The Marietta journal. [volume] (Marietta, Ga.) 1866-1909, 1891-10-08
CHURCH LOCALS
AND RELIGIOUS NOTES OF GENER.
AL INTEREST,".

1" AZ ~ HIS IHe place OF an n1re-
ling" Such men are not free men,
III any proper sense. With such,
lee the pay cease and the work ceas-
es. 1t is blessed thing to do right
for the sake of right to do right
because iii right to do right. Such
man is moved by principle, not by
tear or hope ofreward. Il man hell
in check by the laws penalty, by
public opinion, or as matter of
policy, is not a man of principle.
Let the restraining forces be remov-
ed ard the man ceases to be honest
or truthful or reliable.
MEN should join the church of
God and become religious on this
basis. There ought to be no wait
ing for some great wave of emotion,
or overwhelming influence in the
community or in the church to
move them to this step. They should
take this step as a matter of princi-
pie. AS God has publicly owned
and blessed them they should pub
licly confess and own Him. 1t is
tight and they should do this be-
cause it is right to do right 1t is
their only defence in personal life
and the only way in which they can
be useful.
To WAIT for such an eyent-for
such an irresistible inhuence-to
bring them to the church anda pub
lie confession of God and faith in
Him. is possibly, to wait for that
which will never come. Many have
died without hope by such waiting.
And then, in the very act of wait
ing, even if death does not come,
the chances of safety lessons. The
nan naturally hardens in sin, as he
continues In SIN, waiting for the
moving time-for the decisNe mo-
ment-to come. And so his chances
of yielding lessons.
MORAL habits are formed just like
intellectual, social, Or any other
habits. Instead of doing right in
being religious, just as he does right,
in other things, for the sake of
right, wrong doing, in neglect, be-
comes a habit of the soul, and the
man is confirmed in the wrong, and
so the chances of his safety, in the
end, are less anu less. The man
who violates the law of the land, OF
that OF reputable society, and waits
tor some great something he knows
not what to come upon him and win
him to the right, would present a
curious picture to the world. And
so the one who waits for the some
thing to decide him to be, what all
men know they must be, religious,
presents just as curious sight, to
God and the angels.
AND yet n;ne-tenths of solid, set
tied men, are waiting just in this
way, and for j,:st this thing, to move
them to become religious. They
are waiting to know the truth in
order to do the truth, when the law
OF life is do the truth in order to
know the truth. Men are to act, in
this, as all things else, from princi-
ple-do right because it is right to
do right, and not from passion, i'm
pulse, fear. or the mere hope of re-
ward.
THE obligation is not simply and
wholly personal one. 1t is this,
Eye are not your own" All men
owe this to God, their Father, as
matter of justi'e-as a matter of
debt. They were made in His image
and endowed to this end. But they
owe it to man. The example and
influence of each man, is a factor IN
human happiness or human unhap-
piness. And he is just as response
BILE to man and accountable to God,
for his influence and example, as he
is in anything else.
So, without hesitation, we reem-
phasize the thought, to you, reader,
that each should join the church
and become and live religious, as a
matter Of principle-as a matter Of
right and justice to God, and as a
matter due to man. Each citizen,