The Oskaloosa herald. (Oskaloosa, Mahaska County, Iowa) 1885-1919, 1907-02-14
THE CAUSE OF TRUTH.
A Vigorous Message Closes the Jones
Lectures at Penn.

The devotional exercises at Penn
chapel were led by Rev. Alfred Han
son, OF Pleasant Plain. 1t was the
general opinion of the audience that
DR.. Jones had saved the best for the
last. In his lecture on ''The Message
OF Quakerism to the Modern World"
While these lectures have had to do,
entirely, with the message and mis-
sion of Friends, both in the past and
present, they have been so far from
sectarian that members Of other de-
nominations who have been present
found them to be most helpful anJ
inspiring.
The speaker said, Man cannot life
stationary life. There is always
danger that religious bodies will stag
nate. Early Friends did not think Of
their Society as a sect. nor that they
were called to promote an ism"
They believed that they had discov-
cred primitive Christianity. They
spoke of it as 1.-THE Truth" And of
their efforts as 1.-THE Cause of
Truth" Even the horse that was
used by the meeting for the carrying
about OF the preachers. was called
Truths horse"
We need to extend our mission un-
til 1t becomes synonymous with truth.
We cannot hope to survive on birth
gains alone, nor longer live on the
momentum of the past. There is no
magic now. in the cut of the coat.
and we can no longer conjure with
that word, "A peculiar people"
Speakers who take one-half hour to
prove that they have nothing to say
can no longer get hearers. We must
prove our right to the name, "Chil-
dren of light" All about us people
have learned TO think accurately. Re-
spect for truth eagerness for reality
prevails everywhere. We must present
religion good to live by on every
plain of intellectual life. Our mes
sage must never make God afar off.
Must not dwell upon words that are
abstract, in describing Him. Notice
how Christ pushes away these alb
stract words and never uses them.
His words about God are warm and
tender. We love because He loved.
We seek Him because He is Juggling
at our lives. The physical world
shows us the power and law of God.
Theology gives us dry definitions.
Ours must be a gospel of Incarnation.
The saddest picture in history is the
loss of the Fathers face under the
mummy clothes of medieval theology.
Man has inherited tendencies and
instincts which are terrible handi-
cap. He is weak and stupid, but al
ways has hunger for God. There is
in him something which is of God.
He who bears in his body the mark
of his mother bears in his being the
mark of his celestial origin--the
stamp and inscription Of God upon
his soul
The atonement perfectly fits hum
an needs, and perfectly fits the char
acter of God. The message of the
Cross must fit God and man. The
Cross came not out of the wrath of
God, 1t is the crown and elimination
of love: love reaching the high point
where it passes over into suffering.
Ours must be social message.
Our theology has been altogether too
individualistic. The words of our
message are Service, Fellowship,
Brotherhood" The coming church is
to be the church which best takes up
its social service. You cannot bring
the golden age by shuffling around
the old material that is here. You
must have transformed men.
Our message should be a call to
holiness. Our religion must not be
mere scheme of heavenly bookkeep-
ing. Our lives must be delivered
from sin and the love Of 1t, and we
must live in Joy, and freedom, shar-
ing with Christ the victory over the
world. Holiness can be reached only
by cooperation with God, and the
laws of God.
Let no one think that holiness is
static and fixed state. We must
deal with experience. To live is to
go on. To say, Behold in me the
perfect exhibition Of holiness" is to
make holiness impossible. Holiness
is not to be sought for self. Saints
are not made to hang halos upon.
The true saint is a dynamic Christ
ian.
Then there must be leadership.
The kind of Christianity have been
presenting is a group religion, and Is
not to be farmed out to Wears. Qua
kerism is holy experiment in the
Kingdom of God. Leadership is abb
solutely essential. The need in every
neighborhood is a troined and effici-
ent leadership.
Our message must bring together
morality and religion. You can cut
an angleworm apart and have two
angleworms, but you cannot cut a
baby apart and have two babies.
Once you cut morality and religion
apart, you kill both.
And ours must be message of
great expectation. There are enough
semi-dead churches. Enough conven-
tional preachers. Enough rag-time
music. Enough of sensationalism.
We need more of the consciousness
of God in tha lives nf man