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THE ATLANTA GEORGIAN.
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 8, 1308.
15
f
WHAT IS RELIGION?—V
IF
• By REV. JAMES W. LEE,
PASTOR TRINITY METHODIST CHURCH
: : *
In closing the last chapter of this
Inquiry It was declared that for thou-
sands of years man lived In the very
presence of every equipment he needed
for his physical and social well-being,
but that he failed, until within recent
years, to find It, because he sought to
understand the material facts around
him through theories spun out of his
imagination, rather than through such
as could’be obtained by the study of
the facts themselves.
He falls just as sadly to find the
truth stored away for him In religious
facts, because he continues to approach
them tor the most part with concep
tions spun out of his Imagination, rath
er than with the Ideas formed In the
mind from a patient study of the re
ligious facts themselves. To illustrate
what Is meant let us consider one of
the self-devised mediaeval theories
with which he has approached man
himself In whom Is contained one-half
the facts of religion. The working con
ception of man he has chosen to meas
ure him by Is that ho Is totally da-
proved. The hypothesis has been that
In Adam's fall wo sinned all and lienee
every one according to the.theory line
been under the necessity of ridding
himself, not only at his own sin, but
also of Adam's sin; every person car
ried In his soul a double outfit of
guilt, that the first man deposited in
his life and that accumulated by Ills
own wrong doing. This conception of
man rendered the moral condition of
the sinner hopeless. Ho was not
eten thought to be a child ot God until
he' had squared the debt left him to
pay by the federal head of the race und
then-secured forgiveness for Ills Indi
vidual transgressions of the laws of
God. He was not a child of God es
sentially and constitutionally ami lu-
herently because created in His imuge,
but bdenuse a child of his father by
something he did or was required to do.
If a sinner he was not a child In rebel
lion: he was not a child at all. He was
a hopeless wanderer and orphan with
out father,or mother, un outcast with
nothing left him but to eke out a mis
erable existence Ih the outlying regions
upon which Satan had established his
kingdom. The Image of God accord
he chose to leave the father’s house
for a season of riotous living In a far
country'. Why it was that the spirit
of-,** 1 ® Father continued to seek the
child and to find something in the
wanderer to appeal to, with the image
or GmV, the badge of relationship to the
father, relinquished and left behind,
xt ^.2°? occur to the leaders- to ask.
Nor did It occur to them to remember
that if man ceased to be a child of God
by transgressing His law he was able
then by an act of his to disrupt and
* e j’ eative act of the Almighty.
When God created man and breathed
Into him the breath of life he became
a living soul with the image of God
stamped in the very' fibers of his be-
!. n £ t 7 he co,or8 with which he was
lighted were eternally set In the struc
ture of his life. Even the fires of hell
cun never bum them out. Forever
and forever anywhere and everywhere
he will continue to be a child of God.
If lost because of wilful, sinful per-
slstence In the ways of evil, he will be
a lost child of God. If saved because
of faithful compliance with divine
<0 .lY*L tionM eternal blessedness he
will be a redeemed child of God. The
power of choice was an awful and per
ilous prerogative, but It will not do
to claim that this invests him with
[lie cnpnclty to do away with and leave
behind him the very constitution of his
persona fitly. That is his birthright
and Inevitable inheritance to all eter
nity* whether he pursues his unending
career with tire redeemed In heaven, or
with the permanently disobedient lr.
outer darkness. That man Is a sinful
being all history testifies, but he did
not drop out of Idniself by sinning. He
disrupted the unity df himself as u per
sonal spirit in hrmnony with YJod by
falling Into phases of himself as body
und mind. Hut broken and fragmen
tary and Impotent as he came to be
by his disobedience he never lost the
Ideal framework and lineaments with
which God created him. He lost the
power of restoring himself as divided
to himself as a spiritual whole again in
communion with God without divine
aid, . but lie never lost out
Ids life the touch and eol-
nf Ills Father's image. If lie had
lost this by Ids sin then the first
man's disobedience would huve eter
nally bankrupted the human race, for
there would hhvo been nothing left
In the center of Ills ftoul^ to which his
Ing to this view was not inwrought In heavenly Father could any more ap-
the very constitution of man; It was peal.
more like a clock to bo put aside when The fathers of the ehurch based the
doctrine of depravity upon the fact that
limn wu? on animal, and as such in
herited the acquired characters of pa
rents. They failed to recognise the
truth that man 1ft essentially and con
stitutionally spirit and not animal. Tho
animal element in him is temporal and
passing and perishing, while the spir
itual element In him in eternal and
abiding and divine. As an unltnal, he
does come down from his ancestors,
and were he nothing more, would con
tinue to live on the animal level an Ills
parents di«l. Looked at from this point
of view, his kingdom would be that of
the lion’s, or the tiger's, or the mon
key's. who, through all the ages, hate
Inherited and transmitted .to their off
spring their animality. But Jt will not
do to uppty this view to man, for it
conceals the fact that spiritual life im
plies relations to other than the physi
cal ^environment. It conceals the fact
that mail as spirit reacts on the spirit
ual reality that encompasses him, and
In each Individual Is a new beginning.
Each now elephant is an old elephant
duplicated and repeated, and hence ele
phants keep to elephant level through
out all time and never rise above It or
advance. Modern, monkeys are nothing
more than new editions of old tnon-
keyjs. There is nothing more In the
squirrel of today than th^re was in the
first squirrel that e\*er climbed n tree.
Bquirrelhood is the same nimble, sport
ive, animated activity throughout all
time. It comes down to us from the
past, but on a straight, level line of
descent. The movement of man through
the ages, however, has been upward,
ami upward because, being a self-
conscious, self-determining, self-active
spirit, made in the Image of God. he has
been . reacting- throughout Ills entire
earthly career upon the infinite self-
conscious, self-determining, self-active
spirit by which he Is environed.
The poet sings:
“Each day is a fresh beginning,”
but God tells us in the structure of oar
being that each child is a fresh begin
ning. The i%or law Inspector of Glas
gow. Scotland, sends every year to
different orphans' homes numbers of
little children, found In the streets,
picked up selling newspapers between
the knees of drunkards In public'
houses. On being usked how far these
children, born almost Invariably of the
worst parents, suffered froifi their In
heritance, his startling reply was:
“Provided you get them young
enough, they cannot be said to suf-
Ihe died to know that only about two
I>er cent of them proved to be failures.
I When In conversation with Luther
Burbank, who Is accomplishing such
wonderful results with plants and
dowers, 1 mentioned to him that only
‘2 per cent of Barnardo's children failed
under his treatment^ to make good
men and women, he expressed surprise
that even so many as 2 per cent should
have gone wrong. He accounted for
It on the grounds that perhaps some
of the children did not get into Bar
nardo's home early enough. He re-
J marked In the same connection that
j plans owed everything to heredity, while
j children owed everything to environ
ment. His theory was not one he had
found In books, or constructed by his
imagination/ It was one he had formed
by observation and experiment with
plants and children. His Conviction
was that every child should grow up
good and true and beautiful and would
If properly environed. But he ob
served that the spiritual realities to
which the child Is related must be
kept around Its opening life ns con
stantly as truth must be kept close
to* Its thought, and food and atmos
ners to come to terms of forgiveness
that they might share His mercy and
sustain His glory, while the non-elect
sinners who were Just as promising
specimens of humanity as the ones
chosen wero left to writhe forever in
hell and thus sustain His justice. Ac
cording to some of the old fathers one
of the highest and keenest joys re
served for the saints in glory would be
to lean over the ramparts of heaven
and watch the sinners rise and fall
and alternate between agony and de
spair In a seething lake of boiling fire.
Such a continual exhibition of per
petual heart-rending pain, it was
thought, would add depth and seat to
the happiness of the redeemed.
With a conception of man that held
him to be totally depraved, and with
a conception of God that held Him to
be loving and considerate In His re
lation to the elected part of the race,
while merciless, indifferent and heart
less to the non-elect, we can readily
see that the working theories of even
religious men were as completely
turned from the truth as it is in man
and God, as the o|d theories of caloric
_ were turned from the real truth of
phere close to its physical needs. He heat, or as the old theories of tho al-
declared that a new era would dawn chemists were turned from the real
DR. J. W. LEE.
fer at all 'from this cause.”
He supported this conclusion by sta
tistics which showed that out of 630
children sent out anti kept under close
observation for years only some 23
turned out bud. The ores who turned
out bad did not reach the homes early
enough. %
The theory of total depravity In
the sense It was formerly held has
had Its day. It has wrought mischief
enough. Dr. Thomas J. Barnardo. be
lieving that God’s linage was in every
child, and that every child properly
trained, properly instructed and spirit
ually environed would grow Into a
useful and beautiful man or woman,
rescued from the streets of English
cities 60,000 waif children and edu
cated them and brought them up In
the nurture and admonition of tho
Lord, and had the happiness before
for the human race when our concep
tlons of childhood were formed from a
| study of young life, and were not re-
-celved ready made from those In the
‘past who manufactured their theories
without reference to facts.
VI.
Let us consider further the self-de
vised theological conception with which
man was accustomed to come to the
consideration of God from the time of
Augustine to that of John Wesley. His
Idea was that by the decree of God,
for the manifestation of His glory somo
men and angels are predestinated to
everlasting life, and others are. fore
doomed to everlasting death. His theo
ry was that God. by an eternal and
Immutable counsel, hath once for ull
determined both whom He would admit
to salvation and whom He would con
demn to destruction. He held that this
counsel was founded completely on His
gratuitous inercy, totally, irrespective
of human merit, that those left to de
struction were not given over to eter
nal torment because of their wrong do
ing, nor were those chosen to eternal
blessedness selected because of any
foresight of faith or good works on
their part. According to the theory God
was anxious to maintain both His glory
and His justice. 8o through the power
of His grace Ho forced elected sin-
nature of the atoms. Theories of na
ture, man and God were formed with
out reference to the facts, * material,
human or divine.
VII.
The science of a thing, then. Is sim
ply the Idea of It the mind gets by the
study of It. It is the relations of it
and the thought In It converted Into
verifiable, valid knowledge. It Is the
theory of a fact the mind finds Im
bedded In the fact Itself, and after
wards gets out to use In manipulating
It and turning it to account. It Is the
light In a fact, kept burning by Its re
lations, the mind finds by the light of
Intelligence and transfers from the out
side to the Inside of Itself. All facts,
we may say, whether material or re
ligious. are afiame with the fire of truth
kindled. In them by the eternal intelli
gence. When man gets the light in
facts to beaming in his own thought
he lias the science of them. The Lord
Is the light of the universe and the
spirit of man is the candle of the Lord.
Science is the radiance that Illuminates
the mind when the candle Is lit by
rays from the eternal center and source
of all light. Science Is to the mind
what the sun Is to the eyes, the latter
discloses the outer surface of things
and the former makes known the hid
den meaning of things. When we have
the science of a thing we have the light
by which to see the entire content of
It. Science is valuable, therefore, as a
burning hand lamp in a mansion is
valuable to show us whera the things
are and what the things are belonging
to different sides of our life. Science
creates nothing; It only reveals the
nature and value of what is.
The mind has three modes of ener
gizing—through the Intellect, through
the desire and through the will. Tho
intellect is the mode of energizing by
which the human mind deals with tin*
relations of facts. The desire'is tin*
mode of energizing by which the mind
deals with the values of facts. Tin; *
will Is the mode of energizing by which
the mind performs Jhe work necessary
to the appropriation of the values of
facts. Relations are the wrappers Jn
which facts are bound up. It Is the
province of the Intellect to untie the
pacages, thus disclosing to life the
contents and values of the facts. When
this Is done the side of life to which
the value Is related will call for It. If
the package contains food for the body,
hunger will coil for It. If the package
contains mathematical relations sim
ply without any content, the intelli
gence will call for it. If the package
contains a mixture of atmospheric vi
brations, tho musical sense will call for
a mixture of ether waves, the
sense of beauty will call for it. If it
is a bundle of laws for the regulation
of conduct, the conscience will call for
It. If It Is a religious package, the in
tellect unwraps the spirit will call for
It. In tills way thp Jiunni nsejf.
standing in the preset*:* <»f ibe uni
versal store house in which all kinds
of bundles are wr
away, by means i
lect, desire and will, unties rlieni. wdnti\
them and appropriately them for the
equipment and fumlsfi&eht <>f tpe
whole of life. Humanity has been so
■busy for the past half a century un
wrapping the packages which contain
values for the material well-being of
man that the moral and religious bun
dles have been largely Ignored. Tho
time has come to take down from tho
higher shelves of the environing mer
chandise the values which relate to
the spiritual well-being of man.
Man cannot live by bread alone; that
Is the tangible and material word of
God. He needs for the enrichment of
his entire self every word that pro
ceeded out of the mouth of God, that
Is, he must take the words spoken for
the ethical and spiritual nature as well
as that spoken for the "physical.
WHAT IS IT TO BE SAVED?
HIHMIMHMIMM
“The life I now live in the floh I live
in faith—the faith which ia in the Son
of God who loved me and gava'Him-
•elf up for me."—Galatians ii: 20.
By REV. JOHN E. WHITE,
PASTOR SECOND BAPTIST CHURCH
It#* IIHIHItlHIIMHHtMHMIMHtlHHI
IHIMtlHIIMIHIHHIIIHMIMI
W JAT is it to bo saved? “The
word ’salvation.’ * some one
says, “Is a word which, like a
well-word coin, has been so passed
from hand to hand, that It scarcely re
mains legible.” I know a man of In
telligence and of exceptional morality,
who is not a Christian, and who has
very HttlO use for the conventional re
ligious teaching with which lie has
been fAmJliar all his life. A friend one
day urged him to give himself to the
Saviour. *T know you do not believe
you can save yourself and I have rea
son to know that you ore not satisfied
as you are,” he said to him. "Do you
know of any other Saviour than Jesus
Christ?”
The man thus urged faced his friend
squarely and said: “May I ask you a
question? What do you mean by being
saved?” %
The question was asked so earnestly
and delivered with such shurt-arm.
point-blank directness that the friend
of Christ realised that he had to con
■Ider more carefully than he had eve
done lieforc What he did mean by being
“saved.”
It was a fair-question. Tiie man had
the right to ask It and to require
an answer that would do him some
good. There are many people, I am con
vinced, both in the church and out of
it, who would confess themselves per
plexed and troubled by their indefinite
and Unsatisfying understanding of the
matter of personal salvation. “What
do you mean by being saved?’’
The Answer That Misses.
A real source of confusion is, that
there Is more than one way In which
the question may be answered and yet
answered truly.
There Is the theological answer, em
ploying technical terms with technical
accuracy In logical keeping with the
authorities and the proof texts. Such
an answer as the professor would make
to a class of theological students.
There Is the answer also In the care
fully chosen words of sound doctrine fit
for Christians of a mature mind, which
properly articulates their creed and an-
1 chore thorn to exact conceptions of
Christian truth.
For me these answers are most Im
portant. The theological and doctrinal
facts of salvation arc to be sought out
and systematized by ull mature Chris
tians. I have been at pains to do this
for myself and ns a teacher I have tried
to set them out clearly to others,
believe In the great words of our faith
—Repentance. Reconciliation, Regen
oration and Sanctification, man’s part
and God’s part In our salvation.
Hut when that man to whom the
stock phrases of religion were unreali
ties, stood before his friend und looked
him squarely and said, “What do you
mean by being saved?” shall he tell
him these things In answer?
I do not think so. To answer him In
that way Is to lose him at once. That
definition of tho saved life would do
him no good at nil.
Hut Is salvation one thing for one
man and something else for another?
No; not ut ull. Salvntlon through
Christ Is always and everywhere the
same und all our hesitation here Is due
to our failure to keep one thing dear.
Salvation Is not our work. We do not
save people. Our work Is t<» get men
to Christ and leave the divine work 1
the Divine Worker. We can trust
Christ’s orthodoxy. Paul salu that he
was nil things to all men If by any
means He might save some. He meant
that he was In the work of getting mm
take hold of Christ sufficiently to
enulde Him to get hold of them, and
that he was not bound to any rigid
rule In his method of work. The result
was what he wanted. There Is but one
salvation, but more than one way of
coming t^ the Saviour.
To put at rest all doubt, muke the
effort to find In the New Testament
any uniform dealing by Christ or the
apostles with Inquiring sinners. You
will be impressed that the New Testa
and Christ replied: “Give your coat toi
him that hath none.” Another at the
same time asked the same question, |
and He answered: “Exact from no man I
more than that which Is allowed to |
you.” Home soldiers asked it and He j
said: "Do no violence, neither accuse ■
any man falsely, and be content with
your wages.” To the young ruler He
answered: "Go sell what thou hast and
give to the poor und come und follow
Mo.” * -
Paul asked the question at the time
of ids conversion, and the answer he
J fot was not that lie gave to the Phil-
pplan jailor who asked it of hiin-r-”Re-
pent, believe and be baptized."
It is not too much to say, I think,
that Christ’s way into human heurts
may be blocked by the rigid enforce
ment of conditions made.in an honest
though mistaken loyalty to doctrinal
requirements. As a matter of expe
diency, which would be wisely a matter
of our Jtulgmeut, It might be contended
either one way or the otbef. but as a
matter of Scripture It Is entirely with
out sanction or authority that men are
to be brought to Christ through a fixed
formula.
Dr. \V. \Y. Hamilton, an experienced
evangelist, says that lie wus converted
by being sent into a secluded room to
pray, and that he finds himself urging
Inquirers to go off Into a room by
themselves. It is natural that we should
want everybody else to come ut salva
tion Just us we camegjt It. A certain
brother wus converted at tho old-fash
ioned mourners’ bench. He thinks that
the trouble with us is thut we do not
have the old-fashioned mourners’
bench. Another was converted under
the terror of tho law, and yet # nnother
was touched and melted by th? por
trayal of the lovo of God. It Is not un
natural that they should be mlnd<*d to
fix their experience ns the criterion.
Hut manifestly it cannot be done. Con-
ment might almost be called a book Jltlons, temperament, environment,
showing the varieties of Christian ex- training ^andl^polnt of view are to be
perlences. Several instances, ur
corded In which the £;qne question w<
begun with was pro|H>unded to Christ.
One asked Him wlmt should he do,
reckoned with.
say that to the great mass of
in tho church and ou
would ask, “What is it to
▼
DR. JOHN E. WHITE.
the perplexed and troubled people to
whom at times ‘ every thing , seems
muddled and Indefinite, titere must be
an answer that Is so fundamental In
Its ’plainness and adaptation to their
situation that they cun take hold of It
and make at ieust a beginning of
Christ.
The Essential Christian Fact.
Now for guidance Into whut seems
to mo tho essential Christian cxperl- .
ence of the saved life I ask you to
look at the text. “The life I now' live
In tho flesh I live In faith, the faith
which is In the Son of God who loved
me and gavo Himself up for me.” This
Is tho most definitive passage about
the Christian life In all the statements
of the New Testament. It Is a great
Christian’s definition of what the saved
life is. He says that the saved life Is
u life here and now lived In a personal
union with a trusted Savior. That def
inition leaves out many things which
the mature Christian who has been
well taught might wish to put In, but
it leaves nothing out that Is essential
to salvation. If I understand my case,
and the case of some who hear me,
when I said to that man who asked.
“What do you mean by being saved
that to be saved Is to begin now' to live
clay by day In a personal, trusting re
lation with Jesus Christ, lie would say,
”1 ain glad to hear you say that. I am
glad you did not sny that to be saved
was to be ’born again.’ or that it was
to lay your sins at the foot of the
cross, or that It wus to be kept out
of hell hereafer, or that It was to be
good und join the church. These things
may be, but I am all at sea when I
try to get at them. But I feel there
Is reality for me In what you tell me.
I must, to be a Christian, get v in with
Christ for the life I now live' In the
1 flesh, and I suppose that merfns that
■ I must believe in Him through and
through and follow Him and consult
Him every day, andt do everything ac
cording to Him, and leave my salva
tion entirely to His power.”
Now, this In a very fragmentary und
Inadequate conception of what It Is
to be saved when you are tulklng to
theologians, but 1 think It holds Just
about what Christ would have said to
a man like that, and It certainly holds
what the great apostle conceived tho
vital fact of his salvatl on.
Nor is thgre any real slight to the
ology. If there Is one perplexed man
or woman who heurs or reads what I
have said, one who Is inwardly con
fused by the exacting formulas of doc
trine, I venture to assert if he will turn
straight away from his doubts and lay
hold of this us a personal experiment,
that the life ho now lives in the flesh
every day Is to be lived In a personal
relation to Jesus Christ accepted und
trusted as a Master, lie will In a very
short time find himself doing tw'o
things:, First, realizing religion an a
reAl power In his life; second, himself
coming back to appreciate the great
doctrines and understanding them Just
an they are, ns merely tho philosophic
formulas of the expegJencq foe has now
come to know as u fact. People*do not
become sceptics through' the fault of
theology, but they become theologians
because of their experience of the truth.
It Ib‘ of course, a very foolish thing
for one to lose his religious experience
by devotion to doctrines, but no more
foolish than for a man to lose his hold
on doctrines through an Imagined loyal
ty to his religious experience. When
I hear a prenchcr say that he loves
flowers, but hates botany, and loves
the stnrs, but hates astronomy, and
loves God, but bates theology, I know
what he Is doing. He Is dealing In
dap-trap. And yet, no one will think
of questioning that It Is more Impor
tant to have the flowers, than to have
botany, and stars than to have astron
omy, and God than to have theology,
and to have the experience of tChrist In
the heart than correct doctrines about
Him In the head.
At % Little Chlid.
The helpful truth for us all Is that
If we want spiritual safety for our
souls we must never mistake the forms
of faith for faith Itself, nor belief In
the formulas of salvation for the expe
rience of it. The personal union w'lth
Jesuit Christ In tho life we now live In
the flesh Is the real thing. lift Is ele
mental, Indispensable, ubsolute. When
all else gives way this anchor holds.
Two of the most beautiful things in
the world are the faith of a child and
the faith of an old man. And the beau
ty of one Is the beauty of the other.
It hasebeen noticed by nil that the
child Christian has no regl comprehen
sion of doctrines, but the thing *wfrh
the child is a personal affection for
Jesus, a simple readiness of trust about
Him und a quick appreciation of what
may please or displease Him. A good
mother came to mo with her little boy
and said: “I do not know whether my
boy ought to Join tho church or not. Ho
Insists on doing so, and says that he
wants to be baptized because Christ
was, and because He commanded us to
be. I wish you would talk with him
and see if he understands the plan of
salvation sufficiently to Join the
church.” I asked the child some ques
tions. He did not understand the plan
of salvation as the books on my shelf
understood It, but this that boy did un
derstand: He understood that Jesus
waa a real person; that He loved and
gave Himself up for boys, and that
Christ was in his heart ms his God and
Friend. Now, was that not what the
Master meant when Ho waa speaking
to grown-up people who had mode re
ligion to consist of doctrinal and ec
clesiastical exactions, and said, “Verily
I say unto you, except ye turn about
and become as little children ye shall
In no wise seo the Kingdom of God?”
It has been also noticed by all that as a
Christian man comes to the sunset of
life, that in that rare and tender glow
of the evening light he see things tn
refracted elemental clearness and sim
plicity..
It Is not always so marked In his ex
pressions, for the theological habit
holds on hard, but If In his religion he
has made much of Cnrlst as a personal
Muster it Is true that the old inon
draws in the emphasis on his creed
from the great theological conceptions
w hich have been his belief* for a long
time and centers the accent of his faith
In u personal dependence upon the
dear Saviour who loved him and gave
Himself up for him.
Step by step as he draws nearer and
nearer to tho end his.heart concen
trates Its gaze upon the ybrist. When .
the eyelids fluttor and close forever the
last earthly sub-consclougDt I hi .
soul Is simply this, ’p-Jy f^rd and. my «'
God.” . . . . < ; ! :
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llimiMIMIMIIIII
i I
“THE PRICE OF LIBERTY”
j! By REV. EVERETT DEAN. ELLENWOOD,}
! I PASTOR UNIVERSALIST CHURCH i
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>•••••*••,•*•••••••I,•■••*•••••••••*!
MIIIMIMMMMMIII
T he; nnal mutts In (lie moit re
cently fumoui ecclesiastical trial,
have served to remind us that It
Is quite* possible for men to live in
the twentieth century and think In the
revepteonth century. Here was an ac
credited leader and lencher of religion
whose honesty and sincerity had never
before been called Into question. His
work as a builder and strenathener of
public morals was appreciably felt In
Ills community. The regeneration of
countless Individual lives testilied elo
quently to tho power of his personal
Influence and the reasonableness of Ills
constant precepts. _
When he received Ills commission
and authority to go forth as a mes
senger of Christ and “preach the gos
pel to every creature," he carried In
hie heart the echo of his Master's
promise and command, “ye shall know
the truth and the truth shall make
you free." Doubtless, therefore, he
conceived himself to be henceforth an
apoetle and prophet of truth. In what
ever changing and expanding form she
might constantly pressnt herself to tils
conception. But be was doomed to that
disappointment which Is ever tho por
tion of him whooe high Ideal and
earnest pursuit of knowledge takes not
Into consideration the relentless de
mands of authority and the strung
retaining hand of conservatism and
conformity. He was soon to discover
that instead of being commissioned to
be a prophet of truth, to answer what
ever voice by which she might call, he
had simply been hired tn defend the
opinions of other men, who, sometime,
bail been engaged In the seijous busi
ness of making creeds.
Hie accredited lender of religion whose
intlueneo Is of considerable scope, who,
while holding even more tenaciously
than before to the fundamentals of the
"faith of his fathers," Inis yet ex
perienced n decided chnngq and devel
opment concerning Ids acceptance of
certain incidental beliefs of those s-ime
loved and revered fathers.
Three courses of action seem to be,
open to him, either one of which looms
largo with possibilities' of misunder
standing. misinterpretation and whole
sale crltlctHin and condemnation at the
hands of Ills former friends unil
laborers. . ,
First. He may withdraw entirely
from Ills twsltlon of power ns a leader
ami teacher of men. and lot Ids voice Uo
longer bo heard ' ““
righteousness.
in the councils of
PH __ Though he may not
turtl e deaf ear Co the voice of truth,
yet he may seal up her message In his
own heart, and by this very policy ad
mit to the world his uncertainty as to
the reliability of Ids spiritual ears. This
course will probably win for him less
of the reproach and rebuke of his
friends than either of the others and
for this reseou It Is often the refuge
of the moral weakling, but dt Is nl-
most certain to stultify his soul, end
lose for him Ids spiritual and Intel
lectual identity, and thus merit the
Pliv of all Virile men. •
Second, lie may openly nnd sin
cerely "go over to the enemy:" he may
loin himself to the forces of tlte
find a happy solution for his problem,
hut let hint not hope to escape the
bitter aspersions of his fellow-m*n for
whom a creed is an object of .worship
rather than a temporary convenience.
Third. He may try to remain In the
theological home of his fathers. He
may elect to continue his work of “tail
ing the good news of the kingdom” In
that household of fulth so dear to him
by memory and lifelong association.
With eager Joy he may endeavor to
shed into the hearts of those by whose
sides he has earnestly and lovingly la
bored tiie new* light which has glorified
his own soul, and in whose radiance he
walks no longer gropingly, but with
increasing assurance and with ever
more definite pui'inise. His gratitude
to the God who has led him out of the
house of bondage may seek a practical
expression by assisting toward that lib
erty the captives of his most immediate
knowledge and association.
History Informs us that this third
avenue out of their spiritual dilemma
has been the one almost Instinctively
chosen by that vast and constantly In
creasing array of the apostles and
prophets of truth and progress for
whose cataloging we have Invented
the word “heretic.” History also just
as reliably Informs us by many a gory
page and many a gruesome finger
mark, how promptly and how Invaria
bly these prophets of truth found their
chosen avenue of progress effectively
blocked by those who forever worship
There Is perbar
and responsible position
noxitinn and work In harmony with the going down of the sun and who
those whose theological views most persistently refuse to follow whpre they
nearly approximate those which he have never before been led.
now holds Here he may continue to True It Is that we have attained
ui -p the function of a prophet and somewhat of refinement In the cruelty
MirtinuK be useful In the work of building up of our persecution, and the heresy hunt
^ban Sat ot the kingdom of God, and, Incidentally, and its aftermath u not so disgustingly
full of horror as in former days, but
much of the spirit still remains. “Con
form or be killed,’’ said the established
ecclesiastical authority of three hun
dred years ago. "Conform or desert
and then be called a traitor,” says the
ecclesiastical authority of the twen-,
tleth century.
The spirit of Intolerance which lib
erated from their bodies by the fiery
ordeul the souls of Savonarola and of
Michael Scrvetus, which hounded from
their homes the founders of religious
liberty In this land, and which com
mitted the ecclesiastical brutulitles
which mar the early history of New
England, was simply a more violent
manifestation of the self-same spirit
which breathes forth In « very able
editorial In a recent issue of one our
local papers. Here the writer most
severely arraign? the Rev. Dr. Crapsey
for his .stand regarding the new* revela
tions made to his soul, charging him
with cruel deceit and dishonesty and
with having made a studied attempt to
disrupt and overthrow tne very founda
tions of the organisation which had
commissioned him ns a messenger to
the people. The writer evidently over
looks the fact that this most recent
addition to the “noble army of mar
tyrs” has only attempted to follow in
the footsteps of all those who preferred
truth to creed, since the beginning of
man’s record upon the earth, the at
tempt to effect a reformation of the in
stitution from the Inside. Surely Dr.
Crapsey Is not to be condemned thus
bitterly for allowing himself to dream
that he might be successful where
others had failed. Think, for a mo
ment, of the long line of Illustrious ex
amples whose splendid courage and he
roic devotion must have inspired him.
Time will suffice but for the mention of
*. and let that be the one whose life
Is the light of men. Let us throw prej
udice and passion and superstition aside
for u moment and be reasonable men.
Who was Jesus, then, but a heretic, as
judged by the ecclesiastical authority
of bis day? And, worst of all, In the
judgment of the writer of tho editorial ploratlon, but anxious only thaf ‘ his
already referred to, He was a heretic
who insisted upon proclaiming His
heresies while still declaring His alle
giance to the established faith. If we
may trust His own declarations regard
ing the matter, He had no desire to
found a distinct and separate sect, nor
did He uttempt it. Yet.He had the
boldness* to. stand In the synagogues
and proclaim truths which were dis
tinctly at variance with, the accepted
religious teachings of His day. And
certainly the failure of'Ills, attempt tto
effect from the Inside a reformation qf
the loved religion of His fathers, may
not be charged by us today to any In
sincerity of motive or dishonesty >f
purpoi
political or spiritual
a proceeding fraught with hardship
and danger. We pay a high price for
our liberty. Yet what true man Is
there who ever begrudges the price,
when once he has tasted the sweets
of freedom?
The little child who essays to escape
the thraildom of babyhood and use
his toddling, uncertain feet in explora-
tlon of the mysteries of the vast un
known world must know muny painful
falls and bruises ere he may send his
body unerringly where his will directs.
Yet wlmt parent would discourage his
child’s attempts to master the art of
walking, because of the tumbles which
are inevitable? And then, as maturity
crowns the fleeting years, the Iqvlng
C arent urges journeys Into lunds un*
nown to his own experience, fully
mindful of the dangers of such ex
knowledge of the world shall be
greater than his own.
So must we confidently expect that
our wanderings In hitherto unexplored
regions of religious truth shall be al
ways rich in. possibilities of danger and ,
of loss. But of this we may be moral
ly certain—for every loss we shall find .
a commensurate reward. The new pos
session will always be ample return
for the inevitable giving up of the old.
time plaything. And of this we may
also be morally certain, the fuftdamoiu
talrt of religious faith shall be StrciiKtli-
ened and enlarged rather than dimin
ished as the result of our constant nnd
fearless exploration. The earth Is not
less solid and real to the traveler w Im
has wandered In many lands than to
the babv tumbling about his mother’s
dooryurd. We shall not lose any of our
faith In the goodness and power of God,
even though we may perchance change
our minds concerning some of th«*
things which men have taught u; to
believe about the origin of one of Ilis
sons.
It seems strange that men who be
lieve in progress in all other conceiv
able knowledge, and who rejoice In tho
fact that in science and In art and in
mechanics the heretic of today is the
orthodox of tomorrow*, should refuse to
accord to religious thought and knowl
edge the same Inevitable law of prog
ress.
The man who continues to w*all and
croak dismally about the gradual and
constant departure of many of the the
ological notions of our fathers i* Just
about an logical os the chap who sits
down in a comer and weeps bitterly
because some one has told him that
Santa Claus U u myth, .