The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1909-06-10

8
PRlN ,Er ON u u
tered; the Beatitudes; the Sermon On
the Mount; the Golden Rule; the great
Law of Love? It was the Man who
came from God. The biggest blunder
one ever makes is to say that Christ
came to teach men how to get into
heaven. He did not. He came to
teach man how to get heaven into
him. Unless you get heaven into you
you will never get into heaven. The
kingdom of heaven is within you.
The New Jerusalem, a city of JOY and
purity and sobriety and holiness, is
come down out of heaven and estab-
lished on earth when men follow Jesus
Christ. What man needs to know is
not the way to heaven but the way to
God.
You may think the preacher wonder
fully anxious about religion. he is
not anxious for the christian religion.
No word of Christ's gospel shall ever
pass away. You may think he is
anxious about the church. He is not.
for it is founded upon rock. He is
anxious for you. James 81. Ludlow
tells us how Black in the 6 Princess of
Thule" makes Ingram say, "You
know every young fellow starts life
by knocking down all the beliefs he
finds before him, and then spends the
rest of his life setting them up again. y
Commenting upon this Ludlow says,
calais! he does not merely knock them
down. he treads them down, crushes
their vitality at the important mo-
ment when they are roofing themselves
in his soul and when, in after years,
he longs for the early Impressions
they do not revive at the demand of
his need, though he water them with
tears of regret" I would save you
from such disaster. Iwould have YOU
keep that which is committed unto
you, the freshness and purity of your
youth, the humble, simple faith SYM
bolized by childhood. I would not
have you sell your birthright for
mess of pottage nor have you ever be
compelled to offer to God the dregs of
a misspent life. Seriously I point
you to Jesus Christ, who came from
God to teach you not how to die, but
how to live. If'by ''getting religion"
is meant getting near Jesus Christ
and following faithfully in his foot
steps, then by all means get religion;
and in the language of the Hoosier
Schoolmaster, ''git plenty while
you're gittin'."
Religion defined as "a sentiment for
God" is not mere sentimenta]ism.
Religion as sentimentalism is like
unto young man who called upon
his lady love. The Irish domestic
who responded to his ring said that
the young lady was sick. With pale
face and agitated voice he inquired as
to the nature of her illness. Bridget
answered with a perfectly straight
countenance: ''They call it love, sur.
believe it's some sort of shkin
disase." There is sort of religion
that is no more than skin disease.
Beauty" they say, sis only skin
Deep" I have seen type of religion
not as deep as that. It had no beauty
in it. It was not religion at all
Sentimental religion is not found
entirely in the church. There is as
much of it outside of the church. I
refer to that sort of religion that con-
tents itself with airy speculations
about God, which is all pro6tless talk
and no practice; the kind that prides
itself in nursing some dwarfed, dried
up virtue-the single, sole fruit of the
tree of life; the sort of religious senti-
mentalism that gushes about the So
called 'god of nature.'' It is queer
and often ludicrous what men do
under the ruse of worship for this
"god of NATURE I bow to no man
in my enjoyment of natural works of
God. But we should be at least de-
Gently honest and consistent, and
acknowledge that in many things we
do under the pretext Of worshiping the
"god of nature" we are simply fol-
lowing our natural and animal in
stincts, and are governed solely by
impulse and desire. These things
may be right or wrong or innocent,
they may afford a passing pleasure,
but in doing them we are no more
performing a religious service than do
the rabbits when they, in obedience to
their sense of hunger, help themselves
to my garden truck.
What is nature without Personal
God behind it? The religion that
amounts to anything may start with
the religious instinct but develops