The Progress. (Shreveport, La.) 1892-1900, 1897-03-06
THE PROGRESS.

making it not the word of God, but
good book with some fire things In 1t. 1r~
reverence never SO much abroad. How
many take The name OF Cod In vain, how
many trivial things said about the AL
mighty! Not willing TO have God In the
world, they roll up an idea Of sentiInen>
ta1ity and humanitarianism and impudence
and i,nbecility and call it God No wings
of reverence over the face, no taking of OF
shoes on holy ground. You can tell from
the way they talk they could have made q
better world than this, and that the God
of the Bible shocks every sense of propri-
ETY.. They talk of the love of God IN way
that shows you trey believe :. ';~.s not
make any difference how l.. IN is,
here he viii como In at the ling gate.
They talk Of the love of God In u way
which shows you they think 1t Is n gener.
al Jail delivery for all the abandoned and
the scoundrelly Of the universe. No pun.
ishment hereafter for any wrong done here.
The Bible gives two descriptions OF God,
and they are just opposite, and they are
both true. In one place the Bible says God
Is love. In another place the Bible says
God is consuming fire. The explanation
is plain as plain can he. God through
Christ is love. God ont Of Christ is fire.
To win the one and to escaTc the other we
have only to throw oursclN es, body, mind
and soul, into Christ's keeping. NO"
says irreverence, II want no atonement; !
want no pardon; I want no Intervention.
will 60 up and face God, and viii chal
lenge him, and I will defy him, and will
ask him what he wants to do with me-
So the finite confronts the Infinite, a
tack hammer tries to break a thunderbolt,
so the breath Of human nostrils defcs the
everlasting God, while the hierarchs of
heaven bow the head and bend the knee as
the Kings chariot goes by and the arch
angel turns away because he cannot en-
dure the splendor, and the chorus Of all
the empires of heaven comes In with full
diapason, "Holy, holy, holy!''
Reverence.
Reverence for sham, reverence for the
old merely because it Is old, reverence for
| stupidity, however learned, reverence foY
incapacity, however finely inaugurated, !
have none. But we want more reverence
for God, more reverence for the sacraments,
more reverence for the Bible, more rever-
cnce for the pure, more reverence for the
good. Reverence a Characteristic Of all
| great natures. You hear 1t In the roll Of
! the master oratorios. You see 1t In the
| Raphaels and Titians and Ghirlandaios.
| You study it In the architecture of the
| Aholiabs and christopher Wrens. Do not
| be fippant about God. Do not joke about
death Do not make fun Of the Bible. Dc
| not deridc the Eternal The brightest and
] mightiest eernph cannot look unahashed
I
| up. with twain he covered his face
Who Is this God before whom tho AFRO
| CANT and intractable refuse reverence!
There was an engineer OF the name O,
| Strasicrntes who was in the eInploNcof Al
exander the Great and he offered to hew q
| mountain in the shape OF his master, the
! emperor, the enormous figure to hold liz
the left hand q city Of IL, 900 Inhabitants
! while with the right hand 1t WAS to hold 9
| basin large enough to collect all the noun
! tain torrents. Alexander applauded him
for his ingenuity, but forbade the enter
| prise because OF its costliness. Yet have
! to tell you that our King holds in ont
hand all the cities Of the earth and all thu
oceans, while he has the stars OF HEAVIER
| for his tiara.
Earthly power goes from hand to hand
| from Henry i to Henry III and Henry III
| from Charles to Charles II, from Louil
10 Louis II and Louis III, but from ever
lasting TO everlasting Is God. God the first
| God the last, God the only. He has on,
telescope, with which he secs everything
| his omniscicnce- He has one bridge witt
| which nc frnSSee exeryfhipU-hfs CT1ni