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THE ATLANTA GEORGIAN.
SATURDAY, AUDI ST 11.
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T HERE Is-no more reliable index
of the Intellectual status and
the progress In civilization of
any people than may be revealed by
a study of the conception of Deity
constituting the basis of Its system of
religion.
Even ns we believe that the habits
of a man's mind may be determined
by an Inspection of Ills library, so may
we read his soul’s estimate of God In
the attitude which he preserves toward
the visible social order of which he Is
temporarily a part.
The World's Freedom in the Knowl
edge of God.
The world Is happily coming con
stantly to a more complete realization
of the great significance of the words
of Jesus, “And this Is life eternal, that
they should know Thee, the only true
God.” Through the growing knowledge
of the true character * 1 * * * * * of the “one true
God" must come the world's spiritual,
pollftcal and economic salvation. And
the value of the “eternal life" so
eagerly sought and longingly waited
for by religious souls the world over,
since man became a conscious being,
shhll be greatly enhanced by the dis
covery of its possibility as a present
attainment. The most serious draw
back to religion, according to Its crit
ics, |g that It deals entirely too much
with futurities. \
If these premises be true—and they
will scarcely be disputed—then It
would appear that the supreme busi
ness of leaders \of religious thought
everywhere Is to endeavor by all means
to be brought to their aid, to spread
abroad In the hearts of men the knowl
edge of the true character of Him In
whom our souls have believed.
In this educational effort let it al
ways be remembered that truth alone
Is to be served, regardless of grievous
damage or even demolition resultant to
the time-honored credal products of
patient. If bigoted, scholars, and to tra
ditions hoary with age and venerated,
If not venerable.
“Ye shall know the truth and the
truth shall make you free,” was the
promise of the founder of (’hristlan-
Ity, hut freedom for the human race,
vhether It be political, Industrial or
pirftual, has ever been purchased at
the cost of sacrifice. Even as scien
tific truth knows no halting place, hut
must ever stand ready to forsake the
precious holdings of yesterday for the
more valuable revelation of today, so
shall that spiritual truth for which our
hearts strive be won to us, not by our
tenacious grasp of the picture of God
caught by the theological camera of a
by-gone age, but it shall come to us
gradually, through those varied expe
riences of life, wherein, like the p
trlarch of old, we meet God face to
face. And whenever the clamor of the
heart thus taught of God shall demand
the forsaking of the teachings of the
schools and the philosophy of the
creeds, the eager pursuit of spiritual
truth shall make this sacrifice a Joy.
The Soul's Demand for Righteousness.
However much of Justification for
his philosophy the pessimist may find
In the world’s halting progress toward
perfection, yet we can not fall to re
joice In the universal yearning of the
normal soul after righteousness.
Man may Indeed be "prone to evil
as the sparks fly upward," but he does
not Instinctively desire It. Buffeted
and beaten to the earth by the power
of temptation, momentarily triumphant
over the weakness of his undeveloped
spiritual self, and groaning In despair
for the frequency of his sins, he is yet
able to cry out, with St. Paul, "that
hlch I would not, that I do. O.
retched man that I am, who shall
deliver me from the body of this
death!"
We believe, with rejoicing, that w'e
have come forth from God; therefore,
"original sin" can not be a fact unless
we are willing to declare that evil was
pre-existent In the heart of the Eter
nal. Total depravity of the human
soul may be u theological fact; It can
never be a spiritual truth.
If then we recognize with constant
encouragement the universal longing
of the human soul after righteousness,
the constant desire for spiritual ex
cellence and wholesome ethics, surely
the simplest reasoning from premise
to conclusion must Justify us In a be
lief In the essential righteousness of
a God able to Inspire In His creatures
such Instincts of moral and spiritual
perfection. And even as the righteous
ness of God l» proven by the righteous
Instincts of His creatures, so shall the
righteous Instincts of His creatures
be constantly nourished to full fruition
by an Increasing confidence In the es
sential and unfailing righteousness of
their God.
REV. E. D. ELLENW00D.
The Soul's Quest of Power.
Then, as we find that the longing
for power, the desire for unconquer
able strength, the Insatiable yearning
for triumph unending, are instinct In
the human heart, shall we not most
naturally conclude that the God, from
whose heart came these germs of vic
tory, Is one against whom even the
gates of hell shall not be able to pre
vail? We shall learn also that the
conscious power of the spiritual man
Is limited only by the redch of his con
fidence In the absolute omnipotence of
his God.
"411 things are possible to him that
belleveth," crystallxes from an Ideal
Into a triumphant reality In the life of
man whose faith and whose theology
set no bounds to the abllty of the A1
mighty. His watchword Is the splen
did declaration of St. Pau,l "I can do
all things through Him that strength
ened me."
The world's need of faith In a God
of omnipotent righteousness.
The supremo need of the world today
Is for men and women who are abso
lutely convinced of the all-conquering
righteousness of God. No Individual
less capably endowed may hope to'
successfully cope with the conditions
which are presented by our complex
civilization. From men and women In
spired and sustained by the splendid
courage of this faith must we look with
confidence for the solution of those per
plexing social and economic problems
which are the legacy of*the present
generation.
Shall we not, therefore, with that
Justice born of the primal instinct of
self-preservation, reject , as an Influ
ence positively baneful to the social
order, any system of theology which
would tench men to believe In a God
Indifferent In beneficence and Impotent
In righteousness, a God whose “arm Is
shortened that He cannot save?”
A God of absolute and unqualified
righteousness must surely desire that
righteousness shall prevail throughout
the whole of His physical and moral
universe. A God of unllmted ability
to execute the demands of His right
eousness which shall surely bring to
complete realization In His universe
the Ideals of His own Inherent per
fection. This is surely a logical con
clusion to be grasped by even the sim
plest mind. It is the philosophy taught
by the human conscience, the only Bi
ble of whose infallibility and divine In*
splratlon we may be absolutely cer
tain.
The Finsl Harmony of All 8ouls With
God.
There can be but one satisfactory
answer to this line of reasoning, vis.:
"The final harmony of all souls with
God," the ultimate triumph of good
over evil in every human life and
throughout the universe.
Herein Is no loss of human Identity,
no merging of the individual will Into
the unit consciousness of the "over
soul/' no surrender of that precious
conceit of "man as a free moral agent."
Rather la there In this belief the
strengthen!!)? of the iden of Individ
uality, the making of the puerile hu
man will omnipotent through Its en
dowment of the divine will, the change
of "man as a free moral agent" from
ideal to a glorious reality, by
crowning him with that priceless f rp .
dom from sin which shall enable him
eternally, to choose the good a* d ,?•
stlnctlvely to reject the evil. In “
"Our wills are ours, wft know not how
Our wills are ours to make them
thine.” cn *
The human will Is not lost to Its t,n.
sessor when It Is persuaded Into h»r
mony with the divine will. ar ‘
A Safe and Sane Theology.
Surely this is a safe and sane the-
ology. It vindicates the honor of q 0( j
It maintains the inherent Integrity 0 f
HI. offspring. It throw* a gleaming
ray of hope across the darkest prob.
lems of human weakness and human
error, while th« echo of a strain of
eternal harmony given promise of a
triumphant and'all-pervading m-lodr
whose diapason shall one day drown
the discordant clamor of earth's self
Ishness and greed. It enables us to sar
wltH Job. "I know that my redeemer
llveth," and It makes It natural f or u.
to believe that
“Mot one soul shall be destroyed
Or cadt as rubbish to the v dd,
When God hath made the pile complete
It defrauds death of his most poign-
ant sting and snatches from the grave
It* victory, and. for the hour that now
Is, It gives a dignity, a sanity, and an
Irresistible Impetus to every normal
activity of life.
THE EIGHTH WONDER OF THE WORLD
By REV. JAMES W. LEE,
PASTOR TRINITY METHODIST CHURCH
A TERMINAL railway station cov
ering 20 acres of ground In the
most populous part of New York
city, may be put down 11s the eighth
wonder of the world. The station is
bounded by Seventh avenue on the
east. Tenth avenue on the west. Thir
ty-first street on the south and Thlr
tv-thin! street dn the north. Over this
territory there stood residences, stores,
hospltuls, churches and every conceiva
ble kind of establishment to be found
In such a center of u great city.
This entire stretch of land with all
above It and below It, was bought out
by the Pennsylvania Railroud Compa
ny three or four years ago. St. Mi
chael's church, convent and school
stood in this region, and the authori
ties were loth to part with their place
of worship and school. There was de
lay In the negotiations but Anally the
church people consented to give up
their land nnd belongings, upon condi
tion that they be permitted to worship
in the church and use the convent and
school property until the Pennsylvania
Railroad Company could build them a
church, convent nnd school on another
site covering Just ns much space as the
old ones and equally adapted to their
use.
So on West Thirty-fourth street the
railroad company has built a new nnd
magnificent church, convent and school
to house the St. Michael congregation.
It Is now about ready for occupancy
and so nt last the workmen are taking
down the top part of the old church.
The pastor of this hitherto historic
church Is Rev. John A. Gleeson, who
succeeded Rev. Arthur Donnelly, call
ed to succeed Rev. Father McOllnn
when he resigned on account of the
Henry George labor controversy.
The excavations for the Immense
railway station now go down as deep
as from 45 to tin feet. One can stand
on the street above and see the men
below drilling, blasting, loading cars
with dirt and rock, building retaining
wails to inclose the spnee, und per
forming all sorts of feats with a view
to dealing oul and leveling this hole
In the ground for the vast superstruct
ure to rise above It. The retaining wall
around this site Is built of concrete and
anchored to bed rock. The problem
the engineers faced In opening this lo
cation was not taking down the houses
that stood upon It—that was easy—but
the proposition of carrying three
streets, two bearing trolley car lines
and hnving sewer and water pipes un
derneath, the third carrying trolley
lines and an elevated road, across a
cut 500 feet In breadth and ranging
from 45 to 60 feet In depth, so ns not to
disturb traffic and the running of the
ars.
On Eighth avenue a 6-foot brick
sewer crosses the territory. In order
to cross this cut It was necessary to
put a. new Iron sewer pipe Into the
place of the new brick one, making of
It a sort of round bridge, supported
from beneath. Think of the people liv
ing nt the flr*t on this ground with
blasting going on down under their
hearthstones, but all so quietly and ac-
umtely as not to disturb the Inmates
of the dwelling places. In order to give
the denizens above opportunity to sleep
it was ordered that no blasting should
be done In the night time.
It Is estimated that from the ter
minal station proper, and from the
•(tower house to be built on the south
side of It, It will be necessary to take
out two million cubic yards of dirt and
rock. This Is enough to furnish foun
dation for a city of moderate size. This
enormous amount of earth and stone Is
taken away on enrs and used to drive
back the sea and bog elsewhere, thus
securing more land now covered by
water and inarsb.
Above this deep 20-«cro hole In the
ground Is to be erected the most com
modious nnd beautiful terminal rail
way station on the face of the earth.
The area of Solomon’s Temple In Je
rusalem was only 12 acres; that of the
pyramids at Cairo, Egypt, Is only
about 11 acres; the terminal station
In St. Louis covers 10 acres; but here
we are to have a railroad central house
covering twice as much ground.
Through this, arcades will be built for
surface and elevated cars to pass just
as they did before the Pennsylvania
railway people ever had such a dream
ns they are here transmuting Into hard
staggering fact.
But the station Is only the center of
tills twentieth century dream. A great
car house In the midst of New York
city would do the Pennsylvania rail
road no good with arms of the sea cut
ting It off from connection with the
wide stretching lines of Iron reaching
out to all parts of the American Union.
Something else must be done on the
part of the modern masters of power,
to make this center of delirium com
plete. Ferries could not reach this un-,
derground mansion. In order, there
fore, to bring the rolling passenger
conches loaded with human freight
from all parts of the wide, wide world,
It was necessary to open underground,
and under sen the roadways, running
out In both directions from the central
terminal station. The main railway
tatlon Is only the hub of a series of
spokes In the shnpe of tunnels, which
to connect the Island of Manhattan
DR. J. W. LEE.
with the outlying land of the country.
The main spokes In this wheel, pro
jected out of that Intelligence of the
engineers as If from Fairyland, have
been named the North River division,
the Terminal division, and the East
River division. Together with the sta
tion hub under the city of Ndw York,
the various tunnel spokes connect the
continental mainland of America, and
the metropolis. As far ns this side of
the Atlantic Is concerned, It is proper
to say of the Pennsylvania railroad
that there Is no more sea. One of the
engineers of this daring movement re
marked that Hudson discovered the
river that bears his name, but that, he
was the first man who had ever stood
under It. There Is nothing In the wild
est romance, or in Anderson’s -Fairy
Tales, or In the Arabian Nights Enter
tainment half so marvelous ns the
methods devised by the engineers to
tunnel beneath the Hudson and under
the East river. \
Four tunnels run from the main ter
minals from Seventh avenue, eastward
under the East river In pairs. Two of
these enter the East river at the foot
of Thirty-fourth street, two others at
the foot of Thirty-third street. Each
tunnel under the river Is Just large
enough for one train to pass. These
East river tunnels are being made
through fine quicksand. Thus It has
been necessary to devise some method
to keep the water from filtering down
from above, and also to keep the 34
pounds of air pressure, necessary to
keep the water out, from going Into
bubbles through the top. This diffi
culty has been met by dumping clay
on to the bottom of the East river. The
clay furnishes a blanket to hold the wa
ter up, and keep the enormous air
pressure from the 250 horsepower com
pressors back.
The tunnel Is made by forcing what
Is called the shield, sopiewhat larger
In diameter than that of the tunnel,
through the quicksand. These shields
re gradually advanced to the unln-
aded territory at the bottom of the
river by hydraulic rams, supplying a
pressure of 6,000 pounds to the square
Inch. As this shield advances the
sand nnd raw material Is thrown back
Into the tunnel and carted away, w'hlle
the bod of the river Is held up at the
opening of the shield by the tremen
dous pressure of the air. The men
here actually work In the center of nn
air bubble equal to 34 pounds pressure
to tho square Inch.
Shifts are frequently made, so that
It is impossible for A long while to
stand It. But, strange to say, the
workers, while In the realm of this
highly compressed air are stimulated
to the point of enthusiastic activity. The
only danger from working in such en
vironment is that when the pressure is
relieved too suddenly the laborers are
seized with a new kind of disease
called “the bends.” It Is a sort of
paralysis. Physicians are In constant
attendance and are giving careful at
tention to methods of relieving this
new ailment. One remedy Impressed
me as very interesting. As soon as
the laborer, emerging from this place
of toll, is seen to be affected by the
bends, he Is taken at once Into a small
Iron house with two compartments, one
of which Is for air pressure of as much
per square Inch as that In which he
worked. When he Is placed in this
Iron compartment for a while he Is re
lieved. After this, the pressure- is
taken off so gradually that he suffers
no further trouble. <
Our modern poets no longer work
with words, they work with mechani
cal devices invented for conquering
nature. The poets of New York are
no longer the Bryants and the Sted-
mans. Our American poets are no
longer Longfellow, Whittier and
Holmes. They are the men like Sam
uel Rea, C. M. Jacobs, Alfred Noble
nnd E. W. Molr, the masters of the
situation, w'hh have this vast enter-
prise of the Pennsylvania Railroad in
charge.
Back of all this one should picture
a quiet room In a corner of the Broad
street station of the Pennsylvania Rail
road Company In Philadelphia. There
sits a man of retiring disposition and
very few words, Alexander J. Cassatt
by name. When he became president
of the Pennsylvania Railroad less than
ten years ago, his Imagination began
to work along channels hitherto un
surveyed by man. His dream is being
realized. He Is planting the Pennsyl
vania Railroad In the heart of New
York, and his plans, before long, will
result In the possibility of a man who
takes a passenger train In Atlanta, Ga.,
being able to go right through the
subterranean regions of New York to
Boston and Portland, Maine, without
change.
Mr. Cassatt found that passenger
trains were being delayed by freights;
he has, therefore, built an entirely new
railroad from New York to Pittsburg.
He found that the four tracks of this
main line were so close together that
when a train was wrecked on ont of
them It delayed the trains seeking to
move along the parallel lines. Ht Is
separating the tracks now, so that fas-
sengeft* trains may proceed without ob
struction. His vision saw the necessity
for these improvements. Ills practical
mind saw the possibilities of working
them rfut promptly and econom*a»!ly,
and his personal tact and diplomacy
made It possible for him to go to Paris
and accompllim the hitherto Impossi
ble and unimaginable feat of borfow-
Ing $50,000,000 upon exceedingly fa
vorable terms from the conservgtlve
hankers of France, with which hl« gi
gantic schemes might be carried nut.
ifNMHHMHliM
THE CHOICE OF THE HIGHEST
“Our God whom we serve Is able to
deliver us from the burning flgry fur
nace and He will deliver us * * * Hut
If not—” Daniel III, 18.
II
By REV. JOHN E. WHITE,
PASTOR SECOND BAPTIST CHURCH
■•r
L ET us stop Just there. Let us
leave the tent thus unfinished
and with a glaring hiatus, for
the Hebrew children have come down
In their minds through this brave tent
and have looked squarely Into a gulf
of awful possibility. "Our God whom
we serve Is able to deliver us and he
will deliver us. • / • • But If not."
"But if not." That Is awful. "But If
not.” That means n horrible death.
I do not care this morning If I do
not say one word about the great de
liverance that did come to these men
in the fiery furnace. That was grund.
Nebuchadnezzar appreciated -that, for
you know how when he saw' them
walking unhurned in the flames he was
astonished und rose up In haste and
spake and said unto his counsellors;
"Did we not cast three men bound Into
the midst of the Are.’’ Ho appreciated
that. But that was not tip* grandest
thing. There Is something here he did
not appreciate. There Is something
here finer and more wonderful If you
will permit me to say that, than the
faithfulness of God. It Is the faithful
ness of these men who said: "Our
God whom we servo Is able to deliver
us from the burning, flerj? furnace, and
he will deliver us. But If not”
They walked right up to the Are nnd
confessed tho posslb!I|.y that God
might not deliver them and were un
dismayed. This Is tho really great
thing about this story. Their deliv
erance has Its lesson, but It’s no such
lesson as this. Here Is the highest cast
of faith. In the Bible and In human
history we can And very many sorts
and kinds of faith. This Is the highest
sort and kind. There are degrees In
the quality of faith Just as In any oth
er of tho cardinal graces. I say here Is
the highest degree. I want you to look
at it.
Ths Highest Faith.
If we recount the degrees of faith I
suppose we would have to start with
that very common faith among men
that very' common faith among men,
Is professional, formal, creedal. A set
of fair weather conceits, which we call
our faith. It Is ornamental and quite
useless except for ornament. It glit
ters In modern ritualistic and worldly
minded Protestantism like the broad
ened phylacteries used to glitter about
the shoulders of the Pharisees, In a
strain, at a test, It turns out to he no
faith nt all. It Is like the faith of the
hoy during n protracted meeting In
Virginia who declared that he had
faith enough to do what Peter failed
at, faith enough to walk on the wa
ter. The challenge accepted, they went
down to the rjver to test It. The
young faithful took a look at the wa
ter and then sat down nnd rolled his
pants up above his knees before he
would venture. It was no faith at nil.
There Is an example of faith given
us by Mark In'the story of tho woman
who Just Imd faith enough to touch
the hem of Christ’s garment In the
crowd and Matthew tells us of tho
poor man who Just had faith enough
to cry, "Lord, I believe, help thou mine
unbelief." I suppose we may call this
“little faith." But It Is by no means
to he despised. In 1st Kings we have
the record of a great faith. Elijah fac
ed tho hosts of Rani on Carmel and
challenged their god to meet his Je
hovah in a great trial of Are. They
tried and but no Are*came to burn
up the sacrlflce. Then this man
faith set his face toward God i
wrestled passionately In prayer, not a
doubt In his heart, not a fear and
thought of the possibility of failure
We call that a grand faith. A faith
that would not take “no" for nn nn
swer. And that Is a grand faith. But
It Is not the highest faith. Here Is
the highest faith, the faith that cc
say, "Our God whom we serve Is able
to’deliver us from the burning. Aery
furnace, and he will deliver us, but If
not"—
The highest faith Is the faith that
can stand for God to fall, the faith that
an risk disappointment. "Our <God
can. our God will deliver us, bm If
not"—
Well, what if not? Well, "If not.” It
doesn't make any difference. "If not,"
it doesn’t alter our position. "But If
not, he It known unto thee, Oh, King,
we will not serve thy gods, nor wor-
Are You Still Paying-Rent? If so, lam Surprised!
Rent Receipts Remind me of Money
Thrown Away.
Do you know that tho Standard Real Estate taan Company of Wash
ington. D. C., will sell you a home-purchasing contract whereby you
can buy or build a home auywhere In tho United States and pay for
It In monthly payments for less than you are now paying rent? They
will lend you from $1,000 to $5,000 at 5 per cent, simple interest, al
lowing you to pay It. back In monthly installments of $7.50 on each
thousand borrowed. For prospectus and plans of our proposition,
call on or write J. St Jullen Yates, State Agent. 321 Austell Bldg., At
lanta, Ga. Bell phono 2653-J. Atlanta phone 1918.
Truthful Hustling Agents Wanted in Every County in tb« State
shin tho golden Image thout hast set
up/’ 1 say this Is the highest faith
nnd I say It on the unchallengeable
authority of Jesus Christ. He Is "the
author und Anlsher of faith.” And
this was his faith. In the garden of
Oothsemnne he Anlshed. he perfected
faith when he said: "Father, let this
cup pass," hut if not—If not—I will
drink It. 1 will not falter; I will not
fall.
The record of the passion of Christ
from that moment till he cried, "My
God, My God, why hast thou forsaken
me?” Is the record of a moral heroism
meant for every one of us who comes
to the brink of disappointed prayer
when God leaves us to stand alone,
leaves us to receive the full shock of
failure. leaves us to the re
fuge of our faith only, without support,
without proofs, and without anything
to fall buck on except our own moral
heroism.
Humbls Heroes.
Now, life is full of Aery furnaces be
cause It Is so full of experiences that
lead men and women to face Incura
ble griefs and Inevitable disappoint
ments. And I do not refer altogether
to sudden and crushing bereavements.
There are burdens that do not crush,
hut lacerate our shoulders. There are
blows that do not blind us, nor dull,
nor deaden, nor stun our hearts by
their business, hut are none tho les
terrible because they do not. They ar
the ever constant, ever present Inward
sorrows we must not expect to escape,
They are n part of the environment In
which we are placed, of tho chain we
have ourselves made or of tempera
ment we have Inherited. And they
make their appeal to our moral he
roism every day.
A young man I know very Intimately
has confided to me his deepest per
sonal experience.. He says that jail his
lire he has felt In hlrnsolf the capacity
for heroic suffering, the capacity for
playing a noble part If the call was
ever made on him for It. When he was
a hoy he used to sit and hear his father
and his comrades of the civil war tell
over again their battles and that when
he would hear them he would go out
of doors with hts whole soul aflame nnd
tell God and the stars what he felt In
him. that he could he a soldier, that
he could stand up before bullets and
cannon Vithout blinking and then he
would go to bed and lie awake sorrow
ful that tho war was over, that there
was no chance for hint to be the hero
he felt he could he.
The subject of his reverie very often,
he says, bus been to Imagine himself
In hard and heroic situations, when
upon Ids coolness and courage life de
pended. And it was n»t In his mind
REV. DR. JOHN E. WHITE.
opportunity. 'Now his life has not led
him to such opportunities, hut Into
peaceful and quiet labors. And he says
he never reads of deeds of heroism or
of public men like President Roose
velt ami Governor Folk hut hts heart
flushes with the consciousness thnl had
tho fortune of his life made It possible
he w ould dare to do as these men have
done. And the man bears all the.time
a suppressed and disappointed hero In
himself and does not complain, but he
says "God can do great things with
me If He would, but If not—I urn go
ing on Just the same and be brave and
true and noble in my soul and do what
I may Just the same." * f
I do not believe his case Is unusual
at all. There are thousands of po
tential heroes who never come to light.
You know Gray's Elegy. It was w ritten
to tell just such an experience as 1
related. A country boy who never
"Perhaps in this neglected spot Is laid
A heart once pregnant with celestial
Are;
Hands which the rod of empire might
have swayed 9
Or waked to ecstacy the living lyre.
Some village Hampden that with
dnuntless breast
The little tyrant of his Aelds with-
. stood
Some mute Inglorious Milton here may
rest
Some Cromwell guiltless of his coun
try’s blood."
Here thousands and thousands come
to stand and say God could deliver mo
from the burning furnace of poverty
and Isolation and could make use of
me for larger things. But If not, I will
be what I am and do what I may
whether He does or not.
Moral Heroism.
Sometimes the burning flery furnace
comes through a constitutional dis
position to doubt. The spiritual strug
gles of many people would appall you
should you be let Into their secret lives.
"Would appall you!” No, I am wrong,
for you would in their struggles recog
nize your own.
I was In a company of Christian
men recently, every one of whom Is
onsecruted to Christ nnd His cause.
One of the number craved the coun
sel nnd comfort of his friends on the
subject of hjs doubt—not intellectual
doubts, but tho fear and sorrow of his
heart which came over him at times
when he prayed. Another then con
fessed a similar grief, but more Intel
lectual In its character. We drew
close together and closer and our
hearts were full fo- a space. We had
every one his Aery burning furnace.
And we came to this at last: "Out-
God Is able to deliver us and He will
deliver ns, but If not, we will be true to
our deepest selves, and not fail Him
though He may seem to fail us som’e-
tlnies. What better are we than our
Lord, and did He not come to that
place nnd cry, ’Why hast thou for-
Hebrew heroes and the suffering Christ
and say this, that if you have sinned
it Is not because you have doubted and
feared, hut because you have some
times failed to be brave In spite of
your eclipsed faith, or should I say you
haven’t found refuge In the Inner for-
tIdeations of your faith—your moral
heroism where God Is most surely en
trenched? "Our God whom we serve
is able and He will deliver us, but if
not—”
So I am putting a plea that flnda us
all. The one thing for us all—the sure
thing for us all—Is make much of the
best that Is in us, and follow the light
we have.
Our highest faith is not taking the
Bible word for word, nor a professional
attitude toward God and Providence,
but In being true to what we feel In
ourselves, to be our duty. If this seems
to be all that Is left you nnd you
couldn’t go otherwise If you tried, then
Holleve me, that Is God’s will and that
Is God s path for your life.
“Our God whom we serve Is ible to
deliver us from the burning fleiy fur
nace, and He will deliver us, but If nr>t
—well If not, we will let it miike no
difference in our courage; we trill not
turn to false gods; w'e will no! lower
our flag; we will not fall the call of
our own hearts and be anything lf*f
good' or less noble than we think God
would have us be.
AWNINGS
TENTS
UPHOLSTERY
/WAIER * V0IHER&
130 So. Forsyth St
had a chance. "A youth to fortune and
to fame unknown.” Sweet Is the mu- i w*!»» »
sic of that Elegy—its rural peace, "the Now, 1 know where this text leads
lowing herds winding o er j!?® I some of you. It leads .you to the bet-
f. 11 l . n *u n 5** 5JJ? I t* r hours of your life, when, though
distant f<>hls, but the heart of It and many friends were around you. you
the immortal power of It Is this boy xvore treading the wine press alone and
w ho never had a chance, w ho lived | wer( » actually in the burning flery fur-
with gold in his heart undug, with he- nace and there was no deliverance,
rolsm unrevealed, a grand snuld blush- j perhaps I pain you by reminding you
ing like a flower unseen and wasting Its | u f place at which your faith for a
sweetness on the desert air or like a . time went to pieces, where you doubt-
gem of purest ray serene condemned , P d God, doubted prayer nnd religion
to dark uncovered caves of the ocean. I and everything except the undoubta-
That Is the power of It that grips the . ble presence of this heart-ache. You
life and holds It. It Is great because J dn not like to recall It. You sometimes
It’s true. It Is great because the poet feci that you have wounded your faith
leaning over the grave of that country | nnd sinned against your Christian pro-
lad spoke what we know as true of fesslon. Will you permit me this njorn-
oursedves. of hundreds who never 1 Ing to stand here In the presence of the
ROUND TRIP
Summer and Convention Rates. 1
Round trip summer excursions from all points
East to Pacific Coast and Northwest, from June 1 to
September 15th, with special stop-over .privileges,
good returning to October 31st, 1906.
Summer Rates to Colorado, June 1sttoSept.30
Use the splendid through service of the SOUTH
ERN PACIFIC from New Orleans, UNION PA
CIFIC from Kansas City or Chicago to all points
West, Northwest and Southwest, including palatial
steamship service from San Francisco to Japan,
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Through Pullman Tourist cars from Washington,
Atlanta, Montgomery, etc., and from St. Louis and
Chicago to California.
WRITE ME FOR LITERATURE AND INFORMATION.
J. F. VAN RENSSELAER, General Agt.,
124 Peachtree Street, Atlanta, Ga.
R. O. BEAN, T. P. A. G. W. ELY, T. P. A.
