The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-10-04

aside artificial ideas of inspiration and be-
heve in its deep inspiration-that II Is
crammed with truth and hope for our ives
But while we hold this orthodox doctrine
We may rarely resort TO that fOunt of truth,
expecting somehow the vague faith that
noats about in the air VIII better us OF,
II we go to the Word we ind II mas a
strange power of holding back its hordes
and refusing to give US the light we looked
for Then We fall back into the gulf OF
skepticism. No mean part of the current
unbelief springs from the disappointment
In the Bible man experiences who only
or rare occasions opens the Bible, and then
with the best part Of himself inactive. a
held gives crop TO match the toll or the
farmer. bank declares dividend only 10
the investor, and according 10 his invest
ment The spiritual world is in many re-
spects a supernatural world, and yet the
laws We make here in the field in the bank
reach out into the unseen spheres, ard
there can be no giving of great hope ana
inspiration except to the man who waits
upon the means. : sometimes think That
there are too many takers who are throw
ing out their own thoughts, sometimes
gloomy and often murky, upon our world
just as the rivers of Maine and New Bruns-
wick send out their driftwood upon the
sea to menace the passage of steamers
Men say this and men say that, and the
world wants to know what God says 1t
is curious TO see in our age OF unsettlement
along religious lines how men demand an
authority above the human. This is one
secret of the power of the Church of Rome
Its priesthood stands for authority; its
heart that finds unrest in ali our Protestant
Sects turns with a sense OF repose TO the
great church that stands for God and re-
voices the message of the Almighty. This
is, we all believe, extreme. 1t is AKIN TO
superstition. 1t robs men of their independ-
ence before God. But, with all its faults
| would rather be the most suppliant be-
lever in the confessional and a flaming
purgatOry than one of our men who are
drifting like seaweed on vast sea of
gloom. Better bigOt than the vagrant
We want more and more to keep our old
world in poiSe pulpit that echoes God to
the letter that sees how little we can know
in the whole cloudy realm of the other
world apart from what GOD, through men,
has told u.s. Take one case more: Sorrow
The common saying that sorrow has an in
herent power to injure is scarcely true. The
attitude of a man towards the sorrow that
smites is the other factor in the problem
Sorrow, as q fact, can sour. as well as
through trial and merges ennobled and pure
A new gentleneSS sat upon them. The old
air of Self-sufhciency passed away. The
reason was the attitude of the soul towards
God, who commissioned the sorrow to come
Tt is no accident: it is no mishap: life is
no luck or lottery: God knows it ALL This
the brave man said as the storm swept over
his life and made him truer, deeper man.
But the other man. when the same stroke
falls, encourages a defiant mood. Then
comes an inward muttering: There is no
God. no love, no divine plan. or else this
death would never have left the cruel void
at my hearth So the soul in it's rebellion
mutterS. Weeks pass, and years the same
unconquered rebellion remains there. The
man grows colder and dwarfish with his
despair. We have seen men go down to the
gates of death without a ray Of hope to
cheer their path, because they knew not
the open, manly attitude Of reverence to
the fatherhood of God or tenderness of
Jesus"