The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1896-04-05

tnctly an educator In devotion. but be-
cause the shaken faith should be stron ger
roots so running down into God Almiensy
that blasts or tempestuous doubt shail ONLY
make them run deeper and take stronger
hold.
A DEFINITION OF REDEMPTION.
"Itswould. perhaps. trench on future sub
ject-The Evolution OF the Credit were
to try to work this fact cut and show you
how every subject in human progress mas
widened and deepened our knowledge CT God.
How the agnosticism of to-day. the agnosti-
cism that Is outside the church. the agnosti-
cis;n that We dread Is far better than the
idolatry that was in the church In the early
centuries. And as organically and socially
and intellectually. so spiritually We are to
move forward. Progress is not toward inno-
cence. The innocence is lost and it cannot
be recovered. The progress is from inno-
cence through temptation TO virtue. / do not
say that man may not attain virtue ana re-
tain innocence. He may: DO not say tnat
nos man can attain virtue without tempta-
ton, and II is said OF Christ himself that he
was made perfect in that He suffered ana
was tempted. The struggle is essential 10
the victory, and the victory lies in the
future. Out OF the condition or innocence
when we had not sinned. because We mad
not done anything we were carried by sue
cessive stages forward, II we are true TO our
selves and TO our education and to our OPP
portunity, 10 the manhood that masters
temptation and is strong above Ii:
what is true of the individual Is true or
the race. Men look at the world and say,
What is II, worse or better? 1t is both. The
drunkenness OF to-day since the invention or
distilled liquors, is worse than the drunken
ness OF ancient Rome. They did not know
delirium tremens then, and they DO now.
new form and phase of forgery. With banks
and credit systems came in the possibility
of defalcation. With science, explosives and
dynamite The public school makes some
men better, some men worse. Power used
for virtue is good-used for vice is evil and
development is power. The temptations or
life are far greater In this nineteenth GEN.
fury than they were in the sixteenth or in
the first. The temptations you have 20 meet
with in society, with In business, with in
your family, are far greater than the tempta-
tons which assailed you when a child four
or FIVE years old, protected by your mother.
The passage of life is from innocence
through temptation to virtue and every new
virtue acquired is only preliminary to a new
battle to be Begin.
This is redemption 1t is the development
Of the whole man. 1t is coming through all
the conflict and experiences OF life into a
perfect manhood in Christ Jesus. 1t Is COM
ing into strength and largeness of knowl-
edge. into strength and largeness OF will, into
strength and largeness of life. 1t is making
the very enemies themselves the instruments
OF redemption. II is becoming conquerors
That is not all. More than conquerors. What
can there be more than conGueror? Ma
poleon, landing on the shores OF France from
FIlba, met detachment after detachment of
Bourbon troops, sent out TO capture him, and
detachment after detachment, they came
TO him, swept round in his rear and Swelled
his ranks TO give him victory. He was more
than conqueror. And for you and for me
this is our aim, this ambition, this our
possibility. II is to turn the machine and the
corrupt politicians into the very instruments
and methods of victory; ii is to accomplish
a purer state through the very battle with
cOrrlDt forces. III is ourselves TO make the
very temptations that assail US instruments
of our manhood, the very chisel that strikes
against US perfect the image of the Christ in
US; it is to take the very cohorts of evil, turn
them behind us, and by the temptation con-
quer a virtue that is UNNECESSARILY sublimer
than innocence"