The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1903-07-20

shunting engines that never does ANYTHING
p puI the plain work around n plain depot
lngs and weary windings of a through ex-
press through the Rockies but the express
- Just as consistent in its larger. compli-
cate route as the little engine is at the
switches. '-'e
SWEEPS HUMAN DIAPASON.
So of love. 1t is chanted in heaven. 1t
sweeps the whole human diapason of pas
sion and absorbing interest and 1t thrills the
Iowilest heart Is ii any wonder that a
word that has such sliding scale of in
depreciation should be so utterly misused
at times?
when Jesus opened up to Nicodemus the
mysteries of that heaven that is every
wnere because it is the divine life over
coming the lower life, He makes love the
keynote He makes it motor power and
not an emotion. He ranks it with the
primal energy of the new birth and the
destlnles OF human kind. 1t is love in the
peerage, and yet men steal or kidnap that
word from Its magnificent palace and drag
IL down and trail it in the dust and make il
a congenlal companion and bedfellow with
Ideas not only commonplace but lowering
to ethical standards. Let us take one in
stance, perhaps the most critical and ruin
Gus instance of the prostitution of a royal
word.
Men will proclaim the love of God as
the cardinal principle of all development,
out tney Will so OeSmear and plebeianiZe
IF L may coin the phrase) that hallowed
idea as to give color to the deadly heresy
that ethical distinctions matters of
minor Importance. The doctrine of Gods
love is in this way dethroned so far as to
make justice huge piece of lenency, God
a good-natured. pliable and amiable being.
heaven a miscellaneous gathering place of
all sorts of characters, hell a myth and
holiness needless quest. These mongrel
doctrines are popularity associated with the
austere doctrine of Gods love- No two
ideas cOul6 farther Fancy
ing capital in mud swamp, with Shiny
reptiles sucking and crawling around it's
marble columns.
'It is high time for those of us who
preach that the infinite love is the crown
ing principle of Gods government TO re-
verse these leprous. lizardly iCeas. If any,
thing is severe and exacting even to extor-
ton, if anything mercilessly drives the
ploughshare of retribution right through
the tanglng roots of all corruption and re-
veals the secret lairs of sin, it is love. If
God is love- there is less hope for unre-
pentant humanity than If God is void of
love. If no wrath, then no love.
DEMANDS ON CHARACTER
Take a little parable to illustrate the
terrible demands, even usurious demands,
| real love makes on character.
IF you are told OF wealthy magnate
who resides in a beautiful sequestered sum-
mer residence. that his pre-eminent quality
| is benevolence that his festal table is law
| ish, that his princely hospitality is I'M
| bounded, that the doors of his glorious man
| sion are flung wide open day and night
/ then perhaps the first idea that leaps up in
your mind is that such an unstinted well
| come would be yours without any fitness
1 on your part. You could enter such a sphere
| and appropriate every such luxury with
| ease, because the magnate is reputed to
| have an ilimitable reserve of generosity.
| So you would dream for mad moment,
| but your dream would be doomed to a rude
! Awakening If YOU set out toward that
4 al rIIlP Or xx-OI n
/ be panied to discover that, while the gates
| are open, throngs cannot enter. but stand
| gloomily or sullenly outside. If you forced
| your way within, under the delusion or
| illusion that the whole atmosphere must
| be fragrant with blossoms, you would soon
| ind to your horror that the atmosphere is
! element An eagle in cellar a snow
bird in the sultry tropics, or base wind
| at pure pearly firesde. could not suggest
| greater incongruity than your ungentle,
| ill-mannered nature in such gorgeous, re-
fined surroundings Such place, just be-
| cause founded on love, is infinitely more
| imperious in its demands than lower
| haunt where love does not sit on the throne.
You would turn away from such lofty
| realm, because you have disqualified your
self for its stainless purities. A sinner al
ways blackballs himself. The sentence OF
condemned himself. In the last analysis
nothing can hurt a man except himself
He himself determines his own abiding
places, no matter what part of the universe
he happens to be located in. Judas went
| to his own place" paul desired to depart
| and TO be with Christ" 1t is the fatalism
| of character.
| HEAVEN IS EXCLUSIVE.
Heaven is necessarily select and exclu-
sive. God is loye. for love aims at develop
ment of men. Hence the popular looseness
in religious life is doomed to frightfu
disenchantment. Many men = thousands
even-of the supposedly cultured are swim
ming idly drifting along with a careless
tide as if the infinite love of God will see tc
il for sure that they are swept into bliss
somehow and somewhere and some time
| And these mushmelon ideas abound in oul
| Partisan age, not only With the rigorous
| Bible before our eyes, but with the reVela
tons Of science patent TO all. Science re-
duces religion TO a development-a drama OF
| order and aim and results. Science Is elo
quent with evolution, and makes character
| not a lottery, but hard process. The very
! spirit OF science chimes with the deepeS
word of God when 1t affirms that what {
! man sows man shall reap. Even without
our Bible and with only the light of science
| we would suffer crazy illusion 10 bewitcl
| us that heaven is Indifferent to man !:
| innermost nature. Men may differ about
| the mere duration of present or future pun
| shment, but on one point there can be prac
| teal agreement among thinking people, anC
| that is that Gods love Cf We gauge His love
| by what we know of our best forms of hu
| man love) is terrifcally and tyrannically in
| sistent on excellence. And this European
| looseness struggled into our America, tina
| bids men throw conscience TO the winds anC
, | enjoy this little life for a fitful moment, ans
then trust to make up In some aftertime o
| happiuess by chance or because God is to-
eood-natured care about moral distinc
| tions is the climax OF madness and wrecks
not faith alone, but all science as well.
! There is a carnival of crime. a myster
ions outbrea king or oozing of evil in Amer
lea inst now. Everywhere We see the signs