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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.” . . . . < ; ! : >•••••t••■••••••■•••••< llimiMIMIMIIIII i I “THE PRICE OF LIBERTY” j! By REV. EVERETT DEAN. ELLENWOOD,} ! I PASTOR UNIVERSALIST CHURCH i I,,**,,,,*#*,*,,*,*,,,*,••••••••(••t•••••••< >•••••*••,•*•••••••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, .