Vernon County censor. [volume] (Viroqua, Wis.) 1865-1955, 1900-12-26
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edness OF the nations, See the abomina-
tfons continental. Behold the false reii-
gions that hoist Mohammed and BuddAa
and Confuciusl Look at the Koran and
the Shastra and the Zend-Ayesta that
would crowd out of the world the Holy
Scriptures. Look at war, digging its
trenches for the dead across the hemi-
spheres! See the great cities, with their
holocaust of destroyed manhood and
womanhood! What blasphemies assail
the heavens, What butcheries sicken the
centuriest What professions of crime
and atrocity and woe encircle the globe!
Ii justice had spoken, it would have said,
The world deserves humiliation, and let
annihilation come" If i.muubility had
spoken, it would have said; Il have al
ways been opposed TO wickedness and
always will be opposed to il. The world
is to me an affront infinite, and away
with IL" If omniscience had spoken, it
would have said, Il have watched that
planet with minute and all comprehensive
inspection. and | cannot have the ofiense
longer continued" Ii truth had spoken,
it oIld have said, Il declare tina they
who offend the law must 60 down under
the law" But divine love took differ
ent Jew of the worlds obduracy and pol
luton. 1t said: Il pity all those woes Of
the earth. | cannot stand here and see
no lssuagement of those sufferings.
will go down and reform the world. 81
viii medieate its wounds. | will calm its
frenzy. l will wash off its pollution.
wi become incarnated. | will take on
mr.. shoulders and upon my brow and into
M heart the consequences of that
worlds misbehavior. | stgrt' now, and
between my arrival at Bethlehem and my
ascent from Olivet | will weep their tears
aid suffer their griefs and die their
death. Farewell, my throne, my crown,
my scepter, my angelic -nvirUnment, my
heaven, till have finished the work and
come back" God was never conquered
but once, and that was when he was con-
quered by his own love. God is love-"
In this day, when the creeds of
churches are being revised, let more en-
phasis be put upon the thought of my
text. Let it appear at the beginning of
every creed and at the close. The an
clients used to tell of a great military
chieftain who, about to go 10 battle, was
clad in armor, helmet on head and sword
at side, and who put out his arms to
give farewell embrace to his child, and
the child, affrighted at his appearance,
ran. shrieking, away. Then the father
put off the armor that caused the alarm,
and the child saw who he was and ran
into his arms and snuggled against his
heart. Creeds must not have 200 much
iron in their make up, terrorizing rather
than attracting. They must not hide the
smiling face and the warm hesrs of our
Nak Na1 II Oh ,nth - 41.aN
there is a sheriff at every door ready TO
make arrest, but over us all and around
Us all a mercy that wants TO sage, and
save now.
Christ the Comforter.
If one paragraph of the creed seems to
tsIe you, like child, out of the arIls of
a father, let the next paragraph put you
in the arms of mother. AS one whom
his mother comforteth, so will l comt,k.t
you" oh, what a mother we have in
Godw And my text is the lullaby sung
to as when we are i'll, or when we are
maltreated or when we are weary, or
when we are trying to do better, or when
we are bereft or when we ourselves lie
down to the last sleep. We feel the warm
cheek of the mother against our cheek,
and there sounds in it the hush of many
mothers: God is love"
This was the reason the Bible was
written. The world needs no inspired
page to tell it that God will chastise sin,
for that is proved in the life of many an
offender. You can look through the
wicket of any prison and see the fact
whica the world understood thousands
of years before Solomon wrote 1.-THE
way of the transgressor is hard" The
world needed no Bible to tell it that God
is omsipotent, for any one who has seen
Mont Blanc or Niagara or the Atlantic
ocean in cyclone knows that The
world needed no Bible to tell it of Gods
wisdom, for everything, from a spiders
web te the upholstery of a summers sun
set from the globe of a dewdrop to the
rounding of a world, declares that. But
there was one secret about God that was
wrapped up in a scroll of parchment,
and it staid there until apostolic hands
! unrolltsl that scroll and let out upon the
world .he startling fact, which it could
never aave surmised never guessed.
never expected, that he loved our huma n
race so ardently that he will pardon sin
and su;,due the offender with a divine
kiss ard turn foaming indicators into
worshiliers before the throne. Oh. / am
so glad that the secret is out and that
il can never again be veiled Tell it to
all the aiming suffering. dying race tell
it in soag and sermon, on canvas and in
marble. on arch and pillar; tell it all
around che earth-"God is love"
The domination of Fear.
Notice that the wisest men of the ma
tons for thousands of years did not.
amid their idolatries, make something to
represens this feeling, this emotion. They
had JaFe, representing might; Neptune.
the god If the sea; Minerva. the goddess
of wisdcsn; Venus, the goddess of base
annette, Ceres, the goddess of corn.
and an Clin. and an Osiris, and a Titan.
and a Jlggernaut, and whole pantheons
Of gods and goddesses, but no shrine, no
carved Image, no sculptured form has
suggested god Of pure love That was
| beyond 1man brain. 1t took God to
think that. a God to project that, God
let down from heaven 60 achieve that.
Fear il the dominant thought in all
false religions. For that the devotees
cut themselves with lances and swing
on iron hacks and fall under wheels and
| hold up &c right arm 80 long that they
cannot taIe it down. Fear, british fear.
! But love il the queen in our religion. For
| that W build temples. For that we
| kneel at OFT affairs. For that we contrib
uEe our aims For that martyrs suffered
al Rrussel: market place and at Lucknow
/ and Cawapur and Pekin. That viii
/ yet bejewel the round earth and put il an
emerald on the great, warm, throbbing
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