The herald and news. [volume] (Newberry S.C.) 1903-1937, 1909-06-08

he may be entrcnched behind the most
Scriptural system, and yet essentially
be irreigious. Religion primarily is
not system, but life: life of man
in God, land a life Of God in man."
1t is a vital, living union, and COM
munion between man and God. 1t
lifts the soul to up God, and brings
God to the soul. And this is the in
ner tendency, both in man and IN
God. God has ever been going out af'
ter man. Man is Gods first and last
thought. And when the separation
between Goa and luan tn"k Lace
Gods interest in and his seeking af-
ter man was demonstrated IN the full
ness Of time when the Virgin Mary
gave birth to the Son Of God and
when God linked himself with the hu-
man race. The incarnation Of Jesus
Christ, therefore, stands forth in his
tory, not only as an indisputable evil
dence Of Gods love, but divine
guarantee that man and God should
not be separated forever. And God is
the greatest thought Of man. Man
seeks after God, and although he may
fasten his thought and offer his de-
votion to the most hideous caricatur-
ers, he can not abolish or destroy the
longing for fellowship with and the
attraction towards God. This is the
inner craving of the heart of man as
the actions of mankind the world ov-
er prove and confirm. Religion satls-
fes this inner craving by uniting man
to the one and only true God, and,
therefore, it becomes an absolute es-
sential for the soul. Philosophy and
science and education and even ethics
are not substitute for it.
But with equal emphasis we assert
that the church: is an essential for
the soul. For religion is not the re-
sultant Of the spontaneous workings
of the human heart, nor the conse-
quence of the immediate operations
of Goa in the heart. The movement
is from God manward. The initla-
tive is taken by God. The whole pro-
cess Of religious life from its very
quickening until it is ushered into
the great beyond in perfected state,
is the result Of God working in US.
God comes to man, and then man is
drawn to God. We work out only
what God works in, and every evl-
dence of religious life, whether it be
the acknowledgement of sin, or the
confession of faith, or the offering Of
prayer, or the doing of good works,
is but the human expression OF the
divine impression within US. But this
life thus worked by God is a growth.
There is first beginning, a develop
ment, and a maturity. This growth
is gradual and progressive, and it is
dependent upon the same spirit which
brought it into being. But the
spirit Of God works only through
means. Divinely chosen means. The
new life is begun by the spirit through
water and the Word. It is developed
by the grace of Christ coming through
the Word and the sacrament. But
where are Word and sacraments to
be found save in the church? The
church, therefore, is no ordinary IN
stitution, which the world could be
as well off without as with. She Is
the ark Of salvation, the BRIDE OF
Christ. She is not a social organlza-
ton, although she introduces men in
to the very best society on earth, and
Identifies them with the company OF
heaven. She is a living, palpitating
organism, every part filed with vital
ity. She is the repository Of grace,
the sine qua non, the condition with
out which my soul would be undone.
But if the church is an essential,
then certainly Jesus Christ is an es-
sential. for the church has but one
foundation, viz, Jesus Christ. There
is but one church, the Holy Chris
tian Church. A Christless church is
an impossibility. In Christ man and
God are united, and only through
Christ can man and God become unit
ed. The Christian religion, therefore,
is the one absolute final religion. Not
a mere evolution Of a species from a
like genus, but the Only religion. And
when we confne religion to the def
milton given in the early part Of these
remarks. Il is impossible to have it