The log cabin Democrat., 1909-09-17

that speak ket h blasphemies Their prejudice kept them from drawing the right conciu- sion. Their reason, unintiuenced by prejudice, would have said that he who could work such miracles was God and therefore had the right to forgive sins. Under the control or prejudice these Pharisees were care ful to strain out little gnats of diff culty while they swallowed camels of absurdity
 Self-interest is another influence very powerful with our witness. It IS hard for man to see a good reason for what he knows to be against his interest A mere excuse in the scale with self is heavier than the strongest reason. Read the parable of the hus- bandmen in Luke 20, and you will see how forcibly Jesus shows this weak ness of reason when under the control of self-interest. When the husband men saw him they reasoned with one another saying. this is the heir; let us kill him, that the inheritance may be ours If they had been unselfish and loyal to their master their reason would have said ""Shis Is the heir; let us pay our rent or give up the vineyard to him if he wishes it. He is here now to look after his own. and 1t is reasonable that we should let him do it." Their reason did the bid ding of selffishness and led them to murder And reason is still the slave of self-interest
 Reason is controlled largely by the affections. The Pharisees reasoned in their hearts" Love is proverbially blind, and to nothing is 1t binder than argument. It leaps to conclusions. No argument prevails with us against those we love. A good deacon in a church of which l was pastor was called in by a suffering wife to pro tect her against brutal husband. Reason was altogether on the wife's side, and the deacon took advantage of it to shame the brute into better manners. but he had not proceeded far before the wife took sides with the husband and insnuated to the deacon that his room was more desirable than his company
 That reason Is influenced by so many things is not altogether to it's discredit. If you could find a man who is influenced only by reason, whose affections, imagination, desire, friendship and gratitude did not move him to anything, but who decided everything in the cold light of reason, you would have the devil incarnate There is something in God higher than reason, else we had never been redeemed. God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son" Rationalism would turn men into de- mons of cold calculation. God would use their reason under the control of truth and love. Come now, let us reason together, saith the Lord" He can furnish the knowledge necessary to right conclusions. Such is the ob- 1ect of revelation, and all who are fol lowing reason without a revelation are
 1isled. Agnosticism is the world s latest admission that men cannot by searching find out God. God. must, therefore, reveal himself. In the Bible he has done so, and for you to think lation you can be guided by fickle and fallible reason is a mistake which every reasonable man ought to have sense enough not to make.
 Reason deals with the fitness of things. Tt is not reason" said the apostles, that we should leave the word of the Lord and serve tables" The rich man of the parable was a fool, in that he did not see the fitness of things. He laid up in barns food for his soul and said: Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease; eat, drink and be merry" He was like man who would lay lp for his family a winters supply of earth stones and stubble things that they could not eat. God demands of us nothing unreasonable. It is fitting that we should love with our whole hearts one who loves us so deeply. It is fitting that we should give all we have and are to him who gave himself for us. When we think of Calvary, with it's love and suffering, all for us, no sacrifice we can make ought to be considered great The heroism of the martyrs which led them through fire and flood was no fanaticism. but the most reasonable return to God for what Le had done for them.
 When Jesus asks What shall it profit man if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul?" He appeals to men as rational beings to choose the truly valuable rather than the worthless
 The Roman Catholic church has