The Mount Holly news. [volume] (Mount Holly, Burlington Co., N.J.) 1891-1942, 1910-12-06

z@ 20, give thanks unto
the Lord, for he is
E6FFTfYH nIl<cET1T good; for his mercy
3skzsssz Z endureth forever
Psalm evil, /.
Thanksgiving Day appeals to all Of
us, and we are glad that the Pilgrim
Fathers long years ago started the
custom. They placed it at the end of
the harvest and in recognition of the
same. The keeping of such a day ap-
peals to all civilized mankind In con-
siderable degree, because our Great
Creator so organized us that the quail
ity of reverence, of worship, lies prom
inently ON the top of our heads. The
man or woman, rich or poor, educated
or ignorant, bond or free, who has not
this organ of veneration developed in
considerable measure cannot be appre-
ciative and deferential toward his Gre
ator, and hence would not enjoy
Thanksgiving day. We are glad that
these are comparatively few. We are
glad to suppose that the majority of
this great nation of civilization looked
up to God with grateful hearts anf
rendered him thanks for blessings
manifested.
Hindrances to True Reverence.
Nevertheless, the numbers increase
yearly of those who are losing their
reverence for the God of the Bible and
vaguely turning towards a God of Ma
ture, Of whom they profess to know
v.nff =
and unthankful fellow-creatures are
not generally the most ignorant of our
race, nor the least favored in temporal
mercies and blessings. Among them
are many learned, wealthy, influential
Their condition is well represented by
that of young woman who called at
my study recently. In substance she
said, ~ have lost my God. | am I'M
happy. am hoping that you will be
able to assist me in finding him
again." Thank God, we were able to
assist her, and now she is able to give
thanks to God in all sincerity.
/ am not speaking to the irreverent
In this audience, nor to those of this
class in my larger audience of millions
all over the world, to whom l speak
through the public press. l am speak
Ing to others who, while not yet fully
in the faith, are still disposed to
give thanks. l speak to these be-
cause realize that each day is
bringing to the world greater inteli-
gence, more Independent thoughtful
ness, in a wider use of reason. l
speak because my experience teaches
that unless these be fully armed with
the Truth and awakened to independ-
emit thought, they are almost certain to
fall into unbelief-Evolution, Higher
Criticism, and mere form of godli-
ness, which denies the real power
thereof
The Truth Shall Make You Free.
The Great Teacher prayed for his
followers, "Sanctify them through thy
Truth; thy Word is Truth John xvii,
10. To be forearmed with the Truth
Is to be safeguarded against the error
To be ignorant of the Truth is to fall
prey to the error-especially in this
"evil day." when "a thousand shall
fall at thy side and ten thousand at
thy right hand" psalm xci, y. The
difficulty with us has been that many
have supposed that the conversion of
the world and its sanctihcation can be
better accomplished by misrepresenta-
ton of Divine Character and Justice.
Unconsciously we have learned to
twist and interpret our Bibles to fit
the erroneous creeds which were hand
ed to us by our well-meaning fore
fathers. The Day of Judgment upon
these false creeds is upon u.s. I'm
less we learn that they do not prop
erly interpret the Bible, we will re-
ject the Bible when we reject the
creeds-and that must be very soon
for all thinking people. ITO the Law
and to the testimony; if they speak not
according to this Word, 1t is because
there is no light in them" isaiah viii
20).
Causes For Ingratitude.
"Come, let us reason together, saith
the Lordw If our creeds tell US truly
to Purgatory or to eternal torment,
should we give thanks on this ac-
count? If our creeds tell truly that
an elect handful of saints will escape
the torture, how do we know wheth-
er or not we belong to that elect hand
fulf Have we sufficient information
on this subject to give thanks there
for? If our creeds tell truly that near
ly all the members of our families,
nearly all of our neighbors and friends,
being insanity, not "sanctified in
Christ Jesus" not followers In the
footsteps of Jesus not of those ''who
walk not after the flesh, but after the
spirit" all, except a mere hand
full, are doomed to more horrible tor
ture than the worst earthly sufferings
we could possibly imagine for them,
and are doomed to these for centuries
In Purgatory, according to the Catho-
lie; or for all eternity, according to
sur Protestant theories, can we hon.
estly thank God for any Of these con-
ditions, If we believe them to be true?
Can we worship In spirit and in
truth" a Creator who would make
such an atrocious plan? And could
we respect his honesty If he labelled
1t good tidings Of great joy to all |
people"f Assuredly we could notl
If the foregoing things which have
come down to US from the Ozark |
Ages" be true, Of what consequence, In
comparison, would be the material har-
vests of earth, which would merely en- |
courage and stimulate the bringing into |
being of larger numbers of our race to |
those tortures? II these |
things be true, rather should we give |
thanks for famine and pestilence, |
which would obliterate our race en-
tirely and thus save future thousands |
Df millions from the horrors of eternal |
torture. These thoughts will come to
all intelligent beings sooner or later |
We bring them forward now, In order |
that we may Offset them with the |
rruth-that we may show the fallacy |
Of these doctrines Of DEVILS" as ST. |
Paul designates them Il Timothy iv, u. |
We bring them to your attention so
hat we may not only demolish them,
out give you instead the true, satisfac-
.ory portion, the Truth, the Bread that
came down from heaven to give life
sternal, not merely to the sanity few
# the Church, but to mankind In gen.
,ral. Those who get the proper view
# our Creator and of his glorious Plan
Tor human salvation Will be forever
protected from such fears and doubts