement of convergence upon the fact ’hat every knee should bow and every tonguo confess that Christ Is Lord tt> the glory of God the Father. This Is to be particularly seen In the tendency to got hark to our Lord’s own teaching "it matters of religion. Notv, that movement has been going on long enough and has been sufficiently gen eral in Its character for us to see what has i onto out of It. . The result has been that two great truths have been rescued from neglect and set In the very center of the Chris tian's creed—the doctrine of the Fa therhood of God and the doctrine of the Kingdom of God. With regard to the first, I wish to say that the articles "I faith which do not contain a dis tinct emphasis of the doctrine of the Fatherhood cannot be squared with the New Testament without humiliation ami exposure of disregard for what was most clear In the Savior’s teaching and most dear to the Savior's heart; nor tan they be squared with the most prominent evidences of our Christian civilization, which Is gloriously full of that practical goodness which testifies that the Fatherhood of God has made real the brotherhood of man. nf the other rescued and re-empha- sizeu t rut It, the gospel of the Kingdom "f God. with Which my message on this "cession Is concerned, 1 wish to say thst Its restatement has saved the equilibrium of the Christian religion. The great doctrine of Grace. In which the t.ioa of the Fatherhood Is such a lire.eminent feature, I* capable of ex aggeration, of dangerous over-empha sis. No Inconsiderable number of people hav, been so delighted with Christ’s revelation of the Fatherhood of God that they have rushed Christianity right into,the arms of Mohammedanism without realizing It. I nin quoting a greet authority when I say that the "hole point of Mohammedanism Is this; is so merciful that He will not Punish His poor child because he sins.” To correct that tendency and maintain the l>ulance of Christian faith the Holy "Writ has turned the thought of the " or PI back try Christ’s wonderful teach ing about the Kingdom of God. God Is a father, but He Is also a king. We arc the members of a family, but family governed as a kingdom. So the first point I bring you from this text Is tliat If we come Into the Kingdom of God and if'we accept our Lord's call to preach the Kingdom of God, we come Into It and we preach it as a kingdom. Kingdom, Not Republic. A kingdom la the dominion uf a king. Its essential Idea is authority centered In one ruler. The principle of a king dom stands out In contrast with the principle represented In our great word republic. Strength and power arc add ed at once to our conception of the Christian religion, when we recognise that It is the religion of a kingdom, not the religion of a republic. Fur Illustration, we cannot accurately speak of nature as n republic. Nptiirc is a kingdom. A sdpreme authority rules In nuture. It Is a system which turns about one center. The universe is not a mere federation of forces. There Is no original self-determining will In a star, a flower or a bird. Nature Is not controlled by the consent of the governed. It Is a kingdom in which even - atom moves by direction of a superintending Intelligence, whose will la law. Nature Is full of harmony, be- c cause obedience to law reigns through out, her realm, our Father who are In the heavens. Now. above the kingdom of nature Is this other kingdom In the sense that the spiritual above the physical. The emperor Kaiser William of Ger many visited a grammar school In the city of Bonn. The teacher gave him the opportunity of testing the Intelli gence of the scholars. ’’Now, what kingdom does tills belong to?’’ he asked, holding out a silver coin. In a chorus they all cried: "That be longs to the mineral kingdom." "Well,” and he took from hls pocket nn orntigc, “what kingdom docs this belong to?" Again all responded, "The vegetable kingdom." “Good," the king said. "But now look,” as he pointed to hls own person. "What kingdom do I belong toT’ A look of blank dismay passed over the faces of the loyal scholars. They did not like to say that their em peror was an animal and belonged to the animal kingdom. At length, In the silence, a little girl held up her hand. She could answer. "So you know, little frauleln? You can tell us. What Is It?" "You belong," she said, "to the King dom Of God." The emperor was great ly touched. He took her In hls arms and tears were In hls eyes. “I hope, I trust you are right," he said. Above this kingdom of nature Christ raised the banners of another kingdom, which He called the Kingdom of God. It was regulated by different laws, con tained different tribunals and It con cerned the souls of men. It was an empire of hearts. But it was a king dom. To enter It required surrender to a King. To be a citizen of it demanded the recognition of a sovereign 1 will and submission to Hls laws. \ My emphasis Is no mistake. The need of our preaching Is the note of the di vine sovereignly. There are thousands who call themselves citizens of the Kingdom of God who labor under the deadly error of thinking that It Is a citizenship of the American brand In which they can think uqd feel .and act after their own will, their prejudices, their own natural dispositions. The moral Inefficiency of Christianity Is the subtle anarchy that pervades the rank and file who forget If they ever realized It tliat they ure In a kingdom where to think as otic pleases and feel as one pleases nnd do as one pleases Is not a privilege nor n right. "Go thou and preach the Kingdom of God.” A Present Reality. The expression, "The Kingdom of God,” Is not original to Ike New Testa ment. It and Its equivalents are found scattered throughout the Old Testa ment. The remarkable difference, how ever, between the Idea the Jews had of the kingdom nnd the Idea that Christ proclaimed was that He proclaimed the kingdom as a present reality. "Be hold:" Ho cried, “the Kingdom of God la at hand." Jewish thought concerned Itself exclusively with the Kingdom of God us an Ideal to be realized In the future. Christian thought holds It us an Ideal realizable In the present. It was not something to be. It was. The Jews had dreamed until they became a nation of dreamers. Their faith loht Its appropriating power. TJhelr religion lost Its hold upon life. Christ broke upon them with a vital message. "The kingdom Is here nnd now,” He said. He sent Hls disciples forth to proclaim it as a present reality, rnnunandlng them to say, "The Kingdom of God has come nigh untc you." A few years ago the English colonial secretary, Joseph Chamberlain, went upon a grand missionary Journey to Houlh Africa. It was Just after the Boer war. just after the British govern ment hait been set up. He went every where preaching. Preaching what? Preaching the'kingdom of Great llrlt- DR. JOHN E. WHITE. uln. He did not preach It na a govern ment to be received at some distant time. He persuaded the Boers to yield to It and enter Into Its privileges. This tuny Illustrate what Christ means by the gospel of the kingdom. The king dom is here. We are to persuude men to realize it here us ■practical fact. Without attention to this we have very often missed the meaning of the Lord's prayer. Every note of that prayer Is Instinct with a present meaning. It was a prayer for disciples mid In the present tense: "our Father who art In iieuvcn, hallowed be thy name." When? At some future time? “Thy kingdom ••ome, thy will be done on earth us tt Is in heaven.” When? At some distant time? No. He means, "Thy kingdom be welcome In our hearts, thy will be done today In our lives." It Is a prayer of appropriation. What Is the Importance of lilts? Here Is the Importance of It. There Is an habitual disregard of the present practicability of the laws of the king dom. There Is also a deul of mysticism nbout tile second coming of Christ that contains n manifestly Immoral effect, since It denies that the kingdom of righteousness Is possible for.tltq pres ent age. With such teaching. If Its teachers arc logical, there must be a htmo insistence, upon the power of the kingdom to assert Its present, practi cal reality. Clirlstisaid tile kingdom of God was like a grain of mustard seed. It would grow and grow till It sheltered the nations. He said It was like leaven. It would work and work until the earth was leavened. It Is a passion we all Indulge to look forward -to a golden age. 'That far off divine event veti wn ole creation Poets have sung of It. Prophets have foretold It. Preachers have proclaimed It. But the providence of Owl in the gospel of the kingdom has a grander note than that. It assures us that the kingdom of God is not n dream, but a working plan, fitted down to the neces sities of this present world. It tells that the kingdom fun come on eartli even as It ts in heaven. Do you believe that? How can you doubt It? Unroll the records of foreign missions and mark the changes of darkness to light, of death to life on the maps of heath enism. Unroll the records of evangel ism, the records which many of you hold In memory dear of souls whose king was Satan, whose sovereign now Is the King called Jesus, A Personal Possession. When f’hrlst said to the Jews, "Be hold the kingdom of God Is within you." He reversed three thousand years of sincere religious thought, it is very much easier to think of the kingdom of God ns outside of us. Thht appeals to our Instinct for the spectacular. It presents no particular pressure uf per. sonul obligation. It involves us ns spectators and well-wishers chiefly. "The kingdom of God Is coming," we say; "let us stand still nnd see ihe glory of God.” Probably nothing Is more Inevitable, certainly nothing more difficult to avoid, than the tendency to fail Into the way of thinking of the kingdom of God as external, institutional und gen eral In Its character. The result Is that the individual Christian concerns him self with the duty of doing something help the cause of the kingdom on, rather tiian with the duty of being something that actually establlahes the kingdom of God among men. I suppose every one can see that If this means anything It means quite a considerable responsibility. Since Mr. McKinley's assassination at Buffalo the visit of the president to a city causes no little anxiety to Its authorities. To he accountable for the safety of the head of the nation Is not a'stnall re sponsibility. "The kingdom of God Is within you”—not In a city, hut In you: not In the church, but In you. You realise, do you not, the tremendous obligation of that? If we can say of another great engagement of life that “so sacred are its sanctions and so se rious are Its responsibilities that It Is to be entered into by no one thought lessly or Inadvisedly, but by every one thoughtfully, prayerfully and In the fear of God,” what may be said of so grave an engagement as this, "the kingdom of God within you?” Yet the realization of that responsibility Is .the very soul of the Inspiration of personal Christianity. It takes that realization to make a great Chrlztlan. Julius Cae sar calmed the fears nnd emboldened the courage of the sailors In a storm by reminding them "tu vehl Caesar” ("you carry Caesar”). Napoleon fairly multiplied the French nrmy by two, by making every soldier feel us though he alone was carrying the honor of the emperor and the empire. Once, when the surgeon was cutting close to a Frencfi gendarme's heart the man, feeling the knife touching near the cardiac, smiled at the surgeon and said, "Cut a little further, doctor, and you will find the emperor.” Not otherwise are the prodigies of Christ's earliest followers explained. The marvelous successes of the apos tles lay In their realisation that Christ's kingdom rested on their shoulders. Christ succeeded In making Hls dis ciples personally, Individually, respon sible tor the gospel. The apostle Paul set this murk of the great responsibili ty at the very front of Christian prop aganda. "The kingdom of God was within him." For him "to live wus Christ.” It Is not the easiest Chris tianity. Perhaps this Is why one may reasonably question If It Is the char acteristic Christianity of our times. It Is not the only way to be religious, nor exactly the natural way to be relig ious. There Is an Incident familiar to some of you, of a gentleman who waa be reaved of bis wife, who left behind u little girl. She was all that waa left him. He gave himself up to her and us she grew in beauty und loveliness hls heart wounds were cured. She wus hls Joy. They were like lovers In de votion to each pther. They made an engagement that In the afternoon when he would come from Ills business und she from her school they would meet at a certain comer and go home to gether, and this they did, spending the evenings In u beautiful comradeship. One evening she excused herself and went to her room. He did not see her till the next afternoon. Sho met him as usual and they went home together. Again, after'dlnner, she excused heralf. The next day It was repeated, and for several'days, until the shadow settled back on the man's life and hla heart was bleeding. He Inquired, but dlte laughingly refused to explain. After a week of suffering he gave himself up to utter loneliness of spirit and their okl relations were gone. One evening she .excused herself from the table as usual, but In a minute returned nnd. standing behind the door, she suld, "Papa, now shut your eyes." Then she flew In and flung about him a hand some smoking robe and merrily klsaed him. "It's your,birthday. Don't you know It? I made It nearly all with, my own hands. That's what I’ve been ' ig every night." Uncled with hls tears, halt of suf fering still, he pushed the elegant robe away and said, "Oh, my darling, don't over do that again. It Is not that I want; l want you, you yourself.” I think you understand now what It means to have the kingdom of God within you. I think you feel the truth nnd see why God gave Hls only begot ten Hon, "In whom dwelt the fullness of the Godhead bodily," why "God was In Christ.” He gave Himself because He wanted you yourself. It Is Ood for a man and that man you. "My hus band Is kind to me; he provides every thing; he embarrasses me with gifts, but, oh, doctor, he doesn't love me; he realty loves some one else; yet he promised you and me that be would ho altogether mine ae long as we both should live.” You feel the heart of the tragedy beating there. Do yoif not un derstand that Ihe heart of tragedy Is beating here, here In this congregation, because our Father is mtxslhg Ills child, because there are such glaring!y Imperfect attachments to Christ, tie- “the gift without the giver le "Here, Lord, I give myeelf to Thee; TIs all that 1 can do." And that Is enough. There’s nothing left after that. The man and all that hls signature can control and command goes along with that. THE GEORGIAN WISHES ITS READERS—would stop and go over their Saturday paper and see if there is any lack of good things for them to read Sunday. We do not print a Sunday paper—NOT GOING TO. - Saturday’s Georgian is a paper for Sunday, too.