The Falls City tribune., 1910-12-09

3fOAANot' " h03 ~ '1hat 'h0N IN ,
you dog of a spirit we've given you
an abode in a splendid temple. We
gild you and feed you and fumigate
you with incense, and yet you are so
ungrateful that you won't listen to
eur prayers So they drag him in
the dirt, and then if they get what
they want they clean him and set
him up again with apologies and pro-
misses of a new coat of guiding"
How childishly stupid and absurd
they are to imagine that such selfish
utilizing of the idol merely to secure
their selfish ends can be considered
worship. And yet how easy it is for
us to do the same thing.
The fact is we are constantly In
danger Of merely utilizing God, In
stead Of worshiping him,
1t is the temptation to value our re-
ifgion chiefly for what we can get
cut of it in the selfish, lower sense,
The nan who tried to use Christ
to get his brother to halve his inher-
itance with him, and the woman who
tried to "use her pull with him to
- no11 horthc f1- ho- two cana ~
but two representatives of a vast null
titude.
Their central thought in their rela-
ton to Christ, is not one of loving de-
votion and joyous fellowship. The
fact of the matter is that, if you
scrape off the surface gloss you will
find essentially the same thought as
that which found place in the Chinese
idol-worshiper's mind.
1t is the difference between making
Christ an end in himself, and making
him merely a means toward an end;
between loving him and using him.
1t is the difference between the
warm hearted, passionate devotion
which loves him for what he is, and
is almost oblivious to the gifts he
brings, or sees in them only calls to
deeper gratitude; and the sordid, and
calculating spirit attracted to him by
the loayes and fishes.
1t is the difference between the
meaner standard of baser soul which
catching no glimpse of his grace and
glory, would press heavenly power in
to the service of earthly plans; and
that nobler, diviner insight which
marks earth's ~loftiest souls in the
presence of the Master, and which ex-
presses itself in worship.
One of the evils incident to this sub
stitution of a utilized God for a wor-
SHIPPED God is the fact that the mar
is liable at any moment to be disap-
pointed in, and to discard his God
as he would a machine that no longer
works"
Mans fidelity hinges on Gods utili-
ty. So long as piety brings prosper
ity it is a fine thing. But when Jobs
possessions are swept away and the
storms of adversely strip his fields
bare-why then, according to his wife
philosophy, the proper thing to do is
to curse the God who is no longer a
guaranty against earthly disaster.
You nave known such people. AS a
rule they have no trouble in r%econcil-
ing the ways of God with some other
chaps troubles. President Kings
characterization of the optimist as
1.-THE man who thinks everything hap
pens for the best-as long as it hap
pens to the other fellow" fits their
case to a tee.
But when the cyclone levels their
home: or the bursting dam carries it
away: or the death angel fails to pass
over their family circle and leave it
unscathed, these people are apt to
question the value of a God whose
favor does not guarantee them imun-
ity from |humanity's common heritage
of sorrow, II oftentimes their idol
is toppled down. Almost any pastors
"reminiscences will furnish men n
women, supposedly firmly grounded l
the faith, who, passing t through some