The morning journal-courier., 1908-09-28

NluilHtu' Ana moment lulel Nv
said Now Is my soul troubled and
What shall say? Father, save me
from this hour; but for this cause came
| unto this hour What was the mean
Ing Of this mysterious emotion on the
part Of Jesus at the mere word that
certain Greeks wished to see him? You
recall the Interpretation which Mr.,
Haynes gave; that this was the sec
ond great temptation, Jesus foresaw
the Invitation that he should forsake
Jerusalem for Athens--forsake Jerusa-
lem whore al her greatest religious fes-
tlval the high priests were plotting to
arrest him, forsake Jerusalem, the
home Of Journalism and dogmatsm' and
ritual, and come to Athens, the home
Of intellectual liberty, where his mes
sage would awake enthusiastic response
among the open-hearted Greeks You
will recall Mr. Haynes saying, Jesus
was not the first religious teacher to
feel this temptation" and then the
thrill that went through US as he lean
ed forward whispered 81 assure you
lie was not the last" All, here was
saying born of the very travail of his
saul. And as the voice came to Jesus,
so It came to him, With what burning
words he explained to us the only way
IN which Chrlsts mission might be ac.
complished, declaring that gospel that
could not win on Calvary had no
chance on Mars Hill,
Out OF such experiences ms these Mr..
Haynes wrought his theology They
taught him that new truth does not
destroy the old but grows out of 1t.
The spirit of the Lord fulnlls." he
once said, ut never destroys" Hence
his syinpathies were all with the work
OF building up rather than tearing
down. with construction and not des-
truction.
AS the first article of his construc-
tive theology should put the princi-
pie that faith is the one true guide in
matters of religious truth. Here faith
means not intellectual assent alone.
bat that deep experience of the heart
by which we test the verify of formu-
lated statements The testimony Of
the eye of the body" he said In one
4 sermon, is no more reliable than The
testimony Of the eye OF the soul" On
this testimony he rested his belief IN
the existence of God, which he once
expressed as "the one assumption
necessary to all rational thinking as to
all holy living" other attempts TO
prove the existence Of God save by
the very inward necessity OF mans
thought and feeling he rejected us
futile or needless. This God, how
ever. is not a remote creator and law
giver controlling the cosmic mechan-
ism as one would control a machine"
but a spirit immenent in the world,
unfolding itself in the cosmic process
and dwelling In human consciousness
as a constraining principle Of love and
duty. / shall not speak further on
these two points OF the direct con-
sciousness Of Gods existence and the
doctrine Of Immanence. They are so
completely in accord with most mod
ern thinking that we may take them
for granted here, and further are too
abstract In character for the purposes
Of this discourse.
CD Let us then proceed TO the
second point, which is more concrete.
In one Of his sermons find the phrase
the character of God is on trial" that
is, accepting this immanent God what
kind OF God is he? You know the
objections brought against the Chris
tian conception Of loving God. How
reconcile with It the memorable work
ing of nature, a nature rocking not CT
mans purposes. bringing sunshine and
rain 10 the unjust and storm and
disaster to the Just nature that
breeds suffering for thousands of
Gods children" as the Christian
.alls them, selling on the slightest err
ror on the part of even the innocent
child 10 lure him TO destruction; aye,
even as we know to-day snatching tins
prophet and leader Of men from
among us when his service seemed but
begun And how about those foulcr
ills that Gods children have made for
themselves; the vice and wretchedness
of our communities: the greed and
selfshness; the loathsome brutalities;
all mans inhumanty to man." How
reconcile these facts to the Christian
teaching? Surely is not God whose
world is of this kind either pitifully
incompetent or else hideously cruel?
These changes are old, but | repeat
chem here to remind you how Mr..
Haynes met them. He never blnked
, the facts He never insulted us by
patting us on the shoulder and telling
us that everything was all right only
we couldn't understand; he never
stopped to such shifty device as 10
I tell us that God Is good but that hls
goodness is different from our good
ness, that cowardly escape which sent
John Mill's indignant protest ringing
throughout the world. His heart was
! too heavy with the worlds woes sor
him to deny that in many ways 1t Is An
: evil world
! If you now ask how he solved these
questions, ! think II he were here he
: would tell you that though he had
found a fundamental justification for
his faith, Of which ! shall speak in a
moment, there was much here which
still puzzled him sorely. On these
problems he was brooding deeply and
seeking always fresh Insight 1t was
all a part of that battling problem of
T how man with his finite limitations
can ever hope to solve the nature OF
the infinite Many a man has given
It up as not only a hopeless but a
, futile and foolish task. Not 50 Arte-
: mas Haynes, | quoted once to him
when he first came to New Haven a
saying of President Hadley's about
| the search for the North pole, that its
, value lay not in its scientific results
. but in the testimony that so long as
ought on the earth remained unknown,
tha RI a vino Of man WpiilJ tnLa bi,,, II,