The Kimball graphic. (Kimball, Brule County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1905, 1885-02-20
The Are Of Faith.

" Az Slokh NO SlGllus
utes the following to The Christian
Lste: The middle ages, it is said, were
the ages of faith. The men of that day
built %cathedrals, went into monster
les, and devoted themselves to relig-
ion. All people went to church, COM
muned, feasted on Friday, and con.
fessed their sins. Yes. there was a
great deal more of the outside of relig-
ion then; but was there more of its
heart? Men were more afraid of God.
Did they love him better? Does love
always show itself in outward ceremo-
MES and formsP Does it not more Of
ten appear in perfect confidence, in
entire trust? You are a father or a
mother. Which do you think would
do the most honor, and be most to
your credit IS a parent-to have your
children afraid of you, and therefore
come regularly with formal expires
sions of respect to appease you-or to
retain their confidence and to have
them trust in you wholly, lean on your
help and sympathy without a doubt OF
fear, and to feel always safe, shielded
by your protection and embodied in
your love? Nothing glorities God SO
much as a chlld-like trust in Him.
This spirit is that of the gospel. This
trust in God which brings peace to
mar is also the best glory to God in
the highest.
Wedo not now go so much to church
to find God; but we feel his presence
moro in nature, life, science, litera-
ture, art. He is now Emmanuel
God with u.s." The whole world is his
temple. The stars and flowers sing
his praise with voiceless lips. Yes, It
is the OF the infinite in all finite
things; of the perfect amid all imper-
lection; of a divine love superior to all
sorrow and pain; of a heavenly i'm
mortality c%onquering decay and death.
1t is the OF something permanent
amid all that there Is transient, of this
steadfast, unchanging center of being
amid the fast-lying phenomena of ma
ture which enables us to hope, and
keep us from despair.
II the time shall ever come when the
spirit of religion shall die out of hu.
man hearts; when men shall become
merely positive philosophers, believing
only in things e 9 and temporal; in
which all faith in the unseen, the inf.
mite, the divine shall disappear in a
low materialism-then men, being
without God, will also be withouthope
in the world; for there is no truer a v
ing than that of the scripture: .'With-
out God in the world, and so without
hope"
Then and only then will human
progress cease, mans improvement
come to an end, and a pale, cold des-
pair sink like a shroud upon the dead
face of humanity. But there is no
danger of this. Such poor m%aterialism
is too shallow and too narrow to sat-
isfy any human heart or mind, or to
content the demands of silence very
long.
So far from losing God, as science
improves and the world advances, the
sense of a divine presence is coming
more and more into all Of nature and
all of life. God does not now seem to
come in occasionally, and at intervals,
in. the way of miracles! but He is seen
and felt in all of human life. Without
Him not a sparrow falls to the ground.
He numbers every hair on our heads.
From Him and through Him and to
Him are all things. In Him we live
and move and have our being. We see
Him in the sun; we feel Him in the air;
we recognize Him in our JOY and in
our grief; we receive the new infant
as a gift from His hand; we dismiss to
Els care the dear friend who leaves
our side, sure that God loves him more
than we do, and will do better for him
than we can ask or think.
There is in this age less and less of
formal religion, of ceremonial devo-
ton, of prayer at set times, but more
and more of the spirit Of faith, hope,
and love in an Infinite friend, in a per
feet father.