The Camden chronicle. (Camden, Tenn.) 1890-current, 1903-05-22

we may think God lar from MS. an out OF
touch with our lives and their needs But
20 think God at all. however far we put
Him from as, however gimly we deny our
selves al consoling faith In Ills wisdom
and goodncas-to think God at all ia inf,
nitey better than 20 forget, 20 ignore Him
utterly, as n our goodness and our happi
ness did not need Him. as II the world
about us were fair enough and bright
enough, and altogether satisfactory enough
with or without His presence
DO you ask what sort OF faith this Is We
need 10 pray for to have increased? IL u
faith in some particular dogma-eleareI
mental comprehension OF some series OF
metaphysical opositions-faith in the In.
fallbleness Of some verbal formula? Nay
the faith Of our deeper need IL that faith
which means steadying vision of the di-
vine unseen and the divine eternal; pro-
found consciousness from moment tc mo-
ment Of what the poet has called "the deep
below the deep and the height beyond the
height" nobler conviction within us, be-
coming ever more ineradicable and uncon-
querable, that the real value Of things is a
spiritual value, their real meaning a spirit
nal meaning their real end a spiritual end.
This is the faith unon which depends ulti-
matey our STRENGTHENING and saving: the
faith which our Bibles, our churches, our
creeds. our dOgmas. our devotions were
meant to inspire, and which, VI they DO not
inspite. they are but NJ sounding brass and
a tinkling cymbal. This is the faith we
need to pray for, kneelng in our pews on
SUNDAYS, or busy at our work on week
days, increase of vision, Of faculty, to see
and feel below the earthly deeps and be-
yond the earthly heights, and when VIC
pray God to increase for us this funda'
mental faith, be tempted to dictate to
God how He shall answer us or when. We
may want one answer; Tie may know that
I'VE need another. We may choose 10 have
our answer in full all at once: He NAV
choose to give US but the first SYLLABLE of IL
to-day. and to prolong the giving Of IL
through the years Of a lifetime, nerhaps
through the aeons of eternity. We may
undertake II orr wisdom TO impose eondi-
tions unon God that we imagine He must
fulfill il He would answer our prayer. for
getting the one fundamental condition,
that we must impose upon ourselves hon.
est eagerness to hear the higher voices that
may call to us from day to day, and to
obev them when they do; honest struggle
TO beat back the unholy temptations that
beset US. darkening the way to our feet;
honest purpose to do the duties that
throng us hourly. momently, and in their
soul can enter!
The prayer Of the apostles was answered
hardly as they expected certainly it might
be, but answered nevertheless and to a de.
gree of richness that they were not able
all aj once to fathom answered for them.
Ms IL has been through the ages for all
their successors by right Of spiritual inher-
itance; for them as for him. great and good
apostle unto us of our modern time, who
walked through the fires of sacrifice and
came in and ont here among us for a score
Of years. fighting his GOOD fight, his fight
of good his FIGHT for God and man. whose
words are vital vet within these walls and
hevond them where men speak the Eng
fish tongue: answered. / cay. that prayer
for them of the earlier time, for him of
this later. not by any flashing miracle of
word or deed; not by any startling revela-
ton of a new heavens and a new earth;
not by any suddenness of divine destruc-
ton and reconstruction; nav, but by and
through a gradual growing sympathy
with the PURPOSES of the Redeeming Mas
ter; by and through the deepening, widen
ing. atonement of their souls and his; by
and through their effort tn live the life
that worshiped His, and suffering and cru
cifxions, it meant to them to be and do
what should bear true witness to q Christ.
And thus only is it that God can fulfill
for any of us the prayer, Increase our
faith. The eternal Father Of our spirits
can meet their deeper yearning for larger
faith. for clearer vision, only through and
by the human experiences He has made
possible for us from day to day, the life OF
effort, of struggle, of heroism. He has
made it our privilege to live. The readiness
to do His will reveals it; the seeking to re-
alize His purposes interprets them, and
closer, ever closer, becomes the meeting
point of our actual earth and our possible
efforts shall be noble enough to bespeak
heavenly meaning and our earthliest hopes
heroic enough to prophesy heavenly con-
summation,