The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1896-09-20

axle. but all this means only so much use
less wear and tear.
So human lives, when lifted from the
solid ground of revealed truth and inten-
ton may make a great whirling in the air,
but this is no proof of progress. Mental
hysteria is not mental strength and a st.
yitus dance in the world of mind is not
intellectual progress.
A fourth great delusion bound up in this
same passion is that skepticism is a sure
sign of mental strength and culture.
They are becoming little stale now
but for many years the sensations of the
moral world have been made through an
attack upon the things that we have
learned and been assured Of, through the
exhibition of some new form of critical I'M
belief. Now for years the voice of the
Snowman has been heard in the land, cry
ing out wait until the curtain rises this
time and / will give you an exhibition of
heterodoxv such as the church has never
before Witnessed Human creeds have
been written and rewritten, they have been
accepted and rejected, have arisen and fall
len and will go on changing while time
lasts. but the great Bible doctrines Of
which these creeds are SO many studies,
these continue unchanged. SO, one new
edition of astronomy after another issues
from the press. but the great heaven knows
no change either in the number or the
revolution Of its worlds.
But criticism is always easy, much easier
than defense; destruction is always a sim
pier matter than construction. 1t took q
genius to rear the Ephesian dome, but any
fool could apply the torch to it, Intellectu-
ally rated skepticism must stand at the
bottom of the scale. ALI that man has to
TO Grif &c tn lat crn- III
to produce skeDticism is a careless and
disloyal holding of the truth.
1t is the easiest thing in the world to let
go of supersensual reality The world
laughs at the mental grasp here; sin be-
numbs the fingers and the devil unclaSps
them. 1t is continuance in the things OF
faith and hope that call for strength-not
ncncontinuance. Rejection is not neees-
sarily the sign of strength. When the
stomach rejects the food given 1t 1t is be-
cause it is weak, not because 1t is strong
Before tens of thousands the things of
the old faith have faded into thin air be-
cause through a self-centered, egotistc,
irreverent disobedent life they have in
capacitated themselves for the holding OF
spiritual verites.
Only a few great souls-you can count
them on yoGr fingers-have ever con-
EtructeO any Idltn LOT out 'ii~
woods and the plains full of common
ers who have snapped at and spit upon the
priceless treasure of the souls inspiration
and the souls hope.
Tell me il you can, apart from the
gospel what one sweet and enduring treas
ure is ours, what great and abiding
hope is ours? Ought any one of us then
greatly to need to be exhorted to continue
in the faith and gospel? The faith of the
infinite goodness, of the divine redemption,
of the waiting heaven of the enlarged and
blessed immortal life? Ought we to require
any great urging to hold to the faith
that gives Almighty God as our father,
omnipotent love our savior and eternal
life as our sure portion? Shall we surren-
der anything so sweet, so blessed, so in
spring, SO majestic as the gospel faith.
the faith that holds within it every dignity
that ennobles the present life and every
hope that throws a ray of light upon the
path by which the life of man moves out
into the great unknown future.
Copyright, 1896, by Newspaper Sermon AS
sociation)