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THE ATLANTA GEORGIAN AND NEWS.
SATURDAY, APRIL 13. IMf.
T ii declared In the ninth vecae of In faith.
I the sixteenth chapter of second
* t'hronlclea that the_ eyee of the
Lord run to and fro throughout the
whole earth In order that He may
•how Hlmielf strong toward them
wiho«e lives are -perfectly turned to
ward Him. The meaning of the dec
laration In that tho mind of God, in
cluding hla thought, affection and will,
•re In every place all the time In order
that he may show hlmaelf strong In
hehalf of them whole mind. Including
their thought, affection and will, are
perfectly turned toward him. Hero we
have, in abort compaae. a complete
•.'■•tern of theology and philosophy.
It is a sad discount upon the spirit
ual refinement and sensibility of the
average person that he Is unahle to
recognize the presence of Ocd In the
ordinary relations of life. . In a class
nieeilng some years ago In a Southern
city the brethren commented on a rail
read nitnstrophe In which several per,
•ons were killed. The accident was so
heart-rending that It was In every-
I ones mind. Reference was made to It
n the class meeting as an awful prov
idence intended to’warn people of the
Importance of getting ready to die. It
occurred to me at the time that the In
terpretation given to the disaster by
these religious people was unsound and
misleading. Finally I remarked that
on the day before the cars collided
*freight train passed on Its way and a
passenger train also. Fathers on the
Passenger train were not killed, but
reached their.homes In safety and
kissed ihelr children at the gate. I
Wanted to know If this was not a prov
idence also. It Is the habit of mind of
most people to be awakened to a sense
the presence of God only through
a steamboat explosion, a yellow-fever
epidemic, a railroad collision, a hur
ricane or an earthquake. God to them
|s not apparent In the rising and Bel
ong sun. the quiet revolving stats, the
changing seasons, the Aowlng corn,
'he blooming flowers. He Is In dts-
** ,e but not In health; In death, but
hot In life; In disorder, but not In or
der; in famine, but not In plenty; In
, spalr, but not In hope: In weepings,
but not In laughter. Religion with
Wls Class |g not health and something
be desired. It Is’ rather an abnor
mal state of mind and something to
”* drafted. It la not to be sought after
oly In sight of threatening death. It
, to complete life, but something
I?., desired. It Is rather an abnor-
ml state of mind and something to
'dresded. It Is not to be sought after
hly In sight of threatening death.
Ihini vnmp'ele life, but soms-
Those who hold this view of relig
ion regard It ns an essence rather
than, as a method of life uod actual
substance, a fit of emotion rather than
a moral and spiritual mode of motlbn,
a kind of heavenly manna falling Into
the heart at particular seasons and
In moments of peril rather than con
stant conformity to the law of God.
Such people talk of getting rellglbn.
It Is something to be gathered from
without. It matters not whether men
get It at sixty or twenty years of age,
lust so they get It. A man. It Is true,
runs some little risk In waiting until
old age to get religion, for he might
be killed by a stray bullet or a sud
den fall, or a kerosene explosion .with
out a moment’s time to make the prop
er preparation. But the chances are
that each Individual will have a few
hours’ time to get reedy »o die, and
(lien there has been’a clear gain of
thirty or forty years of untrainmeled
worldly living. A man has lost noth
ing If he waits forty years to have his
house Insured, as It has not caught tire
during thet time, but has really gained
the coat of the Insurance. Religion
with tble class Is of uo mortal use In
healthy end robust life. It Is a cor
relate to disease end weakness. It
comes along with old age thunder
storm*- and graveyards. It
when the great earthquake , ailed
Charleston some years ago there was
not room enough In the churches to
hold the people who wanted to IP™> •
All this Is because people have not cul
tivated the liablt of seeing God In
what is ordinary and not what Is ex-
traordlnary. There tnust be a trench
to break or some violent upheaval In
order to arrest their attention.
If God were to accommodate hlm-
telf to this spasmodic, cataclysmic-
theological view of things he would
be under the necessity of keeping the
earth perpetually trembling and shak
ing, and this trembling a . nd "h»klt£
would have to he Increased «y»«X f«w
months In order to keep people re
minded of his presence.
This entire conception of God In hl«
relation to nature Is pagan. It Is »bou
on a level with the theology of the
Chinese, who never see God only when
Iho sun Is under an eclipse or when
the cattle are afWcted with some ter
rible disease. Against It ill we have
the teaching of Scripture, which rep-
reeents God as In every• place and In
every event throughout the whole earth
JHW&riM’ofS?-"Mi
may be demonstrated that when man
turns with his thought toward the
thought which God has expressed In
nature, In the social world and In the
spiritual realm, God shows Himself
strong to him.
Let us test the truth of the text In
nature. Nature stands for materiel
and tangible creation. It Ii composed
of about seventy original elements.
These elements are expressions of
God’s mind. They are God’s thoughts
relating to our physical well-being. Wll.
Ham Kingdom Clifford said that the
chemical elements or atoms were only
so much mind stuff. Suppose we turn
our thought nnd Industry to God's
thought as expresssd to us In the orig
inal elements of which nature la com
posed. Will we find God showing Him
self strong to us here?
Iron Is one of the elements. It Is
_ thought of God. There Is much
capsulate In this thought. All things
Into which Iron may he turned have
always been potentially In It. They
were lodged In It as It came from the
mind of God. What does'God Uo when
men turn to Hie thought expressed In
Iron? Does He not show Himself as
strong aa Iron permits Him? Does He
not show Himself as atrdhg to men
here as tracechalna, handsaws, Jack
planes, clan -hamniemrs. mowers, reap
ers, pocket-knives, typewriters, steam
engines and raxor blades? All these
things God must have seen in Iron
when He expressed It as a thought.
We can hardly think that man with
his Intelligence has been able to see
more in Iron and get more from It
than (he mind of (he Almighty put
Into It. '
Yes, there Is in Iron the thought and
affection and will of God. but because
of our failure to see God In things
ordinary, we miss It. How many of
us. when riding In one of our modern
palace cars from one part of the con
tinent to another, ever atop to think
of the part the thought and affection
of God are playing in the M-mlle-an-
hour speed with which we ride over
J. W. LEE.
at once we wake up to a recognition
of the presence of God.
Take carbon, another thought- df
God, and one of the original elemants.
It la the element that makea up the
content of our coal beds and fuel. Fir
a long time coal was buried In the
mountains and unused,' but when man
at length turned bis thought to this
vast ami manifold divine thought God
showed Himself as strong through this
element as the tire In the grate that
warms our children, as the best In the
furnace that drives our engine, and as
the steam In the bolter that moves our
! great palaces across the Atlantic. How
’ many of us ever see our Father’^
thought and love here? Upon dark,
stormy nights, when the coal bums
bright In the old home fireplace, how
many of us ever remember that our
loving heavenly Father’s thought and
emotion and will are expressing them
selves In the warmth and glow that
make our rooma an confortable and
bright? Here God’s mind Is manifested
toward us In strong and steady, but
In quiet und peaceful ways.
Therefore, we miss It, because of the
dullness and lowness of our spiritual
Insight. But If while the fire le send
ing out Us quiet warmth and light and
mingling with the playsand happiness
of the children the walls of the dwell
ing wero to begin »o shake violently
because of an earthquake or cyclone,
we would at once begin to recognize
the presence of God. The real truth
Is, however, that our Father was
speaking to us more really In the quint
heat of the the that! III tile HWflll rocli-
i;iK of tin - rat t tiqunke. Hut many of
us are so coarse and heavy that It Is
necessary to knock 11s down In order
to get an Idea Into our obdurate beads;
We are so earthly and leaden nnd llv-
so completely In the earthy part of
ourselves that tho pulso of the spirit
Is only perceptible at such time when
the body Is being shaken out of Its ae-
customed grooves of ease and Indolence.
llte mountains and across the valleys?
In the emotion of ouf Father's heart,
who always felt for us, that .speed and
that comfort were always existent. But
we fail’ to recognise God here, unless
our car happens to get thrown from
the. track and we find ourselves tum
bled down an embankment. Then all
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LY J
EFFEKSONUN
"
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vocacy of the Jeffersonian theory of government
AND
THE ATUN1
1 1 *
fAG
iEORGIAN
■
ONE YEAR
$4
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S—W— 1—rn ■BHMMBr
mnN
complete me, dui fuim«- n.vHiinr . f
be used la cases of Upeea Scripture la sueegpllbte of proof.
ATLANTA, 122 Pencilree. Piedmont Hot el Ulock; or Jacksonville or Montgomery.
WHAT’S IN A MAN?
"What it man that thou shouldest magnify him; and that thou shouldest*
set thine heart upon him?"—Job 7:17.
"But Jesus needed not that arty should testify of man, for He knew what
was In man."—John 2:25.
By REV. JOHN E. WHITE,
PASTOR SECOND BAPTIST CHURCH
. DO not see any thing great about
I that picture." said a pompous
1 tourist In front of the painting
exhibition In one of the European
Queries ” Ab " 831,1 ,bP pa,nter ovfr -
HrinB the remark, ’’but don’t you
you could?” That was the dif-
I'erence between the bllmLman and ths
,rl j*b did not know what was In
. Jesus did, and that Is the fact
measures the distance between
, b , spiritual power of Job and the
spiritual power of Jesus.
Have any of you thought or said, "X
• «ee whet people get so stirred up
I >bou t, trying to get people converted?”
1 ,1. but don't you wish ■ on < MM !
Vow the unconcern of some Christians,
eckle seal of many others and ths
( 'I-Uow 'faddlsm'' wf still others In the
mitter of personal effort to win men
to Christ, must havo some explanation.
1 believe it lies profoundly In tho in-
uoi,reflation of what's In a man, the
unrealised value of a human soul.
What'" In a man that God should set
m, peart on hint? What's In a man, ,i
1 -V a girl, that vve who represent God
■,Villa world should be exercised by a
passion to save them? This was Job’s
'mestlon when the world was younger
uni people were scarce: this Is our
uuestion now. whon the world la muen
older and the streets are swarming
with human beings.
Playing ths Gams.
Mw question would be less tmpor-
■ tent were it not for a scandal and a
shame that Is out upon tho Church of
Jesus Christ. A scandal In the Church
„f Christ: What do you mean? 1
mean this, and I mean It very’ seriously.
Including inyself In the shame of It,
that the root Idea of .lesus Christ has
I with n powerful majority of Christians
heroine practically almost a negligible
quantity. That Idea, and It was (lie
verv first conception we bail of Chris
tianity. is that the Individual disciple
of Jesus Is pledged to bo In the world
an avowed active agent of the Gospel,
the member of a brotherhood dedicated
to the business of personal witness and
endeavor, to the end that other Indi
viduals shall be saved from the power'
and the Impending penalty of sin.
"here fs a poem entitled "Playing
the Game." The story It tells is of on
English boy In a hard-fought football
match, when muscle worn and spirit
weary the victory was about to go
against Ida ajde. But one thing re
vived hla courage. It was the low.
tense call of the captain along the rani,
of the men, "Play the game."
The second stanza finds the lad a
soldier In South Africa. Another sort
of battle Is on hand. In the desperate
hour his courage Is again stirred by the
calling memory of his old football cap
tain’s voice. “Play the game."
The third stanza finds the English
lad a man touched by Christ, out .f
one army into another. He is a minis
ter In London. The work Is hard, dis
appointing. discouraging, but assailed
by doubt, fregret. despondency, the old
football captain has become Christ and
He Is standing by him with pierced
hands and blood-damped brow and
wounded side, saying "Play the game!"
"Play the game!"
The esprit of the Christian Church
fs sadly broken: its front of it toward
unbelievers, the Christies* and God
less and hopeless ranks of the sinning
multitudes is dreadfully- ragged an 1
disorderly. The friends and comrades
of Jesus In His Church are not playing
the'game. That Is, the scandal of the
church, and we have this vital prob
lem on hand; Why is it that so many
of the members of the society of Jesus
havo gona back on the program? What
is the secret of so many "quitters" In
the church? • ,
If not a complete explanation, tills is
hear to it: We haven’t the vision to see
the value of a soul nor to realize the
Import of a lost spirit.
An Atlanta Business Man.
The other day a minister was urging
upon a noble Christian friend that he
ought to be a soul winner. In the cod-
versation he used that worn out phrase,
"soul winners." The gentiman candid
ly turned to him and said: "I am sure
there Is something In that line 1 ought
to do; but men like inyself are not
clear as to what you mean by a 'soul
winner:’ the reality of the effort you
urge upon us is not clear or honestly
genuine to our minds. What do you
mean by winning a soul? What is a
soul? You do not mean that we should
button-hole people to Join the church
or, at least, that Is disclaimed? What
Is it about-a man we are to go after?
I hpar preachers and evangelists saying
that insuistu <■ agents ami candidates f*»r
offle- arc il!ii-! rat urns >>f w hat < 'hrlsthins
ought to be like. Do you wonder that)
business men do not get anything out
of that? We know what Insurance
agents are up to. They want to get a
man's signature to an application, to
land them In the company and get their
commission, if you will tell us straight
out that Is what you mean—that you
want to get people signed up for bap
tism and church membership—you
make the matter very aliaQr. Bat fOO
do not mean that, and what I want to
know Is w*hat you mean by 'a soul
winner’—what is a soul?”
Your thought Is that the gentleman
was a crank, a captious sophist. Not
TO fast. A -• • 1 1 i. - A 11, U hat lie
said. Job’s question. "What Is man
that Thou shouldest set Thine heart on
hint?" was right along that line. Da
vid, surveying the vastness and splen
dor of the universe, wanted to know*
likewise what it was In a man that
God so sought and honored. Phillips
Brooks once warned young ministers
that they would be sure to feel some
times the unnaturalness and Incon
gruity of the great truths-of Incarna
tion and atonement In contrast with the
apparent insignificance of a human
life. ‘
There must be something In a man,
capable of appreciation, and great
enough to justify the vastness of the
outlay of God and the sacrifices of His
followers.
John says Jesus could answer this
question—that He knew what was In
a man. It is not wrong to, ask It. then.
If you have the faith to feel eure that
there Is an answer. Oh. Lord, what Is
It In these seventy scholars of our
Sunday school and in these young men
and women of our congregations and In
these thousands of our streets that we
should be dead In earnest to have
saved? Is there not something we do
not appreciate?
What Did Jesus See?
Wesley and Whitfield and Finney and!with her pistol, but he came toward
Xirjlia M<l Mgodjr—^who toUfia and (her. "I will shoot you! I will shoot
DR. JOHN E. WHITE.
George Muller and Dr. Barnardo. who
gave themselves to the passion of sav
ing children, are you not Impressed
that they could see something In a
little, dirty, foul.tongued street gamin
that we do not see? Or the lives of
men like William Casey and Adontram
Judson, is It not evident that they saw
In those disagreeable foreign fellows of
heathendom a something hidden from
common vision, that they should set
their hearts so desperately on saving
them?
Likewise, as you take note of the
When you read the lives of men like great modern pleaders of the gospel—
traveled and gave up tlielr whole hearts
to tears and labors and to eagerness
and passion for sinners that they have
an appreciation of something In a man
that w’e are blind to? Look at Paul
and Peter and Philip, what Is that
stirred them to such labors? And
especially when with unusual diligence
to follow the every day ministry of
Jesus Christ for the three wonderful
years, do you not fefll awed by the Im
pression that He sees something In
people, a worth, a wealth, a something
of infinite and mysterious Import and
consequence that Invests a human be
ing with a sort of compensating value
for His passion and His power? And
you are not mistaken. There Is and
theiv HUN l"' ?n:iieiiiiiiu in a man
to justify God's setting His heart on
him. Whatever it Is, that Is what Jesus
Christ knew was there nnd that was
what He was so Intent upon saving.
We read that when He beheld the rich
young ruler "He loved him," that when
He beheld the multitude "He was
moved with compassion." We read of
His patience with Peter, of His tender
ness with the woman taken In adultery,
of His pursuit of ZacheuA of His bold
entrance Into the Pharisee’s house, of
His Imperious call to Matthew*, Ills
piercing frankness with the woman at
the well and Hla painstaking argument
with Nlcodemus. What did Jpsus see
In these people?
He saw something, and that In every
man Is what a Christian ought to look
for. For In every human being you
meet and pass on the strest, and In
every one you do nof usually see on the
streets, but can be found in places of
shame or crime. Is that something
God Is looking for to save it.
The Little Girl thst Was Afraid.
I have heard the story of a little
Austrian girl who was brought to Paris,
where her father made & thief of her.
She became as a young woman the
most dating and akillful burglar of
Paris. One night as she was robbing
the safe in the library of a mansion
she made a noise with the box of Jew-*
els she had taken from the safe. Jn a
moment the wealthy man she was rob
bing, who had not retired, opened the
door and saw her. She threatened him
you!" she cried. "Oh, no you will not,'
he said. "For you do not know me. I
want to talk with you. I believe you
know that It Is not really you who arc
doing this. What is your name? Tell
me about yourself. Are you not afraid
In this dreadful business?" "No," she
said, still defiantly at bay. "Were you
never afraid?" he queried. "Yes, I
used to be when I was a little girl."
"Oh. lei me ite." and he laid his hand
kindly on her shoulder. "I*t me see.
let me see." Looking deeply Into her
eyes, he said: "Do you know w*hat I
see? I see the little girl that was
afraid and I am going to have her out."
The man talked to her earnestly, told
her there was a better life nnd that
there was one to help her be a good,
pure woman. She fell upon her kneis
and sobs shook her frame while he bent,
over her tenderly and led her soul to
repentance and saved her.
Take your bit of humanity wherever
you find It, take it In the barrooms,
where profane men congregate, and in
pool rooms—take it in the rich club*,
where so many men of the Christl
type find their social pleasures, take It
In the proud circle of Godless, selfish,
vainglorious society and there
something there worthy of your Infinite
mptet, souls i himr i hat is going to be
lost unless Jesus Christ can win It
by Ills love.
The necessity for special effort to get
eti to Christ Is all over every street
In Atlanta—necessity, the greatest ne
cessity. It is In every church. Thou
sands of the kindest-hearted Chris
tians are blind to this one great ne
cessity of waking up the souls of shi
ners—of seeing first that they have
souls and of realising that they can he
sweetened, purified, and by Jesus
Christ. 1 wish I could make people see
what Is iq a man. Ah, much Is there
appealing to see, but beneath It all
that soul, that eternal self, which the
Son of God died to save. Is there
anything more awful than the fact that
men and women are allowed by us to
forget their souls and by us allowed to
move In Christian circles utterly away
from God and none of us to love Christ
enough or their Immortal souls enough
oven so much as to make them remem
ber they have souls at nil, <<r th,v th«ve
Is such an one as our great Saviour?
Gypsy Smith’s Best Story.
The most beautiful and touching
story told by Gypsy Smith was, I think,
the story of tlutf Highland shepherd
and the scientist. The great naturalise
one lovely summer day a year ago went
out In the highlands of Scotland with
Ills microscope to stuwy the heather hell
in all Its native glory and In order that
he might see It In its perfection he goc
down on his face without plucking tho
flower, adjusted his instrument and
was revelling In Its color. Its delicacy,
its beauty, "lost In wonder, love and
praise." How long he stayed there le
does not know, but suddenly there wan
a shadow* on him and his instrument.
He waited for a time, thinking it might
be a passing cloud. But It stfiye i
there, and presently he looked up over
his shoulder and there was a fine spec
imen of Highland shepherd watching
him, and. without saying a word, he
plucked the little heath* r bell an I
handed It wltti the microscope to the
shepherd, that he, too. waa^beholding
as If he hod a vision of heaven. And
the old shepherd put the Instrument
up to his eyes, got the heather bell in
place and looked at It until the tent*
ran down his rugged face like bubble*
on a mountain scream. And then,
handing back tho little heaiher bell
tenderly and the Instrument, ho said:
"I wish you had never shown me that:
I wish I had never seen it." "Why?"
asked the scientist. "Because," he said,
"mon, that mde foot has trodden on so
many of ’em.” ,
My#friend, if you will get Christ’s
eyes for a man today, and that is what
we are going to ask you to pray for,
and see a soul as He saw* it and as it
In the unsaved people you are with
every day In thoughtless, careless gaie
ty, or In rough, selfish business dealing,
you will have a new sorrow—the sor
row that you have so much of your life
lived heedlessly of that precious thing,
the soul. May the Lord tear away the
flesh from between our eyes and what
Is in a man and help us see once In our
lives what Jesus saw! ‘
“THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD”
s :
j By REV. EVERETT DEAN ELLENWQOD, |
PASTOR UNIVERSALIST CHURCH
X bringing horn" to His hearers His
great spiritual truths. Jesus al
ways used the strongest and yet
tlie simplest and most readily compre
hended figures of speech. We find Him
drawing Hie great lessons from the
birds o( the nlr. the flowers of the flehl.
the beasts of burden, the commonest
tasks of the commonest lives. Ofteil,
loo. He utilized for His purposes the
familiarity of His hearers with the or
dinary phenomena of the universal ele
ments of nature. Always Ho sought
that medium of expression which would
le a common mental pathway tor Hla
hearers. . . — -
■ Nothing was more universal than
light. In the knowledge nnd experience
"f Utose. wltt) were sd. fortunate tt-t to
listen to Ills s'poko.i \i.i d-. \ flfSi tlt
absolute prominence was accorded It,
In the minds of the ancients, with rela-
11011 to all commonly recognized cle-
tnents of nature. In the Gen tile story
»f the beginning of things, the creation
■ f light precedes the origin of the I
planet which our modern scientists do.
> be the cause of all licit:, either |
direct or reflected. The sun was an- i
psrentiv merely an after thought In the I
mind of God.
the people to whom Christ first |
on Inred Himself to be "the light of tho j
world" ft Is quite possible, therefore, I
that the figure of speech possessed an i
even greater significance than thst with
which It falls upon our ears today, for
they associated light In their thought
as the first natural element to make its
appearance, when, out of primal chaos,
order began to evolve, as "the Spirit of
God moved 'upon the face of the
waters.”
But. “upon us. too. Ins the light
shined," nnd. while our Ideas concern
ing the origin of light and Its Imme
diate source may not be those «f
Christ's first hearers, our conception
of Its Importance, and our gratitude for
Its possession should be even greater
than theirs, for we have trained our
selves to use It In ways of which even
their astrologers nsver dreamed,
c To hearing ears; and understanding
tlbarls. therefore. He speaks when to u*
He declares Himself to be "the light of
the world,"'nor may we plead Ignor
ance of the full significance of that soK
emn admonition, "ye are the light of
the world."
Our scientists no longer dignify dark
ness by denominating It as a. positive
force In natdre, as opposed to light.
Rather do they declare that darkness
has no element of reality, but Is merely
the absence of light. Light Is thus
recognized as the positive, the genera
tive force In nature. The vugue terrors
Incident to our unfortunate conception
of darkness soon disappear when we
learn that this nameless terror has no
reality. In our gratitude for tlie posi
tive reality of light we turn glahy
away from our foolish fear of Its tem
porary absence.
Here the analogy Is close. Indeed. The
glorified life and the matchless teach
ings of Jesus constitute the positive
element of uur moral universe. Ab
sence of this "life which wae In Christ
Jesus" constitutes that gross spiritual
darkness which settles like a pall upon
tho heart and the life of the man who
wilfully chosea to turn his face per
sistently away from the light, sir who
lacks the word of kindly counsel \o
teach hint how to open the shutters
which darken his soul. This Is also
that’dsrkness which enshrouds the eohl
which depends for Its Illumination upon
the letter of the law. losing the vaster
power of Its spiritual significance.
Christ averred tlpit He had coine,
not to destroy, but to fulfill the law.
The stern “thou shall not" of the early
lawmaker loses nothing of Us deterrent
power, but finds Itself divested of Us
negative and repellent quality, and
thrilling with the high Impulse of that
positive note of command, "Thou shall
love the Lord thy God with all thy
heart, and with all thy soul, and with
all thy mind, and thou shalt love thy
nleghbor as thyself.” Thus the fife of
Jesus Illuminates with the law of love
'
REV. E. D. ELLENWOOD.
eager aervk'e. the aoul darkened
saddened by the shadow of the
I fear of the lam*. From being the cring
ing subject of an awesome monarch,
man becomes the loving friend and
trusting child of "our Father who art in
heaven." Instead of being under the
bondage of tho law, the spirit of Christ
dwells within him, and "the law* of his
God Is in his heart; none of his steps
shall slide."
Another commonly understood prop
erty of light Is Its universality, vlt
knows no limitations of locality, no
bounds of social or racial distinction.
The light which sparkles In ths rip
pling mountain stream Is the same
light which enfolds the traveler on the
burning desert waste. The light which
renders glorious the splendid w’indow
of the cathedral falls Impartially upon
the wine-stained floor Jn the lowest
brothel In any city. It kisses, with
equal tenderness, the upturned face of
the sleeping babe, and the distorted,
repellent features of the meanest
drunkard. It visits, alike with Its cheor-
Ing presence, the mansion on the hill
and jhe ttny cottage at the bend of the
road.
So Jesus comes to us absolutely as
"the light of the world." With Him
there is neither Jew nor Greek, bond
or free. He comet with His message
of love and forgiveness, alike to the
thoughtful and the Indifferent, to the
prosperous and to the unfortunate, to
the wise and to the foolish, to the
brave and to the craven, to the pure
In heart and to the wanderer In sin.
His loving heart, knows no division of
rank or station, of dress or culture,
With* Him there Is no suggestion of
special privilege, but always the con
sideration of special need. He comes
: to a world of men and women who
need His teachings and the wondrous
transforming power of His life, and He
finds them all His brethren, the chil
dren of a common Father.
So Jesus Is. in very truth, the "light
of the world," when tried by this test.
For nearly two thousand years has this
wondrous light blessed by Its rays the
moral universe, and today its pow*er Is
greater In the lives of men, than w*hen
It first dispelled from darkened souls
the gloom of eternal night. From this
Inexhaustible source has been drawn
the solace of the sorrowing, tho com
fort of the suffering, the admonition
of the erring, the strength of the weak,
the courage of the oppressed, and tho
hope of the tlyHsft.'. The light which
has streamed across all of these cen
turies, Illumines our hearts, today, with
undltulnlshed power.
We must not forget, also, to think
of light as the absolutely Indispensable
medium of sight. Indeed, without light*
there is no vision. Naturalists tell us
that the fish which live In the streams
and pools found In great caves In the
earth, are absolutely without night.
Light thus enables us to use this price
less special sense for the transference
of Intelligence to the mind. It Is the
great reveoler. By its aid, vve form
our ideas of distance, size, and form.
We obtain a true perspective, nnd
learn to estimate values, with refer
ence to the relations of objects, one to
another. Through light, wo become
possessed of the knowledge and ap
preciation of beauty.
Jesus brings to us n revelation of
the nature and the character of the’
heavenly Father. He enables us to see
and to know* God. As He said to Phil
ip so He says to us, "he that hath
seen me, hath seen the Father." Wit Ii
our spiritual blindness changed to
clear sight and Intelligent perception,
the fear of a wrathful and avenging
God gives place to the adoration of a
loving and merciful Father. Tho fran
tic attempt to evade tho Inevitable cor
rection for misconduct 1s forever aban
doned, and all discipline and chastise
ment, however grievous, is gratefully
welcomed as the only means to the at
tainment • 1 f spiritual perfection. Also,
do we thus become possessed of tho
proper spiritual perspective, and loarn
w’hat are the real essentials of life.
Thus do many of tho old life's bitter
disappointments lose forever their
sting.
THE REAL PRESENCE—I.
By REV. JAMES W. LEE,
PASTOR TRINITY METHODIST CHURCH