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

Man instinctively demands for him. self a positive religious belief. He is naturally believer. He seeks a SUD- port for his religious and moral life as naturally as a vine seeks a trellls on which to climb toward the light. Jesus came to race, not of unbeliev. CTS. but of misbelievers. He sought to substitute true and adeuuate object of faith for an untrue or inadequate object. In this. respect both Jew and Gentle were in need of his revelation of God. The same need exists to-day We must carry the gos- pei to the heather Gas we somewhat ungraciously call them) because, while they are not without faith, the objects of their faith are far below that which Christianity offers. Man will not rise higher than his God or his ideal of the supreme good, Chris tian missions are justified and even compelled by the consideration that the ideas of Jesus concerning God and man and the true ends of life in the world are immeasurably superior to the ideas prevalent among non-Chris- tian peoples. The fact that we Chris tians fail to realize fully those ideas in our own life, while it should make us modest, is no reason why We, should not seek to give them to others
 Missionaries do not go to foreign lands to propagate American defects, but to preach the same gospel and to teach the same truths which are con tlnually needed at home. The mis- sionary enterprise is not based on an assumption of the superiority of the messenger, though this assumption might be justified, but on an assump- ton of the superiority of the message. This is sustained by the fact that the missionary's message Is, in a peculiar sense, Jesus Himself, with His revela- tlon of God and His spirit and way of life.
 Now. there is no comfort and no uplift for the soul In the mere denial of beliefs which have been cherished Doubt may be, often Is, the neces- sary condition of progress. One must doubt the dumb idol before he can rise to grasp the spiritual deity. But denial alone is vacuum in which the soul cannot breathe. The creed which consists of T don't believe" has no power to help or inspire.
 There is a great difference between belief and disbelief A man may be an unbeliever through ignorance; he is disbeliever through a positive de- termination of the mind There is also a negative side of belief If I believe one thing dlsbelieve its con trary. If I believe is one only God, I disbelieve in many gods. If believe In immortality, I disbelieve An the ex- tinction of the soul But the negative side of belief Is as shadow to light. To the believer the shadow lies behind; to the unbeliever or disbeliever in spirit ual truth It lies before.
 In essence, Christianity Is revcla- tion of Gods disposition and of a principle and manner of human life, As such It Is positive. IL asserts great truths. It predicates the reality of God, spirit, moral obligation, saliva ton from sin, immortality; and in these simple yet profound predicates 1t peculiarly meets mans need of a positive faith.
 For example, in fulfilling our life we must face the facts of ignorance and sin. The widening of mind and conscience to the realization of these facts is the beginning of moral self. knowledge and also of unrest and pain. The moral life Is, in part, the recoil of the soul from the imperfec- ton and evil in itself and in the world Over against this complex and mo. mentous fact of sin Christianity posits God as the righteous and benevolent ruler of the world revealed through Jesus as the Father and Saviour oi mankind, and God, thus interpreted because the rational object of faith Jesus. as the mediator of this revela ton, becomes also an object of faith not as substitute for God, but as tht interpreter and minister of the divine love. This is inevitable, If he become. really known; for through no one else has God been SO clearly and so fully manifested as through him. Owe, against our need Is this positive an. swer: God. the sovereign and Father and Jesus, the infinite friendliness ol God embodied in a Son of man.
 Side by side with the grievous fac of sin. If not always identical with it Is the fact of suffering and trial. Life brings to all struggle, disappointment a thousand ills.
 Never morning wore
 To evening. but some heart did break
 Over against this fact Christianit, pcsits divine Providence which through these experiences, support! and guides the soul and by means o them disciplines 1t into strength o character and capacity for goodnes! and joy. Jesus repeatedly affirm. Gods care for His children. and tn, exhortatlon in First Peter, Cast al your anxiety upon Him, because h, careth for you," Is a true echo of Hi teaching. We may not be able to for mulate a complete theodicy, but W. may trust God with the whole of oul life and in that trust find strength tc love bravely and hopefully and witf growing capacity for righteousness.
 But life is not mere endurance of ( lot more or less perplexed and sor rowful; it is action and achievement It is a law of mans life that he shal develop and use power. Hence ht needs an ideal and an inexhaustiblt impulse. To this need Christianity re. spends with lofty ideal and per. sonal attraction Paurs saving The