The Fulton County news. [volume] (McConnellsburg, Pa.) 1899-current, 1904-08-24

hand fror, their LETT" Taat same cry goes
W to-day. Only educate and train; that
is sufficient: Your section is not so white
washed with this system of ethical culture
as soma others | know. Eut we never can
emphasize too often or too positively the
aXi1l tenet of Christ'j creed that what a
nan needs primarily is not accession OF
brain. but fresh heart; not illumination,
bit reconstruction, the establishment in
him by grace of something that is not IN
him ty nature. illumination OF the brain
ia never clari.ication OF the heart. There
was man in our American life who was
born of the best family, with personal
force that commanded men and captivated
women, whose furnishings could scarcely
be surpassed, and yet there has not walked
across tie pages of American history
biackcr hearted william than Aaron Burr.
| ari as far as possible from saying that
knowlcfgc makes a man worse; my only
contention is that it has not in itself the
power of r,aEins rlcn better. Ideas, cdu.
c1tioa alone, can neither reconstruct the
life nor recrcate the heart.
This is thoughtful age; men are
brai1y; all about us there is a passion for
new ideas; but our most urgent necessity
is not of idea but of power. What we
need most OF al is not schooling but bap-
t.,m. and that is to come through faith,
What is this faith that is to give us the
supreme victory anu insure Jul shiSbl ~
is ct this distinct point that we begin to
learn the real meaning and purpose OF
faith, Every little while am told by one
and another that he would like to have
faith in this particular matter in regard to
the Bible, or in regard to Christ in the tu'
turc life as though if his mind could only
be brought intellectually to consent to 1t,
the coasummation would be reached and
great result achieved. Being prepared to
assent to this or that particular statement
in re~ard to Christ, for example, is a very
distinct thing from faith. Faith is per-
sonal attitude, personal relationship; Faith
is such personal yielding OF ourselves to
another as brings us into living contact
with that other and so makes us recipient
of what it lies in that other to confer. The
child becomes like his father by faith in
his father, because his faith is that inward
surrender that makes him susceptible to
every impression that goes forth from his
father. A child's faith toward his mother
ia not faith that what his mother says IS
true; it is faith in his mother, the hiding OF
himself in the one life that enwraps them
both, so that he lives in the sweep OF her
inspiration and grows up toward manhood
by the appropriation OF personal vigor, WIS
dom and sweetness hourly made over HIM.
And that is cast in the same mold as Cos
Del faith which is as a cord by which the
living Christ holds the believer. to Him
self. Faith is not a condition wherein we
hold to something or somebody, as that IN
which we are held by something or some
body. 1t is not holding doctrine, but be,
ing held By person. II know whom L
have believed" The iron filings stick to
the magnet, not because they try so hard
to stick, but because they are mastereu
by the magnet.
Faith, then, has for its very essence a
personal self-commitment, one ounce OF
which is worth a whole ton OF intellectual
affirmation. 1t is this sense OF being held
by God that makes a man safe and secure
| do not know how the grace OF God can
take a man like Saul of Tarsus and make
him Paul the Apostle; but no man will
question his knowledge when he says; Il
live. vet not |, but Christ liveth in me. =.
That is exactly what John B. Cough cried
as he went like a flaming torch blazing the
way for a multitude OF hopeless drunk
ards. The hope, and the only hope, for
us all is in the grace of God. If were to
strike tuning fork on this desk and ho,d
it to nv ear not one in this room could
hear the sound thereof. but | could hear
it and tune my violin. Strike it again and
instead of holding it to my ear, set 1t up,
on this desk Instantly the sound would
hear? Not the tuning fork, for the tuning
fork makes no louder sound the second
time than it did the first. What do. you
hear? You hear this hard wood desk.
which has no music in itself, but Just. as
soon as it comes in contact with a musical
instrument it itself becomes musical and
delights every one that has music IN his
soul. ..e.
The individual life may be insignificant
alone by ITSELF it may come from good
family or a bad; it may have great force
or little; it may have choice furnishings or
not; but the safety and security OF all will
depend upon the personal self surrender
to the Son OF God, who lone has the pow
er to make them Sons OF God, which are
born not of family or of force or OF tur'
nishngs, but OF faith.