The Camden chronicle. (Camden, Tenn.) 1890-current, 1904-06-03

Laws were never more humane and inst
Politics were never less corrupt The hem
ehcent enterprises of the Christian church
In all the world were never so intelligent
and sympathetic and efficient Whatever
attachments we must make. because of GER
tain obvious and perplexing facts, these
propositions are, in the main, true
On the other hand there is an absorbing
devotion to the pursuit of riches. The
haste to be rich is like an epidemic fever.
There is an exaggerated appreciation of
mere materiality. This widely affects COM
merclal and industrial enterprise. Many
corporations strive, by attempted monop.
oily, to increase profits already large, or, by
combination and the promotion Of vast
schemes for further consolidation, seek to
turn paper securities into money. Many Of
these schemes, in effect, if not in intention,
are fraudulent. Labor Unions, overstep-
ping their legitimate purpose of protecting
laboring men from oppression and securing
for them just share of the products of la
Dor, are seeking to create labor olgar-
chy and to extort money from employers
in excess of what many industries can bear,
and limiting the opportunities of the I'M
skilled for entering the ranks of skilled ar
tsans. Fraud, bribery, extortion and even
blackmail have become starthngly common.
Society is full of unrest and discomfort
upon material possessions. Side by side
with great strenuousness in the pursuit OF
wealth there is, on the part of many who
have achieved or inherited fortunes, in
creaslng luxury and seIf-lnCulgence. 1his
is reproduced, in varying degrees, in every
stratum of society, from the most to the
least wealthy There are also, apparently,
an increase of irreverence for what is sa-
cred, an Indifference to tradition that
a., he ~ 70 nnVtQ Mt or
established principles, and growth of
race prejudice and selfish passion mani
tested in frequent eruptions of furious or
cynical lawlessness. Religion, COMPOUNDED
with dogma or ritual, is held by many in
little esteem, and the church is neglected
by thousands who once gave it their sup
port and by thousands more who, in the
natural course of life, should be among its
supporters. In the churches there is
lack of spiritual fervor and a decline of
faith in Cod
I think that [ have not mis-stated the
actual conditions. With no faint of pessi-
mism in my mood; on the contrary, with
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 revival
of which we need? 1t is a 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 a 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 workingman. in the extension
of political suffrage, IN the development of
popular education, in the rapid growth OF
the Sunday school, 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
ways. 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 a 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 Gin all their thoughts" They have
idea of law in the universe. but 1T
is vague and impersonal. They need to re-
alize afresh the integrity of the divine gov
the world-a government that makes for
good and against evil. shat is the founda-
ton and source of all just human law, that
is the ground of individual and social re-
sponsibihty and that rewards righteous
ness and Furnishes wickedness.
This sense of God as a sovereign must
be vitalized by the sense of God as the In
finite Person. If l seem to limit the di-
vine Being by using terms that are prop
erly applicable only to finite being and hu.
man modes of thought, it is to be said
that the term personality does not neces-
sarily 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
For a time many have lost the personal
God IN impersonal law and impersonal
force. The divine immanence is grasped
in a way that excludes the Complementary
idea of transcendence. There cannot be
real transcendence without personality.
The being who thinks and wills and loves,
even in finite limits, is greater than an i'm
personal universe. Man il greater than
God, if God be only law. But he Graves
deity whom he can revere and trust ana
owe with all the force of personal being.
AS the mind needs and demands the fun
1amental conception of unity in order to
'ational Interpretation of the world; as
The conscience needs and demands the
sense of universal and inviolable law, SO
he heart needs and demands the con-
,ciousness of a perfect and responsive
Almighty Father-manfest-
ng and exercising compassion, love and
providence and revealing Himself i'll COM
nunion with His child. These expressions
must have vivid meaning as expressions of
'eality The rule of God is in and over the
soul. as we'll as in and over the material
world. and this rule is the manifestation
If God as the Holy Spirit.
, We need a renewed sense of the reality
IF revelation as past and present commu-
lication of the divine will to man. A mere
historic God is remote and ineffective. He
must be contemporary. If He spoke once
Je must still speak; not in ways of theo-
1hanY and miracle but in WAYS that are