The Montgomery advertiser., 1909-03-28
"wHAT DOES GOD REaUIREs,

lSeiected Tor The AQVertfSer.l
 "Wherewith shall I come before the thee. o man. what is i sood: @a'a and d"VTsf what doth the Lord require of thee but to walk humbly with thy .God?"
 Here is q man asking himself the thls inquiry there comes an answer. and one which must be sent from an- other world. He hath showed thee Q InaI, man. what is good" Do not make will indorse It. What doth the Lord require of thee?" Calves of a year old? ola. Thousands ;anS of rams? r Ten thous- for thy transgression? None of these, but to do justly. and to love mercy. and to walk humbly with thy God" you cannot get behind it., All con troversy; all resentful inteIlectualism: all selfish .calculation; all vicious .po- litical Christianity. must fall before this sublime revelation.
 On the one side you have a number of hypocrites who are willing to pay for religion[men who are prepared tn duty if they are only allowed to do as they chose otherwise. They put their hands in their pockets and say, Is the. money; buy a whole field full. Ten, thousand of rams? Buy up the cattle markets of the world Ten annssi thousands of rivers of oil? Let the sippi flow with oil through all the meads of earth" But the Lord says. You are all wrong. Keep your calves and your rams and your rivers of oil; lay not finger on any child you have. All I want Is that you shall do justly. and love mercy, and walk humbly with thy God. My thoughts are not as your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than sake his way. and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him, and to our God, and he will abundantly pardon" You cannot ap- pease God with calves or rams; you cannot lubricate your way to heaven by ten thousands of rivers of oil. The great settlement must be upon higher moral basis-justice. mercy and hu- mility.
 This requirement. reveals the char acter of God Himself. We shall know mands of us. What. then. does God want? Justice. mercy. condescension. Is God just? Let His providence reply. In judging the justice of God, we must not take this or that single instance; we must judge the whole. IL would seem as if God. when He turns a page, turns over a thousand years. We must await the sum total Gods appeal Is to the everlasting. We must follow Him into His own court. Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right? men should walk in mercy In the splr- it of love and pity and tenderness. Is He merciful? Let history reply Let our own conscience be heard. and as we look back on the handful! of days which we call life. who will not say. Goodness and mercy have followed and good when He denied, and good when He took away. Blessed be the name of the Lord;
 And does He walk humby with men? This is the record Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus who. being in the form of God. thought 1t not robbery 10 be equal with God. but made Himself of no reputation, ana took upon Him the form of servant. and was made in the likeness of men. And being found in fashion as q man. He humbled Himself, and became obe- dient unto death-even the death of the cross" None have stopped SO low as our God.
 We may say say ,dI then (With all reycr- anGeo. ,nT t4@1 Goa bot bofS a In fa,5 own sphere in ours-nay, more: He has shown us the way in which 1t should be done. He hath shown thee to man! What Is good, and what doth the Lord require God?" " '' between man and man. to do justly to thYself? We never know how hard ii is until we try. What have you done? Many things pass In the lamplight that will not stand the noondav blaze examine your justice. then. in the full jtt Is 1t natural 10 be just? Or is it natural for strength to triumph over weakness? The world says the weak est must go to the wall. Is this Gods