Vernon County censor. [volume] (Viroqua, Wis.) 1865-1955, 1903-11-18
CHRISTIANITY AS CHARACTER,

tSNA IAlsGu iGtAt3 s--ApAs GOtAAAr ANtsf
IS
There is absolutely not one single
doctrine that is, according to Jesus
Christs teachings, essential to saliva
tion. No dogma can save, no heresy
of doctrine in itself condemns; no
forms can save. and even the lack OF
all connection With the visible church
itself its forms and sac-amelts, does
not OF necessity judge man.
Do not misunderstood. Doctrines
are not useless, neither are forms.
Right doctrines aud right forms are
of inestimablc value. but they are not
essentials because they are means TO
an end, and that end is life, character.
Christ Jesus cane to help us to be-
come one with God. Belief on him is
of no use il It mean only shat you
hold the correct doctrine of his incar-
nation, the atonement, regeneration,
the eucharist, the church. etc. Flatly,
IL that is ali the faith man has, II
his belief do not involve oneness with
God in the spirit of Christ, he might
exactly as well believe in the incar-
nation of Il Buddha The one would
help him IS much or as little as the
other. Saving faith is not belief in
fact, not belief in the facts of the
life and death OF our Lord. but such
a real belief in MS life that we come
into union witch him; and such union
with Christ Is union with God the
Father and eternal life.
The possibility of eternal life lies in
the development of our divine nature;
its growth through the infinite ages.
as we develop more and more in the
image of God. 1t is constant growth
Of happiness; growth of love, of
truth, of all the possibilities of the
glorious divine nature within us, the
feeble consciousness Of which even
now gives us a sense of power, of
grandeur, of happiness, Of satisfaction
which nothing else can give. But this
eternal felicity of divine development
belongs only to the man who gives play
TO his soul-tbat is, who seeks to de-
velop the divine, the good, and the
noble that is in him, who believes with
us iiAC OI ZIG udlilG VI lLG OLIH Ut
gotten Son of God.
A man that makes himself beast,
who sulTenders himself to the beastly
nature that is within him. who
chooses the ignoble, the sensuous, the
selfish. the dishonorable, is the man
who does not believe on the name of
the only begotten Son of God, how
ever loud his protestations to the con-
trary. Tint is the man who is be-
coming a beast. who is FORGETTING his
divine nature and with it every pos
sibilty of the eternal and glorious de
yelopment of the sense of God.
The possibilities of heaven lie in the
character of n man. il, the id and
purpose of his life; and so it is that
God sent his Son not to judge the
world but to save the world " Il
life and death, belief in which m CHIT
help to mold our characters. If a an
make choice of Jesus Christ as i S
master and his pattern, believing H.
him as his Savior from evil, then he
has found help, succor which
priests and prophets longed for and
could not find.
All men, whether they will 1t or not,
are preparing for the future life as
surely as the boy is preparing to be a
man. Every man the whole world
over is developing the worldly, devil
ish, beastly side of his nature or the
true, loving divine side of it. Jesus
has shown us what is divine, what we
should aim at. what we can be- Belief
in him means the acceptance of that
life as our pattern; that we judge right
and wrong good and bad, by 10 other
standard than the perfect standard Of
our Lord Jesus Christ. To believe in
the name of the Son of God is to aim
to make our lives like his; TO do what
we honestly believe that he would have
done in our place And so to believe
in him means to obtain an incompat-
ible aid in the hard struggle against
the meastly and devilish part Of our
nature, which, l take it, every man,
at least in the moments when he stoDs
and thinks. would like to conquer if he
had the strength.
We know God through man. for in
the man Jesus of Nazareth was God
revealed, and as we know God
through man, so only through man may
we reach God Our belief in Jesus
Christ, if ii be a true belief, is not
merely belief In the one perfect man
Hesitation of God in man; it is a be-
lief in the divine which he manifested
1t is belief lin love and truth whcr-
ever we find them. love for and kin
ship and communion with all good men
who manifest in their lives love and
truth.
The democracy of the kingdom of
heaven-and remember that the king
dom of heaven. as Jesus used the ex-
preston. meant something in this earth
and not merely something in the world
TO come, and that no man enter the
kingdom of heaven in the future life
except as he strives to enter it here
the democracy of the kingdom of heav-
en- is the most leveling democracy that
men have ever imagined. That there
is not the shadow of a distinction Of
rank. wealth. birth. or race. All these
material and worldly distinctions are
cast aside. Full belief in the Son Of
God means full Brotherhood Nth all
the Sons of Gcd. The true ties. of love
Of and belief in the only bcg1tten Son
Of God is our love of and belief in
our fellow men.