The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1886-07-22
Thoughts for the Thoughtful.
RELIGIOUS sELEcrroSs.l

IL 10 SAduo Colu1oAt w 1ooA tIne
God is right, whatever else may be
wrong.
It is in these that greatness of God
consists eternal in time, unlimited
in space, Interchangeable, pure in
character. His serenity and His
vastness arise from His own perfec-
tons.
Every day convinces me more and
more that there is one thing, and but
one, on earth worth living for-and
that is to do Gods work, and gradu-
ally grow in conformity to His image
by modification, and selfdenial and
prayer
The perfection of Christ's humani
ty implies that He was possessed of
a human soul as we'll as human
body. What the soul is to us, Deity
was to Christ. His body was flesh,
blood, bones-moved, guided, ruled
by indwelling Divinity.
This desire of accumulation is the
source of all greatness, and all our
baseness. 1t is at once our glory and
shame. 1t is the cause of our COM
merce, of our navy, of our military
triumphs, of our enormous wealth,
and our marvellous Inventions. And
it is the cause of our factions and
animosities, and of our squalid pau
perism and degradation.
What the word is to the thought,
that is Christ to God. Creation was
one expression of this-of His inmost
feelings of beauty and loneliness;
whether it be the doleful sighings of
the night wind, or the flower that
nestles in the grass, they tell alike of
love. So has He also shown that love
on earth, in the outward manifestation
of the life of Christ, not only in the
translated Word which we have,
beautiful as it is, but in the living
Word. Read without this, history is
dark, tangled web, philosophy a
disappointing thing. Without this
light society is imperfect, and the
greatest men small and insignificant.
From all these we turn to Christ;
here is that perfect Word to which
our hearts echo, where no one syllable
is wrong.
Reconciliation is identical with
atonement. The ''atonement" of the
Bible is the reconciliation between
God and man. Here is the mystery
of the atonement. God is reconciled
to men for Christ's sake. Earnestly
insist that the atonement is through
Christ. God is reconciled in human
ity in Christ; then to us through
Him. ''God was in Christ" It was
a Divine humanity. To that human
ity God is reconciled: there could be
no enmity between God and Christ:
81 and my Father are one" To. all
those in whom Christ's Spirit is, God
imputes the righteousness which is
} as yet only seminal, germinal: seed,
not tree; a spring, not river; an
aspiration, not an atonement; right
eousness in faith, not a righteousness
in works. 1t is not, then, an actual
righteousness, but an imputed right
eouSnesS.
The Gospel threw light on God:
light unknown before. "Clouds and
darkness are the habitation of His
seat, spoke the Old Testament; ssGod
is light, and in Him is no darkness
! at all" declared the New. For out
: of Christ our God is only dark, dim
and dreadful mystery. There is only
an awful silence, which is never brok-
: en- by an articulate voice. But all is
: brightness in the Redeemer's life and
death. The Gospel threw light, too,
upon mans own nature. Mana
7 dark enigma, contradiction to him
: self, with God-like aspirations and
animal cravings-asks his own heart
in terror, cam a god or beast p
) And the Gospel answers: ''You are a
J. glorious temple in ruins, to be rebuilt
into habitation of God and the
Spirit, your soul to be the home Of
the High and Holy One, your body
to be the temple of the Holy Ghost.
Q It threw light upon the grave; 70,
a 'slife and Immortality" were brought
to light through the Gospel. The
darkness of the tomb was irradiated
5 and the things of that undiscovered
e land shone clear and tranquil then to
the eye Of faith: but net until then
for Immortality before was but 8
mournful perhaps
Let no man say that Christ bore
the wrath of God. Let no man sa,
d that God was angry with His Son.
q We are sometimes told of a mysteri
Gus anguish which Christ endured
the consequence of Divine wrath, the
s sufferings of a heart laden with the
conscience of the worlds transgres
sions, which He was bearing as i
n they were His own sins. Do not ado
to the Bible what is mott the Bible
. The Redeemer's conscience was mo-
q bewi1derad tn feeI fh1f aa H;o ovur