The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1894-01-31

You to mediate with me little upon
it This morning. I say again 70 thnk
right is important; to feel right is more
important than to think right; to de
right is more can't than feel
right, but to Us right the msst ma
portant OF all.
HPoRTANCE OF BELIEF.
It Is q very commoa slng tat dt
makes no difference vAaf Re bsaSeys
and it is said by sch0okof thought that
are supposed tobe very antsgonistic.
The agnostfcf s6ys that aH thinking
about God ard imnp aliitty is linking:
brass and sounding cymbals, for we can
know nothing about them. Dogmatism,
second cousin of aanostticiszn, says it
Is no use to think about them; you must
accept what was though ebout them In
the sixteenth century, OF tie fourth cen
tury, or the first century; we wasn't not
thinking, but An unquestionable faith.
Agnosticism says that you must stop
before you begin: dognatism Gays that
yon may go 8 little way and then you
must stop. But that liberalism which
says that It makes no difference what a
man believes - equally deadening to
the hnnan i1telletl that liberalism
which says you must have q very short,
simple creed, and all beyond that Is
superfuous. Our problem is to discov-
er, not how little we can know, but
how much we can know, and the whole
eternal and infinite world is before Us
for our investigation To put creed up
at the entrance and say, You shall not
enter school until you have learned all
it has to teach you, is absurd, of course;
the creed ought TO be, not at the porch
door, but over the pulpit. But to say
TO men, It makes no difference whether
yen think rightly or wrongly respecting
these great fundamental problems of
life, Who and what God is. Who and
what eternal destiny is, Who and what
] am, and How ought to act toward
my ne,ghbor-this is folly so extreme
that it does not need to be criticised.
These three isms- ms-agnosticism, dogma
ism and the pseudo hberalism-are
children Of the same parent. The phi
losophy that says you cannot know any
thing, the philosophy that says you can
know only what your fathers knew,
and the philosophy that says It does not
make any difference what you think
they are all Of the same bad stock.
lis important that we should have
right ideas Of the problems Of life, but
it is not enough that we have right
ideas. An opinion is ofvery little value
unless ithas become a conviction. What
is conviction? A conviction is an
opinion that has conquered. 1t is born
Of battle and Of victory. No opinion
ever becomes conviction until it has
been in battle and has conquered. The
boy has inherited from his mother a
belief that God is; he is assailed by
doubt, and when these two have fought
together, and the belief that God is
ceases to be an opinion and becomes
conviction, it is because it has conquer
ed the unbelief. But unbelief is not the
only thing to be conquered. There are
pride and selfshness and vanity to be
conquered. And nothing becomes con-
viction until it has been so wrought in
to the soul that it is conqaeror of the
soul, so, that it shapes and directs the
destiny as master, so that it holds the
scepter, so that it sits on the throne-in
other words, no opinion is Of value un-
til It becomes a part Of that character
Of which I am speaking this morning.
A creed is not real creed until it gets
below the intellect and enters into the
heart. The man takes the proposition
''God is love-" and he says, Why, Ger
tainly; I believe that; abominate the
old pagan teaching that God is hate,
and / abominate the teaching which
represents God as though he were not
good; will have none Of it; believe
chat God is love. And then he goes on
his way as Though there were no God at
all. This is an intellectual proposition,
and he looks at it with critical judg-
ment, and he says, Az, that is true, SIS
he might say it Of proposition Of Eu-
clidss geonostry, bat it has not become
q part Of his being; it is not . conyic-
ton. And q theological opinion is not
religion until it ceases to be an opinion
and becomes a conviction; until it has
conquered something in the man, and
80 become master Of the man.
FEELING AND OPINION.
Feeling is more important than opin-
ion. A man may go right if he has
right impulses with poor judgment,
but he cannot go right il he has a good
Judgment and bad impulses. Mani is like
am ocean steamer with two screws. If the
screws are in order, you can steer the
steamer with the two screws even If the
rudder is unshipped, but If the ruddez
is all right and the machinery has