The central Presbyterian. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1856-1908, 1892-05-11

feeling unless based on divine truth
is mere blind sentiment which
means nothing and is worth moth
ing yet this is the religion of much
popular writing in novels and light
literature. Men listen to music in
church, or wander in the cemetery
on Sunday, and because they have
some vague notions of the lapse of
time and the passing away of man,
and the grandeur of God in his per-
manence, or the music in church
awakes some vague, dim feelings of
pathos or sublimity as they think
of human life and the world to
come, imagine they are having re-
ligious emotions, when there is no
sense of sin, no return to God, no
trust in Christ and no love for holt
ness-only a passing emotion has
swept over the soul, leaving it just
as it was.
~
When st. Paul speaks of some
having the form of godliness but
denying the power thereof, he teach
es us that all form not vitalized by
piety is worthless, but he does not
mean to deny the value of formal
life must have some form through
which it expresses itself. In the
vegetable creation life incarnates it.
self In various bodily forms, from
ferns to mighty oaks. So life in the
animal world expresses itself in
forms of every kind, from the low
est up to man. So all ideas express
themselves in some organization.
Every government has some central
idea as its life principle, and &C
cording to that idea will be the
forms that government puts on.
The idea will embody itself in GER
tain forms. Every idea men have
if carried out into actual life, ex-
presses itself in some form. A bank
ing institution, a railroad corpora
ton is an idea put in body which
can be seen, an idea realized in some
outward form. Millions idea takes
form in Paradise Lost" Homer's
in the "Iliad."
Xxx
So the Church is a body composed
of persons having an inner spiritual
life, yet it must have forms through
which that life expresses itself
prayer, praise, reading the Scrip
lures, preaching, hearing preaching,
and certain outward duties of piety
and morality. Neither churches
nor individuals are Journalists be-
cause they use forms. All have
some more or less, but they are for
malists when they rest in the form,
when no real piety gives it life.
What st. Paul then condemns is
not having form, more or less, but
nothing but form, a dead body with
no life. The persons ST. Paul al
ludes to had form, made professions,
mimicked and aped the modes of
spiritual life, but it was all me-
chanical; no heart throbbed under
meath, no soul lived there.
~
We must not suppose persons are
Journalists because their forms are
more elaborate or multiplied Il an
ours. Wherever piety animates
the forms, through which people
express the inner life, there God is
worshipped in spirit and in truth.
Though we hold we have no right
to introduce forms or modes of wor-
ship not permitted by Scripture.
#.*
In the process called grating or
budding a new life is implanted in
and upon a poorer stock and the
old stock shows the new life in the
new and improved fruit. The new
corrects and changes the old. The
fruit always corresponds to graft or
bud. So in genuine religion, the
soul has received a new bud of
grace, and it will show in the new
fruits. When the grating has sue
ceeded, it changes the whole char
acter of the fruit the tree formerly
bore a rich, luscious fruit is found
where before was something small
or sour or tasteless. Just so the
natural fruit of the new bud in the
soul is holiness. If the graft is
from the paradise above, the fruit
must show its origin, must taste of
the heavenly orchard. Must have
the bloom, the fragrance, the lus.
ciousness of the heavenly graft. 1t
must have the likeness Of the para
disc above.
*4*
Carlyle may carry his hero wor-
ship too far, but after all it is most