The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1907-04-17

Brooklyn, n. Y.-Preaching at the
Irving Square Presbyterian Church
on the theme, "A Christian. Why"
the pastor, the Rev. Ira We;nmell
Henderson, took as his text Acts 20:
%, "a Christian" He said:
This is the question that men who
are outside Of Christ ask. This is
the inquiry that many of the best
souls in the service of the Master
find difficulty to answer in such fash
ion as to satisfy the intellects OF
those who do not enjoy the same
spiritual blessings that they them
selves possess in Jesus. This is the
Interrogation that we must be pre-
pared to grant a sane and convincing
reply if we are to be the workers in
the vineyard OF our Lord, that He
desires us to be. We should be pre-
pared at all times to undergo
examination on this point. Al
ways must we be ready to declare the
reasons for and the reasonableness
, of the faith that is within US. And
yet how many of US can, on the mo-
ment, give clear. concise, argumenta-
lively upholdable grounds for our
spiritual faith. The most Of us fall
back upon the assertion that We are
Christians because we find in it the
satisfaction of our minds, our hearts,
our souls. For US this is sufficient.
But the man who goes behind our
satisfaction is oftentimes the man
we meet and a man who always must
be replied to with reasonable evil
.lorna arl oonrfnfa1 N,,f nf tho fD1l-
ness, of sensible, Intellectually COM
polling truth. He asks what are the
grounds Of III satisfaction; what is
the brand of the satisfaction that we
find glory in; why, in short, are we
at the root Christians?
A Christian. Why? And to an
swer that We must look within and
without us; we must take counsel
with our souls and with the count
less souls Of the universe of God; we
must consider contemporaneous life
and we must examine history; we
must understand the spiritual and
the moral elements in man; we must
take c~ognizance, with care, Of the
human race, everywhere and in all
time. 1t is not necessary that we
shall be experts upon the minute de-
tails of the historic life of humanity.
It is essential that we shall be cor
rect in our judgments and that our
premises shall be valid.
A Christian. Why? Now some
men are Christians by h%eredity. They
are so by birth. They have grown
up in the arms of the church unques-
tioningly and have taken the religion.
as they have taken the names, OF
their fathers and their mothers. Far
be it from me to disparage that sort
of religious life, if so be it be full
and free and glorious to the soul of
the man who is its divinely endowed
possessor. Such a man is usually
quite abba to declare the grounds of
his belief. But there are many her
editary Christians who can give no
enduring reasons for their religious
acceptances-I car hardly call them
convictions any more than some
men can reveal in intelligent fashion
the reasons for their hereditary po-
litical affiliations. Some men are
Christians because it is polite so to
be; others because it is commercially
or politically or otherwise profitable;
and still a larger host I: fear are the
nominal disciples of the Nazarene
because it is socially commendable
and wise. Some men are Christians
because the Bible commands such a
religious course upon those who read
it's precious words. Better that sort
Of reason and that kind of Christian
ity than none at all. Many other
men are intellectual Christians. They
yield homage to the historic Christ;
Of the vital and in~vigorating Savior
who fills the souls of men to-day
with ~blessedness and Joy and beauty,
power, peace, they have no concep-
ton. They know much concerning
Christ, but Of Him they are as ig-
norant as the Hottentot is of the laws
of the Modes and Persians. And all
these men cannot lead men of intel
lectual and discerning force into the
very presence of the Most High as
He stands revealed to us to-day in
Jesus Christ until they are indwelt by
Jesus and are certified in their own
lives by radical evidence, rather than
by superficial, of the deepest and the
hottest influences that make the
Christian life joyous and that COM
mend 1t to the world at large.
A. Christian. Why? To speak
broadly we may say that all men are
instinctively religious. Whatever
we may have been before the dawn
of history, the truth outstandingly is
this, that normal men everywhere are
essentially religious. Men are not
equally advanced in religious infor-
-oaf;Nn ~ IN fhn cnrnro1 1nDo nf,,o rtc
Of religious thought. But irresistab-
ly and Individually We are impressed
with the fact that universally men
are endowed with a common element
al religious capacity and susceptible
ity. Throughout all the world we
find humanity exhibiting a religious
instinct which reveals itself in the
consciousness of a spiritual relation
ship with a higher power and in
obedience to certain moral regula-
lions that are conceived to be bench
cial to society and to the individual in
his human relationships, and salts
factory to the higher agency that
controls the world. Everywhere men,
in the o%utreaching of their spiritual
faculties, desire the intimate knowl-
edge of an understandable power,
which we call God. They desire to
know the truth concerning that God.
They desire that the universal ruler
of the destinies of men shall unfold
to them the wisdom residing in Him
self. They yearn with eagerness and
with hope unspeakable for a release
from the bondage and the dominion
of sin-that is to say, from the con-
troll and influence of a detrimental
force which, whether it be understood
and expressed in the terms of OBJ
jective or of subjective experience,
is, non the less, real. Hand