Newspaper Page Text
t:
WHAT IS RELIGION?*~III
By REV. JAMES W. LEE,
PASTOR TRINITY METHODIST CHURCH
It has taken man a Ion* time to pon-
,rt til * 1 ' thought contained In tangible
acta around him into term* of science.
, II only within recent year* that he
h» been able to reduce it to the
of systematic, accurate, verlfla-
b i, knowledge. All the ancients knew
"f the constituent elements of mate-
J.I bodies,they were able to express
L four general term* which they
nimed earth and air and Are and
,iter. .'tan has divided and subdivid
ed these huge masses until now, In-
•teid of fouj- terms through which to
«oress his knowledge, he has about
JJventy. He haB 1101 on 'y named the
elements, lie has weighed them and
measured them and determined their
affinities. He has learned how to group
particular elements so as to got com
pounds of one sort and then how to
take the same elements and group them
differently and get. 1 compounds of an
other sort; how to make carbon, hy
drogen and nitrogen stand together so
as to give him bread, and then by forc
ing them to change sides und swing
romers to give hltn prussic acid. He
baa changed caloric from an igneous
fluid Into a mode of motion and by so
doing has started the countless wheels
of lull. He has changed astrology Into
jjtronumy and out of the wheel of
fortune that once stood In the heavens
he has made a useful und universal
clock by which sailors ride the sea. He
has converted alchemy Into chemistry,
and while not finding the philosopher's
ktnne, which turned everything it
touched into gold, he has found some
thing hotter In the secret of prepar
ing his rood so as to turn disgruntled
dyspeptics Into amiable men and wom
en. He has driven the gods and god
desses 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 take
among Intelligent people. He iins
changed the doctor from the conjuror
into a rational physician, who no longer
puts drugs of which he knows little
Into bodies of which ha knows notnlng
as In the days of Voltaire, and who
no longer gives prescriptions on n level
idtli that of which Montaigne speaks
which consisted of the left fool ol a
tortoise, the liver of a mote, the blood
from under the left wing of a pigeon
,sn<t rats pounded to a fine powder. He
has Increased his vision a million fold
by finding the telescope and the gift of
his hearing by discovering the tele
phone, and the sense of his smell by the
Intention of the chemical test. He hex
taken down the thought habitations of
jAHiers and replaced them by oth-
and high that many ear-
neat people long accustomed to .close
mental quarters have been afraid they
™ Qve into them without
. n the "'hie cosmic spaces
their death of cold. He has found the
“ c ™‘ sending his messages on the
undulations of the luminiferous ether,
ana a recent professor of science has
declared that we are In thinking dis
tance of the time when, If a father
want* to talk to hte son, he knows not
where, he will only have to call in a
loud olectro-magnetic voice, heard by
tne son, whose ear Is electro-magnetl-
ned to the same pitch and by no other
and say, “Where are you, John 1 ?" The
low reply will comeback: "I am at the
bottom of a slate quarry in Wales, fn-
t llrr. * Af* *T am mil Iksort An.,.. #_.. —
ther, or ‘I am out three days from
Southampton on the Atlanta," or "I am
spending the day with a friend on hit
sheep ranch in Australia.”
The thought in material facts man
lias 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 that they
failed to get hold of the real order of
facts. Then he would invent other
thought schemes and find that
they also failed to get hold ofnvhat ho
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 1n the direc
tion of Ida 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 his Inside sketches did not con
form to It. So for thousands of years
he found his universe of thought turn
ing one way and the universe of fuct
turning another. In modern times an
cient methods have been abandoned.
Man learned from costly experience
that they would not work. They kept
hlni from his estate. They constantly
misled him. However promising they
might appear to be, he found Mrhcn he
followed them that they always left
hltn 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
formed a prison for his mind rather
than a meads to its freedom. The
mountains were stored with wealth,
but his theories paralyzed enterprise by
misguiding his energies. The sun was a
solar engine with unlimited power to
let, but his theory of heat led him away
from it and left him to trudge rather
than ride in a palace oar.
"But weary at length of "self-devised
methods that battled him and threw
him back upon himself, disappointed
and Impotent, he conceived the Idea of
Inducing his 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
find dut 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 bo pro
nounced and widespread that therp la
no longer any attempt to burn the
men who think. Their motives are
often misinterpreted, hut they are tin
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.
ft is inevitable that methods which
have been so efficient In the study of
nature should now 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
fucts of religion, when approached by
the modern scientific method, are as
ready to yield results as rich for the
spirit as have the facts of nature yield
ed results for the enrichment of our
temporal well being. We huve sent
oyer Into the Promised Land the Calebs
and Joshuas of physical science and
they have come bach laden with purple
grapes for the satisfaction of the body;
hut. Instead of sending over other Ca-
our spirits are minified 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 be, and the appe
tites are up where the spirit ought to
be.. And nil this comes largely from
the truth that science has brought no
much more from the facts of nature fos
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 guardians of nature, who
were afraid for the facts of ft to be
really investigated as they were In
themselves, lest the explorers might
find something to destroj' their pre
conceived ideas of it.
thing speaks to him out of the storm.
He hears it» voice In the thunder. He
beholds Its face In the burning shn. He
sees its furj' In the lightning. He feels
Us 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 lion, files in the bird,
blooms in the flower, and resides in
the deep shade of the forests. AU na
ture Is alive with it. Whatever the
something Is, tliat 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
It 1st ruethatthe thoria. on. hold. I hlm ‘ h »‘ hi* 'nteraet* will bo be*t
REV. Jf W. LEE.
leba and Joshua* to And out what there
la In Canaan (or the spirit, we liave
been accustomed to turn bach to wan
der In the wilderness, eking out a mis
erable existence on the manna our very
wretchedness provokes front -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 tile facts of na
ture, but how few there are who are
rolling and growing great and magnlit-
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 fuels of nature. Hence,
our spirits hobble along on crutches,
while our bodies Ay through space In
palace cars. Our spirits live In lloor-
less luits, while our bodies flourish In
atenm-heated imhtcf*. Our bodies are
magnified to the point of bursting und
should never be abandoned until he 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 pot
the facts. They ore valuable only In
so far a* they enable him to grasp the
real meaning of the facts with which
they deal.
III.
The facts of religion arc as Indubita
ble and self-evident a* the facts of
nature. They disclose relations, and
therefore contain thought a* clear and
distinct as that found In material facta
They have not yielded up their con
tents as completely as have the facts
of nature, because they have not been
approached by the sclentlflc method.
Religion Itself 1* a compound reality,
made up of element* one-half of which
are human and the other half divine.
The human elements of religion are:
1. A sense of dependence In man
upon tin 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*
blned 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 era*, 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, lie feels himself Invested
round not simply by the trees, but by
n strange something or some one bock
of them, of which they bring him In
timations. This vast and awful some-
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 civilised
saint, the .sense of obligation and re
sponslblllty to an unseen power. Hi
prostrates himself before It; he prays
to It; he sacriflces to It: he lifts up
altars and hows before them to wor
ship It. Everlastingly and universally
his conviction Is, he must pleuse or
placate, ar 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 all the stages of hi*
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 fall.
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 eilence of hie heart,
Feeling his need.
Has not cried out,
Shaping same prayer
To the unchanging Ood.”
The divine elements of religion are:
1. The revelation the unseen One
makes of Himself through nature. From
the beginning of lime outside
objects and forces have united to
form a sort of literature through which
some great being was uttering Itself or
himself.
Whnt 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 his Imagination and
emotion and conscience were deeply
stirred by the interpretation he did put
upon their significance to him no one
doubts, if is religion, crude and gro
tesque as it was, bears witness to what
lie felt the power back of ull things
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 wa* 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 sonfcthlng whs
wrapped up, while the modern man lias
untied the bundles and found out what
their 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 worde. He iva* a
poet with a soul boiling with feeling,
but was like Vesuvius before the sub
terranean Ares broke through Into rivers
of flame. He wa* the forerunner of
Wordawortb, who saw In the cloud
an elf telling tales of the sun, and said
that the dead Lucy Gray era* still seen
by many on the wild, and that "the
white doe of Ryatone la the daughter
of on Eternal Prince.” Tho aavage
was the civilised man before starting
to school. He was Darwin thousands
of years before the naturalist lived. He
was man before he had learned '.o
count and read and write and cipher.
He was the saint before he had
learned to say:
“As feel the flowers the aun In heaven.
But sky and sunlight never see.
So feel I thee, O God, my God,
Thy dateleas noontide hid from me.
As touch the buds the blessed rain.
But rain and rainbow never aee.
So touch I God In 1,11st or pain,
Ills 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."
F
• •eeeeaeeMMaateeeeteeetteeetaee
Convention 8ermon
Delivered at
Cartersville, Ga.
>••••(•••••••*
THE GOSPEL OF THE KINGDOM
"Go thou and preach ;
the Kingdom of God.” :
—Luke, lx, (0 :
By REV. JOHN E. WHITE,
PASTOR SECOND BAPTIST CHURCH
This la' the aermon delivered by Dr,
White last Tuesday night at the open
ing of the Baptist conference at Carters-
vllle. It attracted more attention than
any sermon of recent months.—Edltoy.
I or the past twenty-five years the
(ifUnite direction of Christian fai th has
Ven Christo-centric. Thera Is a steady
moveinent of convergence upon the fact
that every knee should bow und every
tongue confess that Christ Is Lord to
'lie glory of God ths Fathsr. This Is to
he particularly seen In the tendency
in get buck to our Lord's own teaching
on matters of religion. Now, that
movement has been going on long
enough and has been eulfldenUy gen
eral In Its character for us to see what
lias come out of It.
The result has been that two great
ivmhs have been rescued from neglect
anil set In the very center of the Chris-
i inn s creed—the doctrine of the Fa
therhood of God und tho doctrine of
the Kingdom of God, With regard to
the ilrst, I wleh to say that the articles
°f faith which do not contain a dis
tinct emphasis of the doetrlne of the
Fatherhood cannot be squared with tho
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
on they be squared with the most
prominent evidences of our Christian
' Ivilizatjon, which Is gloriously full of
'hat practical goodness which testifies
'hat the Fatherhood of God has made
reul the brotherhood of man.
°f the other rescued and re-empha-
slzed truth, the gospel of the Kingdom
"f Ood, with which my message on this
occasion Is concerned, I wish to say
that its restatement has saved the
equilibrium of the Christian religion.
The great doctrine of Grace, In which
'h. Idea of the Fatherhood Is such a
pre-eminent feature, Is capable of ex
aggeration, of dangerous over-empha-
»ls.
No Inconsiderable number of people
have been so delighted with Christ’s
ievr| a ti on 0 f the Fatherhood of God
'hat they have rushed Christianity
right Into the arms of Mohammedanism
without realising It. I am quoting a
great authority when 1 say that the
"'hole point of Mohammedanism Is this:
"God Is so merciful that He will not
punish HI* poor child because he sins."
To correct that tendency and maintain
th, halance of Christian faith the Holy
Spirit has turned the thought of the
w m Id back to Christ’s wonderful teach
ing about tho 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
Ilrst point I bring you from tills text
Is that 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 is the dominion of 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 are add
ed at once to our conception of tho
Christian religion, when we recognise
that It Is the religion of a kingdom, not
the religion of a republic.
For Illustration, we cannot accurately
speak of nature ns a republic. Nature
Is a kjngdom. A supreme authority
rules in nature. Jt Is a system which 1
turns about one center. The unlverab
Is not a mere federation of forces.
There Is no original self-dotermlnlng
will In a star, a flower or a bird. Nature
Is not controlled by the consent of tho
governed. It Is a kingdom in which
ever)' atom moves by direction of a
superintending intelligence, whose will
Is law. Nature Is full of hurntony, be
cause obedience to law reigns through-
ouYTier realm, our Father who arc In
the heavens. Now, above the kingdom
of naturo Is this other kingdom In the
sense that the spiritual Is above tho
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 this belong to?" he'
asked, holding out a silver coin.
In a chorus they all cried: "That be
longs to the mineral kingdom." "Well,”
and lie took from his pocket an orange,
"what kingdom does tills belong to?"
Again all responded, "The vegetable
kingdom.” "Good,” tho king said. "But
now look,” as he pointed to Ills own
person. "What kingdom do I belong
to?" 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 his arms
and tears'werf In his eyes. ’’I hop,, I]
trust you are right," he said.
’ Above this kingdom of nature Christ
raised the banners uf another kingdom,
which He called the Kingdom of God
It was regulated by different laws, con
tained different tribunals and It con-1
cerned the souls of men. it was an |
empire of hearts. But It was o king
dom .' To enter It required surrender to
a King. To be a citizen of It demanded
the recognition of a sovereign will and
submission to Hts laws.
My emphasis Is no mistake. The need
of our preaching Is the note of the di
vine sovereignty, There arc thousands
who call themselves citizens of the
Kingdom of Ood who labor -under the
deadly error of thinking .that It Is rt
citizenship of the American brand In
which they call think and feel and act
after their own will, their prejudices,
their own natural dispositions. The
moral Inetllcloney of Christianity I* the
subtle anarchy that pervades the rank
and file who forget If they ever realized
It that they are. In a kingdom where to
think as one pleases and feel os one
pleases anil do ns one pleases Is not n
privilege nor it right. "Go thou and
preach the Kingdom of God.”
A Prezsnt Reality,
Tfle expression, "The Kingdom of
God," Is not original to the New Testa
ment. It and Its equivalents are found i
scattered throughout tile Old Testa
ment. The remarkable difference, how
ever, between the Idea the Jews hod of
the .kingdom and the Idea that Christ
proclaimed waa that He proclaimed the
kingdom as a present reality. ’’Be
hold!" He cried, "the Kingdom of God
Is 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 lost Its
appropriating power. TJhelr religion
lost its hold upon life. Christ broke
upon them with a vital message. ’’The
kingdom Is here and now," He said.
He sent His disciples forth to proclaim
It as a present reality, commanding
them to say, "The Kingdom of God
has come nigh untc you."
A few yearn ago the English colonial
secretary, Joseph Chamberlain, went
upon a grand missionary Journey to
South Africa. It was Just after the
Boer war. Just after the British govern
ment had been seg up. He went every
where preaching. Preaching what?
Preaching the kingdom of Great Brlt-
□ R. JOHN E. WHITE.
aln. He did not preach It ns a govern
ment to be received at some distant
time. He persuaded the Boers to yield
to It and enter into Its privileges. This
may Illustrate what Christ means by
the gospel of the kingdom. The king
dom Is here. We are to persuade men
to realize It here as practical fact.
Without attention to this we have very
often missed the meaning of the laird's
prayer. Every noto or that prayer is
Instinct with a present meaning. It
was a prayer for disciples and In the
present tense: “Our Father who art In
heaven, hallowed be thy name.” When?
At some future time? "Thy kingdom
come, thy will be done on earth as It Is
In heaven." When? At some distant
time? No.’ He means, "Thy kingdom
be welcome In our hearts, thy will be
done tislay In our lives." It Is a-prayer
of appropriation.
What I* the Importance of this?
Here Is tile importance of It. There Ih
an habitual disregard of the present
practicability of the laws of the king
dom. There Is also a deal of mysticism
about the second coming lit Christ thut
contains a manifestly Immoral vlfect,
since It denies that the kingdom of
righteousness Is possible for the pres
ent age. With such teaching. If Us
teachers are logical, there must be a
lame Insistence upon the power of the
kingdom to assert Its preaent, practi
cal reality. Christ said the kingdom of
Ood wits like a grain of mustard seed.
It would grow und 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
Toward which the whole creation
moves."
Acts have sung of It. Viophrtx have
foretold It. Preachers have proclaimed
It. But the providence of Ood In the
gospel nf the kingdom has a grander
note than that. It assures us thut the
kingdom of God Is not a dream, but a
working plun, fitted dpwn to the neces
sities nf this present world. It tells
thnt the kingdom can come on eurtli
even ns It Is In heaven. Do you believe
that? How can you doubt It? Unroll
the records of foreign mlsslona and
mark the changes of darkness to light,
of death to life an the maps of heath
enism. Enroll the records of evangel
ism, the records which many of you
hold In memory dear of souls whose
king was Hatan, whose sovereign now
Is the King called Jesus.
A Personal Possession.
When Christ said to, the Jews, "Be
hold the kingdom of Ood la within
you.” He reversed three thousand years
of sincere religious thought. It la very
much easier to think of the kingdom of
God ns outside of us. That appeals to
our Instinct for the spectacular. It
presents no particular pressure of per.
sonal obligation. It Involves us as
spectators and well-wishers chiefly.
Tito kingdom of God la coming,” we
ay; "let us stand still nnd see the
glory of God."
Probably nothing Is more Inevitable,
certainly nothing more difficult to
avoid, than the tendency to fall Into
the wny of thinking of the kingdom of
God as external, Instltutlbnal nnd gen
eral In Its character. The result Is that
the Individual Christian concerns him
self with the duty nf doing something
to help the cause of the kingdom on,
rather Ilian with the duty of being
something that actually establishes 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 small 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 con say of
another great engagement of life that
"so sacred are Its sanctions and so se
rious are Its responsibilities that It la
to be entered Into by no one thought
lessly or Inadvisedly, but by every orte
thoughtfully, prayerfully nnd In tho
fear of Ood," what may be said of so
grave an engagement as this, "the
kingdom of Ood within you?" Yet the
realisation of that responsibility la the
very soul of the Inspiration of ,personal
Christianity. It takes (Mat realisation
to make a great Christian^ Julius Cae
sar calmed the fears and emboldened
the courage of the sailors In a storm
by reminding them "tu vahl Caesar"
("you carry Caesar"). Napoleon fairly
multiplied the French army by two, by
making every soldier feel as though he
alone was carrying the honor of the
emperor and the empire. Once, when
the surgeon was cutting close to a
French 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 And the emperor."
Not otherwise are th* prodigies of
Christ's sarltest followers explained.
The marvelous successes of the apos
tles lay In their realisation that Christ’s
kingdom .rested on their shoulders.
Christ succeeded In malting Hie dis
ciples personalty, Individually, respon
sible (or the gospel. The apostle Paul
set this mark of the great responsibili
ty at the very front of Christian prop
aganda. ’’The kingdom of God waa
within him." For him "to live was
Christ.” It is not the easiest Chris
tianity. Perhaps this Is. why one may
reasonably question If It I* 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, nf a gentleman who was be
reaved of his wife, who left behind a
little girl. She was all that was left
him. He gave himself up to her and
as she grew In beauty and loveliness
his heart wounds were cured. She was
his Joy. They were like lover* In de
votion to each other. They mado un
engagement that In the afternoon when
he would come from his business and
she from her school they would ineet
at a certain comer nnd go home to
gether, and this they did, spending the
evenings In u beautiful comradeatvlp.
One evening she excused herself und
went to her room. He did not eeo her
till the next afternoon. She met him
ns usual and they went home together.
Again, after dinner, sho excused herslf.
The next day It was repeated, and for
several days, until the shadow settled
back on the man’s life and hts heart
was bleeding. He Inquired, but sho
laughingly refused to explain. After a
week of suffering he gave himself up
to utter loneliness of spirit and their
old relations were gone. One evening
she excused herself from the table as
usual, but In a minute returned and.
standing behind the door, she said,
"Papa, now shut your eyes.” Then she
flew In and flung about him a hand;
some smoking robe and merrily kissed
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
doing every night."
Blinded with hie tears, half af suf
fering still, he pushed the elegant robe
away and said, "Oh, my darling, don't
ever do that again. It la not that I
want; I want you, you yourself.”
I think you understand now what
It means to have the kingdom of God
within you. I think you feel (he truth
and aee why God gave Hla only begot
ten Son, "In whom dwelt the fullness
of tha Godhead bodily," why “God was
In Christ.” He gave Himself because
He wanted you yourself. It I* God for
a man and that man you. "My hus
band Is kind to me; ha provides every,
thing; he embarraseea mo with gifts,
but, oh, doctor, he doesn't love me; he
really love* Home one else; yet ho
promised you and me that bo would be
altogether mine os lung as we both
should live." You feel the heart t>f the
tragedy beating there. Do you not un
derstand that the heart of tragedy la'
beating here, hare in this congregation,
because our Father is missing Ills
child, because there are such glaringly
Imperfect attachments to Christ, be
cause "the gift without the giver la
baser' f
And that Is enough. There's nothing
left after that. The man and Ml that
hts 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.