The Newtown bee., 1896-02-28

shey); Th0c,as would have given the whole world to believe it true; but be- cause of his makeup, it must be true b5 overwhelming evidence
 Have you ever studied the place ot tnis passage in the Go2pcl of Jchp? It is at the very close; there is another chapter, the 2lst, but that chapter is x postscript, an addeudum to the Gospel, i- is not part of the Gospel John had purpose in writing his Gospel H. tells us what that purpose Ma; 5h> HosDel was written, he says, ''that yC :uignf believe thar Jesus i- the Ch7isC, J!:+ Son If God" After John had given Thomas testimony to the resurrection 9l Christ, he closes ht- Gospel, nOg bocan~,' here is no more tD say, fir he Savs, Many other sigas truly did Jesus it: E.:- presence of His di cip!a-," and nc sup p0see that even the world it7rlf cruz 2"G certain the b3oks if these s;g@c
 i,ouId b. written down every nue. but hrcau~e his purpose had been accaiF:- pli~hed; after Thomas' testimony n" ~tronger proof could he given that Jo~u
 " 25 the Christ, the son If God.
 iove Thomss; 1 have always had g.. admiration for hlm, because he H~>2 a" honest dOubcer. He did nnt d"u5T h"- cause be juved hj~ doubt, but nec"usa h~ lad critical niiud a0d wanted D kilt he truth. Some5iue2 pastor ge1s ss&. idea about the corg1c ga1jon h. pGeac14es Ii, that they dc1't need much pre- ching because they have certain fixed b'Ht, ne doctrine Gall that is necessary fur their saIgation) and they have always believed these doctrines and they always will; they learned the truths in the Sunday school and they have never questioned them; they received thc7e truths at their mothers knee and, since lhen, they nave only become a stronger part of their being. I would not want to preach to & congregation like that. don't think it i any special credit to a man to believe just what his grandmother did, and in just he same way.
 ADMIRE THE COURAGE OF THE MAN
 who is continually in doubt, but, not wanting to stay there, is struggling toward the truth. He is like a man in the center of 8 thick wood, who does not like it's shadow and is hewing his path out into clearing. "Believe me, there is more truth in honest doubt than in half the creeds." The poet Tennyson was right; honest doubt is life, thought, action; a creed may be stagnation, dull ness, death. An honest doubt is only a question mark which we write against the faith of our sires. If there were no honest doubting, then there were no pro- gTessing; if there were no honest doubt ing, then the second century would be like the first century, and the third cen- tury like the second, and the nineteenth century like all the previous centuries. A Puritan was an excellent specimen of an honest dOubter, and Lowell hit off 8 Puritan to a hair, disclosed his secret and painted his portrait in two lines ''John P Robinson. He said they didn't know everything down in Judea." An honest doubter, I say, does not love doubt, is not satisfied by staying in it. He is in doubt because he is honest, he is not honest because he is in doubt. You do not commend the man who stays in his boat that is being tossed about by the breakers and makes no effort to land, saying that he much enjoys the tossing,
 I admire an honest doubter, but not dishonest one. A dishonest doubter- there are many of them, you know them all around you-is one who loves his doubts; he loves to point out discrepen- cies in the Gospel history, and, strange ly enough, he knowes where they all are, however little he may know about the great truths of the Bible. The dishon- est doubter is glad that there is some thing to doubt. He thriyes on doubt, he likes it, he enjoys it, he sports it, he lives by it. He goes around telling oth- CT people about 1t, he is afraid that ev- arYbody will not know it. Convince such man of the truth and he gets mad at you. Take away his cause for doubt