The Marietta journal. [volume] (Marietta, Ga.) 1866-1909, 1891-04-16
CHURCH LOCALS
AND RELIGIOUS NOTES OF GENER.
AL, INTEREST. d

THERE is a difference in religious
experience. One man is always self
possessed, we'll poised, evenly bal
anced, settled. Another is subject to
changes painful to see. He seems
carried about as a straw in the wind.
Sometimes a bright face, shows the
light within. At ether times, the
cloud upon the brow, covers the
name of God written there.
The aim Of religion is TO SHOW, at
all times the life Of God in the soul.
Upon the converted man, God has
stamped all His beauty. HIS gen.
tleness is to make the man gentle,
and to make him great, in that gen.
tleness. AS Christ was the express
image of the Father" SO the dis
ciple is to be the express image Of
Christ. If not, he falls tar beneath
his ministry in life.
MEN, thus religious, are to show
forth the glory Of the father. They
are to be "His Witnesses always
ready TO give an answer to any who
call for it, for the hope that il in
them. 1t is Gods one way Of con-
veying truth to the world. AS man
was, in the beginning, made in
His image and likeness, showing
forth his origin and the Divine
workmanship in him, SO in his relig-
&. ious, regenerated, recreated life, the
image, as revealed in Christ Jesus,
is again seen, in more than original
beauty.
The difference in religious expert
ence, like all other effects, has a
cause. The contrast between two
such christian men, grows out of the
difference, in being in religion and
religion being in them. Religion is
indeed an entity. 1t is real some
thing. 1t has life and body and form
and expression. 1t is the life and
the way and the Being Of God in
man. When man is simply in re-
ligion, Bhe lives in given religious
circle; breathes a religious atmos-
phere; has to do with religious
} things /; eats religious food, for daily
needs or occasional emergencies, but
he is the sport of circumstances, and
is always at the mercy of his tenn
Iperaments.
| Now the other class, are not sim
ply in religion but religion is in
them. Religion fills the whole be-
ing. Everything in them is wholly
absorbed by the one blessed thing.
God is always present. In the crowd
alone, it is all one. In business at
work, or not, it is all one. In temp
tation or out of it, it is all one.
There is no need to seek faith any,
where, because faith possesses such
everywhere.
CHRISTIANS who are ONLY in re-
llgion and do not have religion in
them, will have strangely crooked
aud strangely marked experience.
Sometimes up and sometimes down.
Possession and enjoyment, will be
spasmodic and changeable. The
evil will as often prevail as the good.
A class meeting, prayer meeting,
ar earnest sermon, a touching song,
will fill the heart, and for the time
the man will be strong. "An east
wind" will chase it all away. Reads
er, look into your own state. Are
you simply in religion, or is religion
in you? Your usefulness and pres
ent and future happiness, is sus-
pended upon the difference, in the
two states.
IT WAS fair night and pleasant.
Why were you brother. sister, not
at the prayer meeting? You lost
one of Gods great lessons, and lost
an experience-the best one posi-
bly-and the one you needed-and
then your example and influence on
others.
You were at prayer meeting, but
why did you sit so far from the al
tar? Why do yoa sit in the rear of
the church at prayer meeting? IF
for no other reason, because it is