The Camden chronicle. (Camden, Tenn.) 1890-current, 1904-07-29


God in the future can be expected to over
throw the overwhelming weight of this ev-
idence. Verify, God hath not left Himself
without a witness. We need not fear anv,
future discovery, however supposedly scien-i
tific, to Offset this constitutional evidence.
Whatever the evidence that God, does not
care we will match and outweigh it by this
nearer, dcarer, stronger evidence that He
does care. We have Roland for their
Oliver.
Then there are mans religious instincts
to be accounted for These are not ac-
CURED. Neither civilization nor Chris
tianity begot them. We are not arguing
within circle in referring to these. All
races, white, yellow, red, brown, black, ig.
norant or enlightened superstitious or
sane, cruel or kind, instinctively feel that
God cares. Mind you, it is not that He 10
propitous unto them. Oftener that He is
not But the very fact of inventing all
conceivable means to placate Him, some of
them barbarous and revolving, indicates
so strongly that it almost proves Gods in
terest III mortals. It is an evidence so
universal that it cannot easily be ex-
planned away. Every fundamental need in
humanity has its satisfaction existing
somewhere. Hunger presupposes food.
Thirst indicates the existence of water tor
It's quenching. Nakedness instinctively
protection, even though beasts are slain,
cotton, fax and wool grown to accommo-
date it. So with all the hungers Of rational
being, social, intellectual, moral, religious.
Fhey all are evidence of reality some-
where answering to them. Ncne of these
is more fundamental and imperative than
the religious, that which demands Gods
care. A most pathetic manifesting OF this
longing is idol worship. The heather,
Gods ignorant children, like ours, demand
object lessons that can oe apprehended by
the senses. To make God in their image
is the nearest they can get to the sublime
consciousness that they are made in His.
Better, it seems to us, no God than
wooden one. A spirit of negation and in
difference would save them SO much use
less sacrifice and cruel practices ana bar
barous acts of superstition by way OF sup
posed atonement. But whether better or
worse atheism is not constituent charac-
terstic Of man. Strange, is it not, that it
is never innate, but always an acquired ac-
complishment, always the sad result OF
culture else of sim BY nature, and that
means by right, God is always the rightful
occupant of the throne. But as our self
importance grows as we become con-
sciously great in thought and achievement
we become ALL great in arrogance, az is
all science falsely so called and the King
is asked to vacate the throne, and God is
not even bowed out of the universe, but
heartlessly banished. Oh, no, denial is not
better than affirmation of God however
superstiti0usly that affirmation express it
self. 1t is evidence Of Gods care much
needed to offset threatened evidence that
He has not interest in the human race.
Notice the two possible results to which
these religious instincts lead, They are
the receptacle into which Christianity fits.
Il L / h. al oE hos
appeal. They cry out for God. Chris
tanity introduces God to them, They
want an assurance of Gods care. Chris
tianity assures them God cares for men to
the uttermost, even enough to die for
them. Creation thus prepares for revela- i,
ton, and welcomes its benefcent approach.
There is another result that shows the
helpfulness of the religious instinct univer-
sal among men. 1t is the sorrow that pos
sesses us when we are told it is all delu-
sion. The moment you convince man there
is no God, or, if there is, that lie is indlf-
ferent to mans welfare, that moment the
face loses it's complacency, the heart its as
surance, the spirit its buoyancy, the nina
its sense Of satisfaction. Doubt, disap-
pointment, despair set In. Little to live
for nothing to die for is the cry that will
not be comforted. A stohd indifference
results that brushes out the hearts music,
else wild despair that dethrones reason
and inhicts self injury. Let me make a
prophecy more dismal in its outlook than
that one we are considering of future
discovery that God does not care, pro-
phecy that if ever that dark day dawns
poor humanity in despair will in an hour
fall back from all hopefulness. aspiration,
joyousness, and by one despairing plunge
reverse the life satisfactions of q thousand
years.
Greatest of all these is the presence and
worth of Christianity to be accounted for.
Christianity is o very unyielding fact. 1t
has become too deeply rooted in the earth
to be waived aside and crowded out by any
discovery however authentic, that would
invalidate its claims. 1t has been con-
fronted for centuries with conflicting be-
liefs and scientific evidence against its in
tegrity. The more it is opposed the more
fearlessly it asserts ITSELF comforting the
heart, lighting the ark mind, inspiring
and reinforcing the spirit. A fact so help
full to humanity in every conceivable ne
cessity when SHINING and needing forgive
ness, when weak and needing strength, !
even when suffering martyrdom at the !
stake, in the amphitheatre of wild beasts, |
in heather lands, midst prosecutions too
to be mentioned, but not too
many to be valiantly borne, must be con-
fronted with stronger, surer proof than IS
at present conceivable that it relinquish |
it's hold upon mems esteem. Yield it must
il it were even proven God did not care;
for Christianity was rooted in Gods es-
TEEN before it found place in mans.
God not only cared, but so cared that He
loved, else Christianity, that superb BIOS
som and fruitage of Christ's life and teach-
ing and death, had never existed Chris.
tianity not only embodies Gods care, it
Gods heart And the surest
thing about it all is that we who have
Welded to Gods word, caught the bless
ngs of the revelation through Jesus, have
all the evidence necessary for the reality
Of God and His care. What value is proof
against Gods interest in us. however