The Delmar news., 1904-05-20

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amounts sometimes to contempt for long
established principles, and a growth OF
race prejudice and selfish passion. mani
tested in frequent eruptions Of furious OF
cynical lawessness, Religion, confounded
with dogma or ritual, is held by many in
little esteem and the church is neglected
by thousands who once gayeIt their sup.
port and by thousands mora 7rh5Jrin the
natural course Of life. should be among its
supporters, In the churches there Is q
lack Of spiritual fervor and decline Of
faith in God.
think that have not mis-stated the
actual -ennditioas- With no faint of -pessi.
misfn IN my mood; on the contrary Win n
high appreciation of all the good in the
present life of our country, am forced to
the conviction that there is great need now
Of revival of true religion. What does
this mean? What is the religion a revival
of which we need? 1t is great and con.
trolling sense Of God, as the Creator, Sow
ereign, Father and Saviour Of the soul.
The nineteenth century was distinguished
by the emergencies Of new and deeper
sense Of the worth OF man. This dramatic.
ally began in the upheaval Of the French
Revolution. 1t was manifested in the
growing demand for popular liberty, in the
rise Of the wSrkingman, in the extension n
popular education, in the rapid growth OF
the Sundaysehool, in the spread Of the
missionary spirit, in new care for chill.
| dren, in prison reform, in the breaking
down of religious exclusiveness and the
tyranny of dogma, and in many other
why's. The twentieth century. calls for,
| fresh awakening of the sense OF God as the
source and law and goal of human exist.
| ence. both individual and social
We need reperception of the reality OF
| God in the world Avowed atheism, the
positive denial of God, is rare; practical
atheism is common, Many men have not
| God Sin all their thoughtsS They have
widened idea Of law in the universe, but it
is vague and impersonal. They need to re-
alze afresh the integrity of the divine gov.
ernment. There is divine government OF
the world--a government that makes for
| good and against evil, that is the founda'
ton and source Of all Just human law, that
| is the ground of individual and social re-
| sponsibility and that rewards righteous
ness and Furnishes wickedness
This sense of God as a sovereign must
be vitalized by the sense of God rs the In.
finite Person, If | seem to limit the dt
vine Being by using terms that are prop
cry applicable only to finite being and hu..
man modes of thought. it is to be said
that the term personality does not neces.
sari,y imply any limitation. We must think
OF God under forms Of our own rational
and moral being, and our very nature de.
mands the answer OF divine person to
the persistent and illimitable needs OF the
human person, r
For time many. have lost the personal
God in impersonal law and impersonal
force. The divine immanepce rs grasped
in way that excludes the Complementary
idea of transcendence. There cannot be
real transcendences without personality.
The being who thinks and wills and loves,
even in finite limits, is greater than an i'm.
personal Universe. Man Is greater than
ha1 NJ L.. ..xtft la Il,tt l,r Ftaatr n
deity whom he can revere and trust and
love with all the force of personal being.
As the mind needs and demands the fun
damental conception of unity in order to
rational Interpretation Of the world; as
the conscience needs and demands the
SENSE Of universal and invioable law, so
the heart needs and demands the con-
sciousness of perfect and. responsive
goodness-the Almighty Father-manifest,,
ing and exercising compassion, love and
providence and revealing Himself in com
munion with His child. These expressions
must have vivid meaning as expressions OF
reality. The rule Of God is in and over the
soul. as well as in and over the material
world, and this rule is the manifestation
of God as the Holy Spirit.
We need renewed sense Of the reality
OF revelation as past and present commu-
nication Of the divine will to man. A mere
historic God is remote and ineffective. HH
must be contemporary. II -yhce
He must still speak; not in ways Of theo-
phany and miracle, but in ways that are
authentic and authoritative to conscious
ness. This does not invahdate historic
revelation, but it clears it OF error and con-
fusion. Jesus represents and embodies
both. He knew the historic revelation as
II. was expressed iii the life and literature
Of the Hebrew people, and in some meas
ure formed His thought on its disclosures
of the divine nature and will But He
knew also its defects and limitations, and
He knew God Immediately, as man mey
legitimately aud naturally know Him, be.
cause He is Gods child. So there Is need
OF new sense Of Jesus as man in full com
munion with God.
Finally, we need a new sense of the re-
a1ity Of the soul Once men ignored the
body, save as they INDUCED or abused It.
We have come to appreciate its Importance
and to care for it in countless ways but 1t
bilks too large on our view 1t is not an
end, but an instrument. The soul Is IN an
organism, but is not it nor mere atiiuA
ence from it. The soul is the man. Per-
sonality is the crowning fact, 1t means
knowledge power, character, immortality.
If man is only a cunning organism he
needs and asks no immortality. But, be-
cause he is a persona Spiritual being,
with power to think and VIII assss .aose,
with memory and forecast, with unmeass
ured capacity for joy and sorrow, with q
sense for truth and Righteousness and God
lin his best moments he requires immor.
tality that he may have scope adequate to
his consciousness of power, actual or at
tainable; and he takes his hunger for it as
Gods assurance that the promise of pres
ent experiehce viii have fulfillment in the
future. In his baser moments, having ex-
hausted his body by labor or by dlssipa-
tion. he longs only for rest from weariness
of nerves or the tyranny of appetite. Then
immortality has no charm, and belief in II
sinks into a doubt and often into denial.
5 1t is not science, but subjection to sensa-
ton till Ii rules us, that breeds the doubt
Of immortality. When we live on tbs high
er planes of our being we feel the real sig
nifcance of life, and catch glimpses OF its
far stretching horizon.
The reality of God as sovereign and
father, the reality of revelation as past
and present experience of divine commute
cation, the reality Of salvation as a fulfill
nent Of life, and the reality Of the soul as
the imperishable person = these, freshly
seen and felt as the great and permanent
elements of human experience, will new
create the august and commanding sense
of duty, dissolve and dissiresa-+hs' mater.
ialism which degrades our nature, ennoble
life by giving it a new value, revive the
spirit of prayer and worship and put new
energy into all our moral enterprise. II is
our shsllowness, or utter want, of spiritual
life that robs us of power and joy as ckil.
aren Of God
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Pearls as Birthday Presents.
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