The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1904-05-19
schemes for further consolidation, seek to

turn paper securities into money. Many Of
| these schemes, in effect, if not in intention,
are fraudulent. Labor unions, overstep-
ping their legitimate purpose of protecting
laborlng men from oppr-sso and securing
for them just share of the products OF la
Dor, are seeking to create labor ohgar-
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, eNtortion, and even
blackmail have become startlingly common.
Society is full OF unrest and discomfort
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-indulgence. 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 eruptions OF furious OF
cynical lawlessness Religion, confounded
with dogma or ritual, is held by many in
little esteem. and the church is neglected
by' thousands who once gave it their sup
port and by thousands more who, in the
natural course of life, should be among It's
supporters. In the churches there IS a
lack Of spiritual fervor and decline OF
faith in God.
I think that I have not mis-stated the
actual conditions. With no taint Of pessl-
mism in my mood; on the contrary, with
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? It is great and con-
| trolling sense of God, as the Creator, Sow
ereign, Father and Saviour of the soul:
| The nineteenth century was distinguished
| by the emergencies of a new and deeper
sense of the worth of man. This dramatic
| ally began in the upheaval of the French
| Revolution. It was manifested in the
growing demand for popular liberty, IN 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 a new care for chill
! dren. in prison reform, in the breaking
| down of religious exclusiveness and the
| tyranny of dogma, and in many other
| ways. The twentieth century calls for.
| 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 reallty or
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 a
w;dened idea of law in the universe. but it
is vague and impersonal. They need to re-
alize afresh the integrity of the divine gov.
| ernment There is divine government OF
| the worid-a government that makes TOR
GOOD and against evil, that is the feunda-
| fion 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 I seem to limit the dl-
vine Being by using terms that are prop
erlv Applicable only to- finite being and hu.
man modes of thought, it IS to be san
| that the term personality does not neces-
sarily imply any limitation. We must think
of God under forms of our own rational
and moral being, and our very nature de-
| man is the answer of divine person to
the persistent and illimitable needs OF the
human person. ---.-.-...,
For time many have lost the persona!
God in impersonal law and lmperscnai
force. The divine immanence IS grasped
in a way that excludes the Complementary
idea of transcendence. There cannot be
real transcendence 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 tnan
God. if God be only law. But he Graves
deity whom he can revere and trust and
love with all the force of personal beng.
As the mind needs and demands the fun
damental conception of unity in order to
rational Interpretation of the world; as
the conscience needs and demands the
sense of universal and inviolable law, SO
the heart needs and demands the con-
sciousness of a perfect and responsive
goodness-the Almighty Father-manlfest,
ing and exercising compassion, love ana
providence and revealing Himself IN COM
munien with His child. These expressions
must have vivid meaning as expressions or
reality. The rule OF God is in and over the
soul. az we'll as in and over the material
world. and this rule is the manifestation
of God as the Holy Spirit. -.
We need a renewed sense of the reality
of revelation as past and present commu-
nication of the divine will to man. A mere
historic God is remote and Ineffective. he
must be contemporary. If He spoke once
He must sill speak: not In ways !o1 theo-
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 embooles
both. He knew the historic revelation as;
it. was expressed in the life and literature,
of the Hebrew people. and in some meas.
ure formed His thought on its disclosures
of the divine nature and will. But He!
knew also it's defects and limitations, and
He knew God Immediately, AS man may
legitimateiy and naturally know Him, be,
cause He is Gods child. So there is need
of new sense of Jesus as man in full COM
munion with God.
Finally, we need new sense of the re"
ality 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 it
bulks too large on our view. 1t is not an
end, but an instrument. The soul is in an
organism, but is not it nor, a mere athu-
ence from it. The soul is the man. Per
sonality is the crowning fact 1t means
knowledge, power, character, immortality.
If man is only cunning organism he
needs and asks TO Immortality. But, be-
cause he is a persona spiritual being,
~.., b. tb;,l, op6 will ann love