The county record. [volume] (Kingstree, S.C.) 1885-1975, 1904-05-19

! laboring men from oppression and securing
| for them a just share of the products OF la
| Dor, are seeking to create labor Foligar-
chy and to extort money from employers
in excess Of what many industries can bear,
and limiting the opportunities of the un-
skilled for entering the ranks OF skilled ar
tisans. Fraud, bribery, extortion, and even
| blackmail have become startlingly common.
Society is full of unrest and discoatent
| because of the exaggerated estimate put
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
creasing luxury and self.in6ulgence. This
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
amounts sometimes to contempt for long
| established principles, and growth OF
| race prejudice and selfish passion mani
| tested in frequent eruptlons OF furious or
cynical lawlessness. Religion, contounded
| with dogma or ritual, is held by many In
little esteem, and the church is neglected
BY thousands who once gave 1T their sup
port and by thousands more who, in the
| natural course Of life, should be among its
supporters. In the churches there IS a
lack of spiritual feryor and decline CT
faith in God.
/ think that 1 have not mis-stated the
actual conditions. With no taint OF pessi-
mism in my mood; on the contrary, with a
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 Il great and con-
trolling sense of God, as the Creator, Sow
creign, Father and Scyiour 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, N 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 TOR chill
dren, in prison reform, in the breaking
down of religious e1clusiveness and the
tyranny of dogma, and in many other
ways. The twentieth century calls for q
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 Gin all their thoughts" They have
widened idea of law in the universe. but 1t
is vague and impersonal. They need to re-
alize afresh the integrity of the divine gov.
ernment. There is divine government Of
the world-a government that makes Tor
good and against evil. that Is the tounda-
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 sovereign must
be vitalized by the sense of God as the In
finite Person. If seem to limit the di-
vine Being by using terms that are prop
erIy 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 limirstion. We must think
of God under forms OF our own rationai
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 I'm impersonal law and lmpersona!
force. The divine immanence IS grasped
in a way that excludes the Complementary
idea of transcendcnce. There cannot be
real transcendencc 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
God. if God be only law. But he Graves
deity whom he can revere and trust ana
love with all the force Of personal oeing.
As the mind needs and demands the run
damental conception of unity IN order 10
rational Interpretation OF the wofld; as
the conscience needs and demands the
sense of universal and inviolable law, so
the heart needs and demands the con-
seriousness OF perfect and responsive
eoodness-thc Almighty Father-manltest,
ing and exercising compassion, love ana
providence and revealing Himself IN COM
munion with His child. These expressions
must have vivid meaning as expressions or
reality. 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
of God as the Holy Spirit. r,
We need a renewed sense OF the reaIty
OF revelation as past and present commu-
nication of the divine Will to man. A mere
historic God is remote and lnefiective. ne
must be contemporary. IL de spoke once
He must still speak; not in ways OF tneo-
phany and miracle, but IN ways that are
authentic and authoritative to conscious
ness. This does not invalidate historic
revelation. but it clears it OF error and con-
fusion. Jesus represents and embodles
both. He knew the historic revelation as
il was expressed in the life and literature
. OF the Hebrew people. and in some meas
nre formed His thought on its disclosures
OF the divine nature and will. but ne
knew also its defects and lirAitatlons, ana
He knew God Immediately, as man may
Iecitimately and naturally know Him, be-
cause He is Gods child. So there is need
OF a new sense OF Jesus as man IN tuil COM
munion with God.
Finally. we need new sense OF the re-
olitv 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 IL
bulks too large on our view. 1t Is not an
end. but an instrument. The soul IS IN "a an
organism. but is not it nor, mere att1u-
ence from it. The soul is the man. fer-
sonality is the crowning fact: 1t means
knowledge, power, character, immortahty.
II man is only a cunning, organism ne
needs and asks no immortality: put, pc
cause he is a person. spiritual being'--
with power to think and will and love,
with memory and forecast, with unmeas-
ured capacity for joy and sorrow, WITH =