St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1889-11-11
Reopening of st. Paul's After
the Identification Ex-
erciSeS.
The Occasion Made Interest
ing by Reminiscent Dis
courses.
A Column Of General Church
Matters Current in the
City.

out OF the body or this death? tnank
God, through Jesus Christ, our Lord"
There may be men who are so totally
depraved that they cannot think one
good thought or perform any good deed,
but never have met such a one. The
doctrine of total depravity In any ordi-
nary use of language is diSprOved by
the current of human experience. In
spite of this frightful dogma the natural
human heart has still responded in ten
derneSS to human need, and perpetual
tears have dimmtd the human eye with
pity. Indeed. were men totally de-
prayed they were also entirely without
responsibility, If cannot think one
good thought. or feel one good impulse,
why preach to me to repent? No, all
moral responsibility and all Christian
development depend upon the native
strength of the human soul. The meas
ure or human power is the exact meas
ure of human responsibility. The argu-
ment of Emanuel Kant, IL ought, there
fore cam" is the basis of all the
strength of morals before the tribunal
of the human soul.
But, while it is evident that If man
were totally depraved there would be
no appeal to him to become better, it is
equally plain that if he were not de-
PRAYED at all there would be no need OF
any such appeal.
Equally. then, does the truth lie far
from those who assert that all that man
needs is a natural development to be-
come fitted for usefulness and happi-
ness.
want this morning plainly and sim
ply to present Paurs thought on this
great question, and [ want to appeal to
the facts of your own experience to say
if the apostle is not right.
The consciousness of sin is strong
within him, and he expresses it: What
l hate, that ! do" Whatever may have
become of other parts of human nature
in the wreck and ruin of the ages. the
moral witness to righteousness has
everywhere survived. Men universally
recognize the right as right.
THERE is AN UPPER REALM
of every human soul quite apart from
the realm of practical activity in which
we live and move. and in that upper
realm man is always free. and he Is al
ways righteous. The facts of conscience
are facts of universal human expert
ence. There are, indeed. different de-
greeS of clearness and strength in diff
ferent men and women, but the people
are yet to be found who will assert that
wrong things are better than right
things.
When, however, the attempt is made
to transfer these facts of the soul into
the experience OF life. all is changed.
1t is easy to choose the good as an alb
stract speculation; it is hard to follow
the good in world of action. In that
realm what We hate, that we do" Nor
do we see clearly, especially in the
earlier experiences of life, the nature
of practical morality. 1t is not be-
cause things are bad that they
are chosen, but because the evil
in them is concealed by the glamour of
some supposed good. The thief does
not steal simply to violate the abstract
rights of property, but he steals for the
benefits which he supposes he will have
in the use OF his ill-gOtten gains. The
Incorporate man does not become
drunk for the sake of the next MORN
ing's nausea and headache, but because
the excitements between him and the
legitimate outcome of drunkenness OBJ
seures bis vision and the man becomes
morally insane.
The recognition OF this dualism within
the soul is inevitable. 1t comes to
every man. 1t has come to you. This
opens moral debate. the result of
W h;eh is this statement Of our personal
experience: 1--WE know that the law is
spiritual, but | am carnal, sold under
SIM" We examine the data furnished
| us in the region of intelligence, con-
science and will. We examine our con-
duet in the realm of emotion. desire
and actions, and again we say in the
words of the apostle, THE good which
would, do not, but the evil which
would not, that practice" Now arises
the battle for soul. In proportion as
a man sees the moral cilaSm within him
is the sharpness of the conflict. One of
two things must now happen; either we
must regard the interior discOrd as in
evitable and seek to ignore it, or we
must enter into the death grapple. The
former course is precisely what many of
us have taken, not once, but again and
again. We have tempOrized, we have
delayed. we have shut our eyes, and
every time we have done it we have
wIDENED THE CHAsM;
more than that, we have diminished our
power; we have made the conflict when
it shall come something more terrible
and severe. But the conflict must be
faced: to avoid it means the final paral-
ysis of the soul. But it on the one hand
we see the shining heights of goodness.
and oil the other we brood over our sad
failure and lament our sins, the antagO-
nism sbarpens within us, and over
whelmed in our struggle for soul. we
cry out once more, 20 wretched man
that l am, who shall deliver me out of
the body of this DEATH"
This, therefore. is the ethical cry of
that other question, "What must do to
be saved?" A worldwide and soul-deep
inquiry which the gospel processes to
soh h in,
past; and which 1t is able to answer
this morning. To the man thus strug-
CLING the Gospel gives advice. at once
the most natural and the most profound,
Become as a little child" Enter Gods
moral kindergarten. Man must be
taught by the outward, he must get his
truth in pictures. He gains his knOwi-
edge through his senses. And so this
personal conflict is translated out of the
soul into history, and we are taught no
| longer by the speculative wisdom of our
moral intuitions, but by the active per-
sonality of Jesus of Nazareth, the par
able of God. And so we are Taught,
"Believe in Him and thou shalt be
saved"
The life of Jesus is not remarkable
| for the things which He did. His out
ward career is only transparent YES
Del lHIOuRn WHICH, WO cOC VIC VI ub-
ness of His ideals. AS you look you
see. not so much what He does, as you
see His soul in what He does. Now,
this analysis asserts that faith in Christ
is practical, present. personal, moral
act. insist to the fullest degree upon
| faith as a moral force. 1t may be asked:
| "What difference does it make to my
character whether believe the stories
| of the Jour gospels any more than
whether believe Livy or Tacitus?"
| And say, none whatever. And yet l
assert that faith. even in its intellectual
aspects, has the most powerful infiu-
| ence upon conduct. Take the idea of
| God, and you can trace the inf1ence of
! faith In Him through the Christian GEN.
turtles. A perverted view of God
has robbed Christian history of
its beauty. 1t has been the
hurt of false Ideal. When the Divine
Father whom Jesus revealed and taught,
| was Obscured and finally hidden behind
the blood-thirsty mask of the God of
the Augustinlan theology, cruelty and
treachery were preparing in the name