Iron County register., 1903-09-17
" Faith VS.. Righteousness.

Faith VS.. righteousness.
ANNAPOLIS, Mo-, Sept. II, 1908.
Ed. Register In your issue of
Sept. Sd, you say: "The con-
tention that mo matter how good
you are, no matter how just you
are, nor how moral you are, unless
you believe the things that | be-
lieve you are damned,' is being
relegated to the dead and buried
past-and the world is none the
worse for it." g. '
Now l don't wish to question for
a moment your right to entertain
and express an opinion on any
subject; but in the foregoing l
think you misstate the proposition
and therefore draw false conclus-
ions. The proposition, as I have
heard it stated from many pulpits:
No matter how good, moral, etc.
one may be, without faith he can
not be saved. Now, in order to
fully comprehend the full mean
ing of this proposition. we must
cease to draw a distinction be-
tween the laws of God and the
laws of nature. The attempt to
separate God and nature is the
cause of much Of the confusion of
ideas with regard to .scriptural
statements. For instance, the visit
ing of the sins of the fathers upon
the children, to the third and fourth
generation, is susceptible of scien-
tific. proof; for who can deny the
law Of heredity? So, also, when
Christ informed his patients, as
he did in almost every case: "Thy
faith hath made thee WHOLE" he
only stated a scientific fact. A
fact capable of scientific demon
stration even now. Not, perhaps,
to every mind, but to the mind
skilled in modern psychology.
Faith was not only necessary to a
cure, but faith healed.
THY, faith hath made thee
whole. =. Faith in: what? In. the
words or teachings of Christ? In
many cases, if not all, this was
their first meeting. How, then,
could he believe the teachings he
had not heard? He must believe
in Jesus power to heal, and, he
having such faith, was healed as
a natural and psychological con-
sequence. Therefore he who would
have eternal life must believe in
Immortality. Not that belief is a
virtue but psychological neces-
|isity. Then, after securing eternal
life through faith, add to your faith
virtue, and to virtue knowledge,
and to knowledge temperance, etc.,
and thereby win eternal happiness.
When the prophet Moab, speak
ling to his people, said: "And they
covet fields and take them by
violence; and houses and take
them away. So they oppress a
man and his house; even man
land his heritage. Therefore, saith
the Lord, behold against this
family do l devise an evil, from
which ye shall not remove your
necks. Moab, 2:2. He stated a
truth that all human history has
confirmed. A truth immortalized
in verse by Goldsmith in his "De-
serted Village:" GILL fares the
land to fastening ills prey; where
wealth accumulates and men de-
cay" a,. ..,.,. ,n. .4
|: Along this same line we quote
Amos, 8, 4-8: Shear this, o ye
that swallowed up the needy, even
to make the poor of the land to
fail. Saying when will the new
moon be gone that we may sell
corn; and the Sabbath that we
may set forth wheat, making the
ephah small and the shekel great,
and falsifying the balance by de-
ceit, that we may. buy the poor
with silver and the needy with a
pair of shoes. Shall not the land
tremble for this and it shall be
cast out and drowned as by the
food Of Egypt" Here Amos,
when he said "shall not the land
tremble for this?" meant the nation
Iwould suffer as a natural conse-
quence because of the degradation
Of the people through crushing
poverty. No miraculous earth
Quake is prophesied here, but the
people were being warned of the
consequence Of breaking the law
of nature, and therefore the law of
God, t.a @ ,~
No man can violate the laws of
nature and escape the conse-
quences, and there can be mo
separation of the laws of nature
and Gods laws, Respectfully,
IN : n d IIrr nY,nx,