Milford chronicle., 1906-07-27


kingdom came to the king and said,
Establish a royal statute and make
firm decree that whOsoever shall ask
petition of any god or man for thirty
DAYS, save of thee, o king, he shall be
cast into the den of lions" Thus, as
we hear the Partisan mobs cry, Hail,
thou Goddess of Reason, hail, hail!'
we hear the Babylonish inhabitants in
the year 53S b. c. crying: Hail, thou
god king Darius! Thou art king of
Kings and lord of lords Hail! Hail!
HaiIr Oh. the Babylonish inhabitants
were not atheists. Far from it. They
were deists. They were the most lib
eral kind of deists. BY the stroke of
a kings pen they could make new
god whenever they wished. Now, It
was into such vitiating atmosphere
of religious liberalism as this that Dan
iel and his three comrades went to live.
The UncIenn Food.
I can hear his friends talking to him
ana trying to persuade him to eat this
unclean food. oh" they say, Daniel.
of course your God is all right. But
what is the good of being a bigotf why
are YOU so hidebound about this food!
Why do you not worship the Babylonish
gods? Why do you not theologically
broaden out? Why do you stick so
close to your Jewish laws? Why do
vou not become a student of the new
thoughtT" But what is the new
+bouohfq'" saws Daniel. "Why," say
the Babylonish friends, don't you
know? Have you not been reading our
new theology? Why, the new thought
is beautiful belief. This is 1t III SUD
stance: God is goodness. God is III US.
I'VE are all. part of God. Just try 10
think of God as a good being and try
to develop all the good I'm you. and you
will grow better and grow like God
"But." saws Daniel, "what has that to
do with the first commandment, Wlllch
Moses gave to the children of Israel; l
am the Lord thy God. which brought
thee out of the land of Egypt and out
of the house of bondage; thou shalt
have no other gods before meF 'Oh'
Daniel Daniel. Daniel" say the Baby
lonish. friends. 1--WE have outgrown all
that superstitious stuff. We have out
grown all the commandments ana the
Jewish dietary laws. We are the advo-
cafes of the new thought In that
new thought we just try to be good
and that is all one needs to do" MY
friends. cannot you hear Daniels
friends trying to get him to eat the un-
clean food and adopt the religious I'D
eralism of the BabylOnish capitalF
Is not Satan trying to get you to eat
of the unclean food in our modern
Babylons by the same pernicious argu-
mept of theological liberalism? am
not the least bit afraid that you Will
become a blatant atheist. l am not
afraid that you will turn your back
mon Christ or upon the Bible. But l
am afraid lest the insidiOus advance OF
the new liberal thought should under
mine the foundations of your faith.
find it doing its deadly work in the
church and in society. Men are giving
ND their anchorages and are drifting
ont ON the sea of doubt toward the
rocks of eternal disaster. Never let go
vour faith in the essential truths OF
Christianity. The divinity of Christ, his
sinless life and his atonement on the
cross. his resurrection and ascension
the work of the Holy Spirit, the neces-
sitv of the new birth and the inspira-
tion of the Bible-these are the dis
tinguishing doctrines of our faith. 1o
abandon these is to surrender all thaI
has made our religion a power in the
world; it is 10 turn Christianity into a
dry dead system Of ethics. In Christ
alone have we life. The Bible declares
if. If YOU deliberately go forth to eat
of tbe unclean food in the Babylonisf
capital YOU must perish. o God, may
we never become so liberal that we
cannot make the words of Jesus Christ
tbe center. the circumference, the all
in all of what we should believe and
how we should live!
A National Prejudice.
But there is still another fact whicL
would have made the eating of the
kings meat easy for Daniel The king''
| food was Spreau III lAlS pIeSShSS u - -,
Young mans enemies. If Daniel die
not eat the meat and drink the wine
which came from the royal kitchens
and wine cellars at once, in all proba
biity the refusal would be reported e
the kings higher officials, and DameI'
bright political prospects would moi
only be stopped, but without douD'
Daniel would lose his head. "WelI,'
YOU say. that is strange. How can tins
be? Daniel did not have any enemies
as vet. He had just been selected fol
] future political favoritism and had mo-
vet eaten his first meal in the palace
All my friends, by that question
know one fact You have not Travelled
much abroad.
In our country the word "clannlsh
ness" has not much meaning. Wher
we 90 back to our Revolutionary days
we find that KOsciuslso and Baror
Steuben and Lafayette helped to VIII
our independence. Then we find tha
Hamilton and a host of other states
men who helped make us what we are
i NNHanH