Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1879-10-25
OF cuRREsT RELIGIOUS THOUGHT
AND INTELLIGENCE.
lssus and the creeds-lmprOsing Mankind
-Quietness Of heart-Ialmage
on Church Music-Mlscel-
laneous Notes. ne
Slowly arow.a Human Soul.

slowly Growss Human Soul
Thought. o Lord, through pleasant ways,
To follow wisdom, follow lnee;
Hooked for sure and quick reward.
Nor dreamed that III could come TO me.
Thou leadest me by ways unknown;
Through woods. through brambles. painless
Thick Dizziness lies on either side,
Before me rise obscuring togs.
No glimmering sheen of garments white,
No voice attests that thou art near
Slow rising from IN unwholesOme ground
Dim phosphorescent lights appear.
Where are thy blessed hills. o Lord?
long TO climb. 70 see the light
Blow with thy winds, dispense the mists,
And let me walk in part by light.
know the night precedes the day.
And out OF darkness doth arise
Each living thing. that longing lifts
Itself toward the far-Or skies
Each pulse Of the obedient earth
Responsive beats 20 all thy will.
Aud law and order reign unseen
Mid seeming chaos, seeming Ill.
Shall man alone Of all thy works
Drop incomplete from out thy hand,
His freedom but dangerous gift
His soul with sin 70 deeper brand
Through heat and cold through Wind and waves,
Through tumultS Of internal tire,
The earth climbs with the ages up
Her toilsome path toward thy desire.
All Is Of thee; thine TO the force
BY which the circling planets roll.
Toward perfection all things creep,
And slowly grows a human soul.
FRANCES L. GARDSER.
Jesus and the Croeds-His Unfitness for
Evangelical Church Membership.
From the sermons OF Rev. Dr. George Pitt
man. just published by Houghton, Osgood
& SO.
We deny that speculative opinions
about Christ constitute the Christian
faith. To clear this matter up We have
nothing to do but to go back TO Christ
himself. In several instances he strong
ly commended persons for their faith,
but we know the faith he spoke of was
not belief in the trinity or vicariOus
Atonement, or any OF that class OF doc
trines. He had never spoken of his own
nature, never called himself by any 9TH
err title than that modest one which he
loved best-the Son of Man; had never
spoken of his own blood and death, I'M
less it were to give an intimatiOn to his
friends that he should not be long with
them. He had only spoken such
things as the Sermon on the Mount,
and few simple parallels, illustrating
the character of good men and the love
of God, and gone about comforting the
afflicted and healing the sick, and tell
ing men Of the heavenly father, and
what it was their duty and their joy to
be and to do in all simplicity and purity
of living, and how he knew that what he
said was approved by God, and was the
very truth. This was all he taught
nothing that men would now call the
ology or scheme OF salyatiOn-mere
goodness and piety. He had said moth
ing about anything else. And yet those
who had heard nothing else, and knew
nothing else, received from him the
hearty commentator oihaving faith, and
a saving faith. They did not even take in
all that he had said, sometimes only
very little Of it; perhaps could appre-
ciate nothing more about him than
some benefcent act; and vet their sim
DIV coming to him i'm believing spirit,
having so much sympathy with him, so
much readiness TO listen to him and
learn of him, any such little bond of
union with him, he called "faith, and
was glad in it, and gave it his benedic-
ton, and so stamped 1t as Christian
faith and saving faith. And how
should the standard or test of Christian
faith be of different kind now from
what he made it2 Was not his good
enough and high enough? What right
has the disciple, managing his church IN
his name, to require such different
tests from those of the Master?
Jesus was indeed no theOlogian, in. the
modern sense of the term. He had no
idea Of religion but as simple goodness.
He had not faith according to modern
standards. | should be sorry to fall into
the language OF vulgar abuse, but it is
the simple fact, and an instructive one
10 consider, that il Jesus were now on
earth, there is no evangelical church in
10 which he could be admitted as a
member by simply repeating anything he
said. or all that he said, when he was on
earth. He would have to add some
thing to that, assent TO many doctrines
which he never said a word about, or
else be excluded as unsOund in the
4 81 y. 4 L s...l a.. hot
but il is most manifestly true. IT he
should adhere to his own words or
thoughts, not church could admit
him as a brother, not a bishop
could lay hands upon him without yiO-
lating his rubric, not a synod could con-
sistently license him TO preach the Cos
pei. Not but that they love and honor
him as much as anybody can, and would
fly to him with rapture If they knew
who or what he was; but II they did not
know that and tried him by their creeds
and standards of faith, and he had moth
ing to say but Just what he said there in
Palestine, he would not pass; they
would have to reject him. SO false is
the position in which good Christians
have placed themselves by identifying
faith with theological opinions and not
observing the broad distinction between
them. Their opinions, the theology OF
those churches which have referred to,
NAV be absolutely true and sound; that
is not the question now; but supposing
them To be so, is il not obviously
q great mistake TO regard
them as faith, and the only
faith when we see that such a view
would exclude from among Christians
the Master OF Christians himself, unless
he would admit. as the essentials OF
faith, things which he had never said
ANYTHING about and which those whom
he approved as having faith knew moth
ing about, except upon the most violent
hypothesis that he forebOre TO speak Of
the things most important TO his reli-
gion, or that the most important things
which he did say are not reported in his
biography. Ii is curious fact say II
not for Boosting or for disparagement,
but nobody can deny il, and II Is a sug-
gestive fact, and | wish il could be con-
sidered by those whom il most concerns
that the Unitarian churches, and some
others similarly constituted. are posi-
lively the only ones 10 which our Lord
could be admitted if he were here in the
flesh. unless he had wholly changed his
views as to what faith is.
Improving Mankind
Rev. Swing OF Chicago, preached, the
other day, that the church ought to in
terest itself more for the improvement
OF mankind. There was = Convention
of the Society for the Prevention of
Cruelty in Chicago, the previous week,
and no clergyman could be found to
open the proceedings with prayer. That
fact may have been the suggestive text
of the remarks Of the Rev. Swing. In
Massachusetts, the story is told that a
student went out from Andover, one