The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1905-08-21
PASTOR SPOKE ON
1.-THE LIVING GOD''
Sermon Yesterday at the FRS
Baptist Church
FELLOWSHIP WITH GOD
The Rev. Dr.. C. ]. Dickinson says
Relief for Tendency to Idolatry
Is Belief In Direct Converse
With Deity.
FELLOWSHIP WITH GOD

WIFI LelLJs
The Rev DR.. A. ]. Dickinson, pastor
of the First Baptist church. preached a
that church yesterday morning ON the
subject THE Living Cod taking his
text from jeremiah 1910: But the Lore
is the true God, He is the living God
and an everlasting King; at His wratl
the earth shall tremble. and the nations
shall not be able to abide His indlgna-
tion."
DR.. Dickinson said In part:
1T is with much lack of faith in the
genuineness or verify of religious SYM
bols that impairs piety as lack of faith
In the reality of the deity and our duty
to exercise relations of fellowship with
Him. The religious world lacks personal
and direct knowledge of God, who is too
much being thought about and studied
about rather than person with whom
we are acquainted by personal fellow
ship.
THE natural principle which produced
idoltry In all ages exists today and is to
be found in current religion-not so
crude In it's manifestation but neverthe-
less real and potent The church has
her shrnes and little idols, whose magi-
cal powers are revered and sought just
as In the ancient Babylon cults, and even
evangelical christianity is ever inclined to
lean upon sacraments which SAVIOUR of
idoltry or trust In dogmas or plans of
salvation, to which had been attributed
saving efficacy.
1.-THE one antidote to all this Is the old
belief in the immanent deity, a being who
has personality and who is living In the
world unseen but yet the more present.
Religion consists In immediate direct fell
lowship and converse with this deity in
whom we live and move and have our be-
Ing. The thought of the world tended
once to Danish God from His world and
then bring him back here and there in
special places.
1--WE are coming now to be more cath
olio In religion and all places are shrines
where the deity may be communicated
with and every man Is priest welcomed
to the divine presence.
Mans Fellowship.
"It is every mans inherent natural
right to hold fellowship with his Maker,
when. where and In such way as he de-
sires. And the great work OF the world
is to educate and cultivate ourselves for
the more efficient exercise of these rights
and duties.
THE two great religions which have
brought men to experience the fullest
fellowship with the deity are Jahvism. or
the worship Of Jehovah, and Christianity.
When the Jews went to Babylon they
carried with then this representation OF
the deity, under the name Jehovah, as the
all-sustaining, all-originating life. spirit
ual, self-conscious, intelligent and free,
self-sufficient personality, everywhere
present in the world In all the elements
of his holy and generous person.
There this exalted conception of God
grew and matured uncer the very shadow
of the most magnificent idlotary the
world has ever seen, and in the midst of
a civilization devoted mainly to idolatroua
culture. This is the elementary principle
Of religion and to the extent that we
apprehend 1t do we have a growing plety.
1t was the formulating of the essential
initiative of religious life and was made
the basis of the revelation of Jesus, who
himself Represents its most complete
friction.
ut carries with 1t the philosophy of the
universe. namely. that the source and
origin of everything is the divine person
atty. The 1O4th Psalm is a poem ex-
pressing this philosophy and is also a
product of the exiled Jews In Babylonia
Probably no where else In human history
has thought grown SO rich and yielded so
grand a harvest among the Jews of Babys
lonia In the sixth century
Due to New Conception.
'This is due in no small degree to the
fact that Jehovah is God Immediately
present, no longer hidden away In temple
walls not accessible except through sacra-
mental or sarcedotal service To whole
universe is now His temple and Shekinah,
an every thirsting soul his priest 1t took
long time to enlarge this horizon to
include the whole world and each man so
that the divine Being was accessible to
each and everyone and all coulds know
Him from the least even to the greatest.
There are two effects OF this enlarged
conception of God and His relations to the
universe:
Il 1t emancipates the world from the
tyranny of the Reign of Law an idol
which modern scientific devotees have
created and hidden the world to wor-
ship. Nature worship is being brought
back into the world by ecstatic scientists
with its pantheon OF laws sovereign over
all human and divine life which the
priests of this fatalistic naturalisin have
apotheolzed But the philosophy of the
text goes behind the law to the law giver
and administrator and puts man in fell
lowship with the King. so he can appeal IL
need be, over natures law to natures
God Prayer is something more than a
plant of a suffering soul. 1t is the hui
man right of petition to the throne of
God Neither God nor His children ara
bound fixed and fast by His laws as is
held by this fatalism of nature Law In
this philosophy is but the steady Will of
God operating with power. That will is