The Wellington enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 1867-188?, 1885-02-11

Of sacrifice. 1t was long ago said that
men question the truth of Christianity be"
cause they hate the practice Of it. There
is no want Of charity In this declaration.
Any knowledge of the human heart reveals
an unwillingness to accept higher truth
which requires higher living. Infdelity In
its moral qualities is very old. 1t is found
in the church as well as out. ID.
The Jews of Christ's time were believers
In a great multitude Of truths, but when
the truth in the person of Christ came be-
fore them they rose up and crucified Him.
II men could be induced to study the evi-
dences Of Christianity with no thought that
religion is a personal matter most Of them
would readily assent to the clear, close
linked and massy augmentation by which
Bishop Butler, and Paley and Whateley,
Coleridge, Christlieb and many others
have defended the system Of Christian
truth. President Finney used TO hold
meetings at Rochester by invitation Of the
Judges, when he addressed the lawyers
who came to him in large numbers on the
nature Of Gods moral government as
taught by Christianity, and he always car
ried their intellectual assent. There his
power ended. Then the power Of prayer,
the mighty persuasions of the Holy Ghost,
were needed that the men whose minds
had assented to the truth should consent
to II with their wills. The evidences of
Christianity may grow clearer and clearer
till they are like the legend of Gods
glory which is written. out on the
starry heavens, and so long as human
nature is unchanged there will be skeptics
enough.
l mention as q second cause Of in
fidelity, what is only specification under
the first, that so many men hold practical
truth in speculative or theoretical way.
There is no doctrine of the Bible that Is
not to have an outcome in life. When men
begin TO hold these truths as mere subjects
of debate and speculation, from that
moment they begin to be dead truths, los
ing vital hold on the character. They are
like undigested food in the stomach, not
transformed into blood and muscular ac-
ton. The needs Of the soul are not met by
dead truths, and every mind stuffed with
them is predisposed to skepticism. He
gets little comfort from these distractions
and Is tempted to doubt whether, after all,
there is in them any reality. do not
wonder att. 1t is according to that law
which Christ announced when He said
that whosoever should do the will of God
should know Of the doctrine.
ko.ln.& .ou1 - . A. a-....
form into skeptic Is not the manwho knows
the most, but the man who obeys the most.
Infidelity has no chance with the humblest
disciple who follows the Master in acts Of
loving service. But German professor Of
theology, whose brain is a cyclopedia,
turning Christianity into problem mere
ly, drying up the sources Of spiritual life,
may be swayed by the winds of unbelief.
Now the law which holds with the believ-
er holds also, and to a greater degree, with
the unbeliever. He palliates. His own
skepticism while refusing TO do the truth
he already believes. He puts himself out
side the action Of the principle which in
Sures a growing faith only to those who
surrender their lives TO the verities they
accept. How many men here believe they
ought to repent, and they will not. How
many know that they ought to seek
the conscious favor Of God in prayer, and
they will not. They are waiting, 1t seems,
TO understand all about these mysteries
Of religion. They want a perfect theory
before they will offer an imperfect obe-
dience. They will not worship till their
temple Of truth Is finished, every stone
from the everlasting hills OF God in its
place, every buttress impregnable, every
window clear shining with the light OF
Heaven, every pinnacle wrought out in
perfect beauty as 1t springs toward the
skies. They are like some crazed Italian
who should refuse TO worship In the Milan
Cathedral because, though II CLEANS over
the Lombard plains like resplendent
crown, there are unfinished portions in
this white wilderness Of marble, ornaments
not In place, and airy pinnacles that yet
wait some sanity statue 10 complete their
Heavenward soaring. Such temple Of
faith was never erected, and never will be
till Heaven and earth are one and all the
shadows Of the Infinite are dispelled In the
light Of God. Even Paul, the greatest
OF believers, confessed: "We know
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