Democratic messenger., 1904-04-16

all human effort is exhausted. we may
look to God alone; but until that point
is reached we must both work and
pray: work ccaselcssly. and bravely.
and hopefully. and invoke the divine
blessing on our labors.
Works and Faith.
But. though the whole trend of the
Bible teaches that works and faith. as
twin sisters. should go hand in hand
in search of the waters of physical
health. yet faith curists blind their
eyes and stop their ears to these Bib
lical teachings. They get hold on
one little passage of Scripture and
separate il from all its surrounding
connections. AS a sweet morsel they
turn il over and over and over again.
They magnify it. They distort it, and
then they rest their entire belief upon
it, These people may he good at heart.
but they treat Scripture somewhat as
famous reformer did in the noted
meeting he had with John Calvin In
Munich. | believe. in about the year
1910. After he had valiantly helped
TO fight the battle of the reformation
10 glorious and a successful issue
he still clung tenaciousiy TO the doc
trine of transubstantiation. That doc
trine. i'm plain language. means that
when we drink of the communion wine
and eat of the communion bread we
literally are drinking of Christs blood
and eating of Chrst's body. The other
school of theological thought held that
when we assemble at the communion
table we only eat of Christ's body and
drink of Christ's blood in symbol. We
eat and drink in symbol. as the lambs
blood shed upon the Jewish altar was
the symbol of Christ's blobd about TO
he shed for us. This battle over tran
subsiantiation ragged bitterly for years
between the two schools of religious
thought.
In order to bring this theological con-
fiict TO n close the two schools per-
snaded the two leaders. John Calvin
and this mighty man. TO meet and dis
crss the theological questions at issue.
What did this famous reformer do at
that conference? History tells lis that
he brought along Il tablecloth. upon
which were embroidered these six
words. taken from the twenty-sixth
chapter of Matthew: Take. eat; this
is my body" Then he placed that
cloth over a table and simply rested
his hand upon il AMI said nothing.
No matter what arguments were
brought forward, he answered moth
ing. All that he did was 10 point 10
the one sentence written upon the ia
BILE. Take. eat: this is my body"
But" said John Calvin. Christ also
said. I am the vine. We are the
branches Are you going To take that
sentence literally: Does that sentence
imply that Jesus is stick But the
reformer would answer nothing. All
that he did was To point 10 the one
sentence upon the table. which read.
Take. eat: this is my body" So in
the same way the faith curists pure
AMI simple will not accept the trend
of the Bibles teachings. They will not
compare passage with passage. They
will not see that every leaf OF every
chapter of every book OF the Bible
teaches that fifth must go hand in
hand with works. They will not see
that II is almost impossible Ia find an
incident where Christ healed the sick
unless at the same time he compelled
action upon the part OF those whom
he would physically help.
The Divine Physician.
Did not Christ compel action upon
the part of him that was blind: After
he had anointcd the blind eyes with
moist clay did he not say unto the
young man. Go wash in the pool of
Siloam:" He went his way. therefore.
and washed and came seeing. Did not
Christ compel action upon the part of
the ten lepcrs: Go show yourselves
unto the priests. And it came To pass
as they went they were cleansed." Did
not God compel the leper Naaman 10
leave the farof Damascus and dip sew
en- times i'm the Jordan before his flesh
became like unto that of little child!
I am not here advocating any heretical
idea that Christ cannot and will not
in many eases heal our physical dis
eases. UtlI ] fSS'Tt tliil Us " IttIlt We
have no more right To expect the Di-
vine Physician Ia answer our prayers
for health without any cooperative cf-
fort on our part than we have right
to expect our Divine CommisSary to
give us our daily bread without our
working for II. We have just as much
right TO kneel down at night and say
the Lords Prayer, Give us this day
our daily bread" and then in our ca
gerness TO expect next morning vi
sionary breakfast to jump ont Of vi
sionary fire and siZZle upon vision
airy broiler and the water faucet To fill
the pot with visionary coffee or the
yeast TO tumble the empty bread tray
down the dummy filed with visionary
hot toast as we have To expect the sick
to be made well without our own eff
fort upon which divine blessing has
been invoked = faith to react upon
works: works always in the invaiid's
room to go hand in hand with faith.
Jobs COmfOrters.
Faith cure teachings. pure and sim