The Birmingham age-herald., 1906-12-03
MODERN IDEA OF
 SAINT WAS THEME Conception Today is Truer
 Than of Old MAKING OF A SAINT
The Earnest and Serious Thought of This Age is Coming into Fuller And Fuller
 Agreement.

The Rev. pr. Sterling J. Foster
 prached at the Il o'clock services yester-
 day morning at the South Highlands ! Presbyterian church on "The Modern
 Idea of Saints," taking his text from
 the second verse of the first chapter of
 First Corinthians: Unto the Church of
 God, which is at Corinth, to them that are to be called saints.
 Dr. Foster spoke in part as follows | Old ideas that have been once deep | ly rooted in the human mind finger long
 even after they have been long out grown. Jerome, one of the early Chris tian fathers, originated and practced the ascetic ideal of sainthood and through | him it became deeply imbeded in the | Christian church, and held full sway | for more than thousand years. Dur ing that period the belief was universal | that in order to attain the highest Chris | tian standard one should withdraw him | self from all the affairs of the world and hide himself in caves or monasteries
 anu devote himself to holy medtations
 and pious observances. And though a | truer conception has since dawned upon
 the church there is still a lingering be- lief that renunciaton is the sole means of grace.
 Practice Due to Two Causes. I am persuaded that this is due to two
 
 who imagines that the merit of the pious | recluse can by some means be com municated and therefore demands that | the priest or minister practice those aus | terities which he does not.
 To him, the viearious element in re- | ligion, has been brought down to the present day and he trusts that by some obscure process he may become the bene- | ficiary of the stored up grace of another. | This, notwithstanding the clear teaching | of Christ, that character is the end of | the Christian life and cannot be com municated, neither borrowed nor lent | That Christ Himself "by one offering | hath perfected forever them that are | sacrificed"
 The insincere Responsible. But there are insincere who are even
 more responsible for the persistence of | the ancient error. Those who have fully
 determined to practice no Christian pre- 1 cept, and in their hearts are the enemies | of religion, and would bring it unto dis repufe by misrepresenting it's true be- | liefs. Those with great plausability urge passages from the teaching of Christ in which He appears to have demanded of His disciples the extreme of renunciation | and these set forth as containing the whole of His message.
 | But they are careful to omit those | teachings and practices found in the rec
 ord which show Him at the marriage | feast at Cana of Galilee and minglng
 with his friends and disciples in full l enjoyment of their association. This
 method of caricaturing religion is seen clearly in Roman, who, by picturng Jesus as demanding from His disciples
 such conduct that would make all nor
 mai and wholesome life impossible, sought l to bring contempt upon Him and His l teachings as a whole.
 Good Souls Thrown Into Confusion. l By this means many good and earnest | are uneasy in the enjoyment of others. | The Apostle Paul with his usual sanity and good judgment gives us in the words | of the text and in many others of simi- | lar import the solution of these difficult | ties which should forever set at rest all
 uneasiness that good men may feel
 'called to be saints in Corinth.'' And when we consider that Corinth
 at this era of her history was prob
 ably the most profane and corrupt city 1 of the earth and that they were not called | out of Corinth, were not called to sepa-
 rate themselves from the association of
 man even there, it must be plain that
 he did not consider either detachment
 from the life around them as the sole necessity of sainthood. And further,
 when we hear him exhortlng Titus,
 one of his converts, that he
 should exhort men to live right
 eously and Cody in the world, ever
 looking for the blessed hope and the 1 glorious appearing of the Great God and ] Savior Jesus Christ, we see, I think, what
 was His conception of a saint.
 An individual man is to lead sober life and thus give his soul opportunity l for development.
 Intemperance Destructive. l Intemperance in thought or word or l deed, as well as in drinking or eat | ing is destructive of all possibilities of | individual improvement. As a member of society man is to live righteously or rightly, dealing fairly and justly with his | fellow men, and thus fulfilling his oblga- 1 tions to them, and as a child of God,
 he is to recognize Him and be un-
 ashamed to acknowledge Him, obeying | and serving Him. and thus, in some
 measure, fulfilling his obligation to Him. | This is the conduct giving to the mak- | ing of a saint, in the mind of this old | apostle, and with this conception the ! earnest and serious thought of this age l is coming into fuller and fuller agree | ment.
 It cares less for wierd and strange ex- II