St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1905-08-23

watch and wait and pray, and now
do cry, 1.-The morning cometh."
0, it is to be deplored that our Christian
faith has lost somewhat of that sense Of
personal nearness to God, of intimate
acquaintance with the Lord Christ, that
was so strong and tender in former days
DR.. John Watson has said: "Our religion
has become a matter of the creeds, or OF
public service, or of the aesthetic worship,
or of vague sentiment, it has almost
ceased to be "a relationship of love be-
tween two persons, Jesus and the SOUL"
How needful it is in order to bring to
pass in the life of our time the mind OF
Christ that we get back to him, first ofall,
to know and to love him as a living per-
sonal friend. The new revival, as every
revival worthy the name from Pentecost
till now, must have behindi it in individual
hearts flaming enthusiasm of love and
loyalty to the personal Christ. We do
need an acuter sense of sin, fercer pass
ion for right conduct, graver under
standing of our responsibility to the
brother man, but the underlying need of
all, that which secured is guarantee of
these other things, Isl. this Relationship
the SOUL"
One may be troubled sometimes because
of certain aspects of the modern social
movement in Christianity. What shall
it profit at the last if we have the ideas
of Jesus but not Jesus himself? That is
the one snare in the return to Christ
which is understood chiefly as the recovery
of his conceptions. More than all we
want him-nor alone what he thought,
what he said, his point of view and his
purpose-but him himself, regnant and
present, known heart to heart, seen eye
to eye, his living soul communing with
our living soul, God in Christ with us,
never absent from us, our divine-human
Friend.
This is mysticism Yes, tits mysticism!
But so much Of mysticism must needs 60
with our best efforts at the realization of
the social ideal. Nor can there be any
evangelism without it. And here ought
to be the primary emphasis, the deepest
note in our preaching. The new revival,
social in all its applications as has been
no other, will be in the soul ofit just this
intensely spiritual awakening to the
knowledge and reception of the real Jesus
who is the eternal Christ. n
The call of Jesus is unchanged. 1t is
| just to himself as of old. y y 1t is
pitiful to see how men and women run
hither and thither for some new thing
to help their souls. Occultisms are i'm
ported from the Eastern lands of magic
and misery. Ridiculous, stupid sciences"
draw into their net the silly and the wit
less and few even of the very elect in
wisdom and grace. Poor humanity has
got to worship something! In cultured
New England it makes it's sacred pilgrim
age to woman's shrine, and virtually
deifes her-new mother of the art of
turning nonsense into gold. In the hurly-
burly West it shouts "Amen"-three
e thousand strong upon its feet-to the
announcement OF an insane or fraudulent
pulpiteer that he is Elijah come again.
Up and down the land, and over the seas
and lands, the epidemic of credulity and
blind irrational faith swings its course.
1t is nothing Interpretations were
many and hoary with age before the
noble religion OF Israel came to be. But
we are perceiving new impetus to false
worship in this time OF great unrest and
shifting foundations.
Amid all this the Christ stands, and
against the tide of pleasure. seeking and
mammon-love he stands-not to preach
a religion, one of many; not to define a
doctrine; not to PROFOUND philosophy !;
not to institute system of morals; but
, to create an enthusiasn-for himself, to
impart life-his own, to bring men to
the Father and win the world for the