The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1904-09-14

up to-day. Only educate and tram; that
is sufficient. Your section is not so white
washed with this system of ethical culture
as som Others l know. But We never can
emphasize too often or too positively the
aXial tenet of Christ's creed that what a
man needs primarily is not accession OF
brain, but a fresh heart; not illumination,
but reconstruction, the establishment IN
him by grace of something that is not IN
him bv nature. Illumination of the brain
is never Qualification of the heart. There
was a man in our American life who was
born Of the best family, with a personal
force that commanded men and captlvated
women, whose furnishings could scarcely,
be surpassed, and yet there has not walked
across the Pages of American history a
blacker hearted william than Aaron Burr.
I am as far as possible from saying that
knowledge makes q mar worse; my only
contention is that it has not in itself the
power of making men better. Ideas, edu-
cation alone, can neither reconstruct the
life nor recreate the heart.
This is a thoughtful age; men are
brainy; all about US there Is a passion ior
new ideas: but our most urgent necessity
is not of idea but Of power: what we
need most of all is not schooling but bap-
tism. and that is to come through faith:
What is this faith that Is to give us the
supreme victory and insure our safety! 1t
is at this distinct point that we begin to
learn the real meaning and purpose OF
faith. Every little while I 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-
ture life as though if his mind could only
be brought intellectually to consent to II,
the consummation would be reached and a
great result achieved. Being prepared TO
assent to this or that particular statement
in regard to Christ, for example, Is a very
sonal attitude, personal relationship: Faltn
is such a 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. Ihe
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 ms
father. A child's faith toward his mother
is not faith that what his mother says Is
true; it is faith in his mother, the hlolng %
himself in the one life that enWraps mem
both. so that he lives in the sweep OF her
inspiration and grows up toward manhood
bv the appropriation of personal vgor, Wis
dom and sweetness hourly made over HIM.
And that is cast in the same mold as Cos
mel 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 a doctrine, but be-
inc held by a person. II know whom 1
have believed" The iron filings SUCK TO
The magnet, not because they try so nar9
to stick, but because they are mastered
by the magnet.
]nersonal self-commitment, one ounce OF
which is worth a whole ton OF lntellectuai
affirmation. 1t is this sense OF being helo
by God that makes a man safe and secure
T 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 VII
Question his knowledge when he says: !
i've vet not I, but Christ liyeth in me-,
That ia exactly what John B.. Cough crled
as he went like a flaming torch blazing the
way for a multitude OF hopeless drunk
ards. The hope, and the only hope, 1or
us all is in the grace of God. II 1 were TO
strike a tuning fork on this desk ana hoi9
it to my ear not one IN TINS room c1uiu
bear the sound thereof, but / could hear
Il and tune nv violin. Strike it again n
instead of holding it to my ear, set 1T up,
On this desk. Instantly the sound would
he heard everywhere. But what DO you
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 muslcai
instrument it itself becomes musical ana
delights every one that has music IN his
soul. ,;eo,,+
The individual life may be insignlhcan5
alone by itself. it may come from a gooa
family or a bad; it may nav gieaE LORE &c
not: but the safety and security of all Will
to the Son of God, who alone has the pow
er to make them Sons of God, which are
born not of a family or Of force or OF fur'
nishings, but Of faith.