The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1904-01-18
VIEWS OF CHRISTIANITY
BY REV. ], CUMMING SMITH
By a PROCESS Of Reasoning He
Shows That 1t Is Entirely
Practicable.
ALL THINGS POSSIBLE

the Tabernacle Church, yesterday morning.
Mr.. Smith said:
Jesus spoke in circumstances exceeding
ly picturesque and even dramatic. fine
youth Of wealth had just turned down the
chance of discipleship. The Master grieved
over his spurning IL and at once opened the
subject of salvation and surprised the
twelve They had been accustomed to
dwell on the lower level of legalism, the
level of law and decent performance, with
a view to earning a place I'm some heaven
somewhere. This was their ideal. II IS the
theology of all immature races. Then Jesus
opened, as IL were, the folding doors upon
inner world and sumptuous chamber,
and the guests were dazzled by the splen-
dor of the interior. He showed that mere
legalism as a method of purchasing divine
favor must give place 10 the development or
something within a man which will consti-
tute his own native right TO a place before
God He introduced spiritual life as the
source of true virtue as against the pau
per's idea that God Is a reluctant prOprie-
tor of some palatial establishment and men
must purchase entrance by a series Of
moral efforts painful paroxysms of re-
pentance. This is high-class selfshness. 1t
was suitable and effective in early and bar
barous eras Jesus judged the time ripe to
exploit another theory, the theory that Gcd
is love and salvation IS spiritual education;
that salvation is not rescue system or a
pulley system or a commercial system, but
a. divine life breathed in the soul and eff
forescent in noble living. Now, then, we
ask with the same Open-eyed surprise with
Peter Who, then. can be saved?' Did Jesus
realize the weakness of the world or the
inertia of human nature2 Did He measure
the natural gravitatiOn of human life down.
ward and the tremendous unwillingness of
souls of clay to carry out ideals?
ANSWER CAME QUICKLY.
1.-The answer came quickly from His lips.
With men it is impossible but with God
all things are possible Failure, therefore.
is out of the question. The plan of nature
Is to reduce the seeming impossible into a
fact. The march of men and the ascension
Of history has been the continuous effort TO
incarnate the impossible Sir Isaac New
ton, Calico, Paul, Edison, Lincoln. Luther
these giants set out with their new dreams
of, daring. lonely endeavor. and their visions
were launched, and their contemporaries
Knocked, but the impossible slowly got a
footing in congenial minds and the minority
swelled to majority and the grave closed
over heroes who turned the dream into a
real fact This is Gods secret He keeps
surprising the centuries. Electricity came
and startled a sluggish world with its
miracles. Radium Is replete with awesome
wonders. II Is the function of our impo-
tence TO make the ideals that defy the
vulgar comprehension and the prophetic
visions that terrify the minds without his
torical Imagination as houses without win
dows, to make these materialize in hun
dred forms. Great men always the
invisible. God Is exhaustless. Skepticisms
are His resources as If He were insolvent
or bankrupt the gloomy supposition that
past days were brightest and He can raise
no more seers, no more discoveries, no more
self-cOnsuming missionaries, more fam
ing evangelists, such skepticism lays God
in a mOrgue.
Now. notice that the power of God is
according to laws. The supernatural is
scientific as II were, although not bounded
| by our poor, creeping knowledge of science
Law is not a manacie, but the outlet for
| divine action and ingenuity. If salvation
were some external investment or peculiar
| ity like clothes a body like ivy on a
wall or like stuccO on ceiling, then IL
| might be obtained in some whimsical way.
AN ORGANIC GROWTH.
'Tf however, salvation is an organic
growth within. If it is really the formation
of Christ himself within us, then the process
must be by law, just as the plant grows
by drawing the nutrition from the muddy
bottom of the lake to deck the lily that
lies with queenly beauty on the surface.
We have scarcely shaken off the medieval
| idea that the Holy Ghost makes some
thing out of nothing; that all need is TO
implore for a revival and then sit still,
|! twirling our thumbs, until in some fantastic
way a mighty pentecost sweeps US off our
feet. Pentecosts never swoOped down in
that fashion. They never will. They would
demoralize the church ii they did. Jesus
introduced reason and method into the myS-
FERROUS developments of religion. His fol-
lowers have far too often accentuated hys-
terical zeals, and out of false methods
hypocr1cleS and illusions never fail to
hatch.
Jesus said Salvation is within: salvation
is the triumph of your higher over your
lower life: salvation is the inspiration of
love, Gods love broOding mans love into
full wing and feather; salvation is not cold
calculating morality, based on heather con-
ceptions; but the sense of duty blooming
as the summer orchard accepts and absorbs
the sun: this is salvation.
IF IL is, then it follows that there are
laws for its ripening, just as there are laws
in all the realms of nature. What are
| these? First of all there is the simple law
of reception. TO as many as received Him.
to them gave He power to become sons of
God Then there is the law of imitation.
BE we followers of Christ Then there is
the law of prayer. Then there is the law
of meditation. which although exaggerated,
was the real basis of monasticism. Then
there Is the law of service. These laws
and other laws, linked together, are neces-
sary TO transform a man from sinner
into saint in the true sense. A saint is
not an eccentricty, or a pale-faced, nerve
less weakling, enthusiast for another
world while a misfit in this world. saint
is generically a man who has achieved sue
cess in being what he built to be. This
requires brain and energy.
IF mechanics aim TO put up a palace, and
then build up a thin. cramped cellar wall
that would not support a cottage, and stop
there, that is the unregenerate, unfinished
man in the Scripture scheme: If the me-
chanicS lay a broad foundation, proof
against low-oozing drains, and if the walls
rise in majesty. and If halls and rooms
appear in emancipation that Is the saint.
| In the material realm we laugh at the inane
attempt To raise palace a pigmy leak
| ing foundation. In the development of the
moral and spiritual life we often bepraise
the dwarfs who shut out Cod and We dis
parage the men of largeness, the men OF
superior wisdom and Illumination, the men
of lofty foresight and hope who dare affirm
that God will win out. Nevertheless, this is
not always true.
PLAN OF MAN.
THE most skeptical man can scarcely
| believe that we are made on the same plan
as the brutes beneath us. The men who
devote every energy TO present gains usual
/ ly admire and envy the cOmpleter types of
men who are governed by principle and
| who. when called upon. can surrender the
clamorous present 10 the resplendent fu-
ture..
| Locke said: When God makes the pFoph-
i ct He does not unmake the man. n re
/ ligiOus man should essentially be an at
i tractiVe personality and religion a magnet.
! But revivalsts are sometimes artificial or
/ suspected because of their extreme ideas
/ and are no more drawing for business cir
i cles than boiling pots are for Holsters. al
/ though the pots aim at improving them.
| Now. then. the whole trend of modern
/ thought and earnestness must divest the
/ gospel OF the spurious editions additions
4 of the earlier. unthinking ages. We must
i go back To Jesus. Salvation is an eternal
process and never ends. Heaven is alto
| gether within and hell is a darkness and
/ distemperature within. Churches must re-
/ ment OF truth. Life and more life-life that
/ is born by the laws of birth and grows