The daily morning journal and courier., 1901-09-23

l +bara have heen any such ethical pro- ! rress as history evidences, unless tho 1 supreme and impelling power behind it
 all had been ethcal?" In other words,
 "Could bad world get better against
 the will of A bad God?" Men, who for J merly feared the doctrine of evolution, are beginning to see, that out of it's
 revelstion is to come the great argu-
 ment. on the side of natural religion
 for the ethical character or God.
 The second class of critics, which one
 must withstand in any effort to estap- fish the love and goodness or God, IS
 made up of those who gain their ch1eI
 view of God from the Bible, and to this second series of objections, the Chris tian church has full and complete an swer in the charcter, life, and teachings
 of Jesus of Nazareth. Men say "open
 Christianity presents to the Worlu
 God that the ethical sense Of the age
 has outgrown" And we answer them'
 Are you quite sure that the popular
 Christian conception of God is justified
 by an appeal to the original sources
 Then they reply by turning from the
 present day creeds to the Bible ltsell'
 saying, See, here is the God set 1ortn
 by the prophets and the apostle. Does
 not this God stand condemned by the
 ethical judgment of the worid! Anu
 our response is, But the sources or the
 Christian faith are not in the teachings
 of the prophet and the apostles; the
 sources of that faith are in the charac-
 ter of Jesus, and those acts ana Worus that reflect to us his consclousness ol
 God" After making all allowances that A reasonable new testament crltl-
 cism would claim-even then, Jesus oL
 Nazareth stands forth solld hlstorlcai
 verity. The spiritual ideal whlch men
 have formulated of Jesus is not an un-
 substantiated claim; 1t IS Justliieu py
 the actual facts of his life, as these
 facts have shaped themselves forth to
 critical scholarship. In the gospels we
 have Jesus represented as the image
 of the invisible Cod; we nave the rec
 ord of an ethical consciousness that mas
 surpassed that of any other man
 known to history. l was perlecty
 frank in my statement, that one could
 pot gain from nature full and satlsly-
 ing sense of an over-rullng goodness'
 h,,t in the consciousness of Christ such
 sense of goodness, of moral fatner- hood actually forces itself upon us.
 The only argument for the ethical char acter of God, that strikes down through nv thought and roots itself in every
 fbre of my being, is that which springs out of the consciousness which Chrlst , had that his father loved him, ana hao
 given all things into his keeping when , r trust Christ consciousness or Gou' and come to the father, as he came to
 h,r, find that my own consciousness I of divine Goodness and love fills me win sweet certainty that sweeps . away every doubt To those who would raise obiections, I have only to say, AS , christians we do not turn to current tbeoIogies for our conception or God nor do not search the writings of the f nronhet as the apostles; but we go to , Him who said unto His disciples, He that hath seen me hath seen the Fath-
 err" and standing in his presence we a have no other word than this, and Goa
 n,ust he as good as His best work.
 1f'vou have accustomed yourself to the v unchristan habit of thought the HUI nreting of the christian teaching con- = corning God by the vaguely understoou
 l nrocesses of nature (which is to judge !, the greater by the less) accuston your a calf pray YOU. to the christian habit e of thought, which is to interpret nature ', bv Jesus consciousness of Him who IS f the creating power and animating spii q if of nature (this is to interpret the s less by the greater), ;, Is somebody thinking to himsei that
 we have wandered a. long way 1roii, g Peter? Perhaps l should nave pesseu l. your indulgence; but l took It TOT a granted that you would see now we e were following the line or Peter us e course-except that Peter old not turn n aside to consider the revelation or Iia I, ture. He came directly to the Worus v preaching peace by Jesus Chrlst te e is Lord of alb. First, the afhrmation o' " God could do nothing more TOT one V than it had done for Cornelius-and t' n a holy fear and working or rlspt- if eousness. Next, the revelation Ill Jesus V of God as the Father of love. Aisc ,s Peter touched the very neart oI tns e. Gospel here. He did the only thlns IT there was to do; he told Cornelus th' !: story of the Lords life and passlon v. And then suddenly he stopped I-an' |: puage had broken down with him. Ht a had affirmed God, he had aHlrihe'
 Jesus of Nazareth as the revealer O. V. Gods love; and thus he brought hl'
 sermon to a close. He had arrived at point hevond which he could not go
 for when one is dealing with spiritua Ill forces he requires finer instrument' n. than words. Thus 1t is that we read ,s .'While Peter yet spoke these words i'd the Holy Ghost fell on all them Whlci
 heard the word" Peter had aftlrme' 1t God. he had affirmed God In Christ l- and now God affirms himself m tn n o,,,ckening of the Holy Spirit. Here | "a inc scope of my message to you: U in hold and express my faith in the mora I fatherhood of God; to preach Christ f. tha revelation of His will. His wisdom ,d and His love; and when words fail, an' ,e Language breaks down, to submit my ot self. together with you, to the guioahc in of the Holy Spirit. Such man as COT as ne,ius did not altogether miss the way nr He climbed up into his partial truth D. Is the leading of that natural light Una to ughtcth every man that cometh unt o- +eo world He was one of those.
 or "1vho on with toll of heart and knee Id and hands, To Through the long gorge to the far lsh IT, has won
 is His way upward and prevailed
 IT, But the revelations of love was to fol t2 | x,;rb+aoucpaSS and the QlS