The Telegraph-courier. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1888-1946, 1900-04-12

discord, according as the priest OF
minister ski11fu11y or unski11fu11y
touches the keys!
Now, if preacherswi11 persist in
proc1aiming what they call "an
up-to-date Gospel" that is, a Cos
pei of materia1ism- politics, SAM
tation, poetry, philosophy, with God,
and Christ and redemption and future
rewards and punishments left out,
what will Christendom be in a quarter
of century from now? If pastors, in
the presence of their impressible audi
ences announce, that the Bible is
| Legendary and has been improperly
interpreted; if the animated millions
of Christian Endeavorers shall be
taught that the old theology, the thee
1ogy of the Christian church for two
thousand years, is nothing but
canned roast beef'', all the substance
meat put up in so1dered theo1ogic sys-
TENS and po1emic cans; if all the chill
dren in the Sunday school shall be i'm
pressed with the idea that there is no
personal God, no divine Christ, that
sin is a necessary force in the develop
ment of the race, that justification by
faith is a fable, that character is an
evolution rather than the result of
God-p1anted principles in the human
heart and life, and that the future is
dark and questionable uncertainty-i
these teachings shall obtain what
shall we have in 1925?
Let me tell you. We shall have a
world of atheists, race of men who
have no well grounded hope, mankind
will know no amenabi1ity, selfshness
will be in rapid evolution, and the
standard and authority of morality
will be extinguished. Nay, more,
Professionalism broken into ten thou
sand fragments will be well nigh ex-
tinct. The church at large will be
folded in doubt and alarm, and the
conversion of the 1,120,00O,OO0 of the
worlds heather population will be in
definitely postponed.
After all, the outlook is not so un-
promising and pessimistic. The New
Theology will be nothing more than
nine days wonder. It already falls to
pieces by its own incoherency. It is
not one magnificent system of theology,
but theology without system, a diff
ferent phase and expression for every
day in the year Human nature is
tired of it. The heart groans for that
which unifes, not that which separates.
The world recognizes that sin is a
fearful reality, and cries as it has ever
cried for de1iverance from it's power.
The preacher who, in profound sym
pathy with his fellow men, presents
perfect panacea for the sin that
troubles the human soul, issthe preach
er that will win the crowd. The pastor
who with a prophets eye can see
larger, better life, and sweet
reunion of friends and families beyond
the river of death, is he who will sway
and impress the multitude. We do not
want our ministers to bury us in great
1ands1ides of doubt. Churches and
1aymen are beginning to demand
that their pastors shall lead them in
''the old paths" the ways of spiritual
peace, safety and p1easantness, and
not into new paths that have been
surveyed by human theory, and which
are necessarily filled by so many mas
tiers of differing theo1ogic views, with
the limbs and skeletons of defunCt
ideas. They want the breath of the
Holy Spirit, not the breath of Herbert
Spencer. And, according to present
indications in every den omination, and
in the thinking wor1d'outside of denom-
nations, mighty revival wave must
be forthcoming that will sweep away
modern religious inventions as the
fog by the rising breeze is swept from
the sea in the morning.