The morning journal-courier., 1908-02-03

love of Christ constraineth me" ex- presses in connection with 8 particu- lar instance the motive force which the gospel supplies for the whole of life. The motive force is as Jesus himself. It is difficult for us to grasp the idea of the infinite and absolute We cannot find in it practical value and force. We need it for our higher thought-life; we need the constant background and environment of the illimitable divine. But Jesus we can grasp; we can in some measure un- derstand Him. His message is intel lgible His character is not obscure rightness and pureness and sweetness of it. There, we say, is what God is like in His disposition toward men. There, too, is what we may become- Gods idea of man. He is at once Gods word to us and our promise to God. As Jesus lived and served and constantly grew greater in the simple majesty of His character, He more and more disclosed the divine in term of personality and conduct. He is in- dissolubly associated with God in our minds and so continually draws us to God. Our confidence in Him becomes | identical with our trust in God. The consciousness of Jesus and the testi- | mony which flows from it in His speech and action has for us the value of the divine on the plane of the prac- tical life. He is both an ideal and an inspiration The more we know Him the more inevitably We love Him, and love supplies the enduring impulse to- ward the noblest life.
 The more we think about it the more clearly we see that the answer of the gospel to human need is pre-emi- nently Jesus Himself not some proposi- tions about Jesus, nor something which he Is supposed to have done on our behalf, but himself. the divine man. In l the spirit which he breathes spiritual truths. the deep truths which make for beautiful and beneficent life, reveal and authenticate themselves. Faith be- comes a positive commitment of self to goodness and justice, and the ser vice of mankind. It does not have 10 go seeking for reasons; its fundamental | htdsoh IS lbS II IS llit utllOn- stration of the divine in human action and character It is not a mere intel lectual certitude, but an assurance of | the heart-of the whole being-that God and man are one in interest and destiny. Salvation, immortality, every thing rests on the reality of this union, which shines with such splendor in the | person of Jesus.
 | The adequacy of this faith is witness | ed by experience. Partisan zeal may build up an institution and maintain an | ecclesiastical order; but only holy love can create liberty, integrate a vital and enduring society and save the world. | The faith which grasps the reality of God as the Good has d strength which dogmatic sureness never attains, and it is transforming and creative energy. It's end is not safety from disaster but the fulfilment of life Its testimony is not mere words, but service. It is pos | Hive. though not dogmatic, because it is the expression of experience And it Is faith for others as well as for ourselves. We depend much on one an- other. Your moral temper helps or flinders me. Your faith in God inspires me to faith; your distrust impresses and enfecbles me. Men have d righ, to demand of one another the contri- button of bread when they are starving. Hunger Of mind and heart is as valid appeal as physical hunger. At some time every man says to his fellow, What good word have you for me?" Do you believe in God? Help my unbe- lief. We should speak that which we know with the heart as well as that which we know with the understand Ing. Only a positive faith serves out need. ''If you have any faith" said Goethe, give me that; have doubts enough of my own" We should give our health, not our sickness; our cour- | age, not our fears, our apprecia ton, not our consciousness; our patience, not our fretfulness; our cheerfulness, not our melancholy or misanthropy.
 All the essential elements of the faith which Jesus presents bear on conduct. are related to actual living and have their supreme test and verification in action and character It Is a sound rule: what you cannot put into conduct or relate to character is unimportant at least unverihable. Separate religion from conduct and t becomes mere form or mere theory; and neither form noi theiry alone can mold life or give mora energy to the soul or produce a power. ful and uplifting testimony.
 All the great truths of God and righteousness and salvation and immor. ality may be so realized in experience that they shall no more be mere no. tions of the intellect, but moods of feel
 Ing, elements of character, deep reali
 ties of self-conscious life. It is only ont of this experience that the testi. mony which prevails over the contra, dictions of disbelief and the hestitatior of doubt can come. So long as we hay, not this experience our speech will b, incapable of moving others 10 faith When the disciples asked; Why coul, not we cast ont the demon?" Jesus an
 swered: Because of your unbelief
 The unbelief which paralyzes th, church Is not doubts about the infalli
 blity of the Bible and the authority O
 dogma. but the want of living gras, on the reality Of God and on the spirl
 and principles of Jesus.
 We live too much on memory Tn, church Is perpetually haunting tn
 grave yards of the past. It fails to re
 alize that God is contemporaneous witt every age; that revelation and saliva
 ton are processes of the present. no
 merely of the past; and that to-day |
 the day of vision and power When |
 does realize this, and faith becomes
 throbbing experience now. it will speal l rrff .tt,1t tar