The Democratic banner. (Mt. Vernon, Ohio) 1898-192?, 1910-05-03

Text 81 am no, ashamed Of the Gospel Of Christ
Romans j. l0
ooOs-.".-s-.-.-.-.-.-.-.- -.-.~.-.-.-....-s-.-S----O
have frequently rejected also the cen
trail truth which that dogma, to a GER
tain degree. misrcprcsented. Thus we
are in the day of the rejection of the
creeds by the people of all denomina-
tions, Catholic and Protestant, and
equally we are in the day of Bible re-
lection, because 1t IS assumed that the
Bible, having been studied by the
formulators of these crceds, must be
in accord with these, and hence, must
be responsible for the unreasonable
teachings, and must be rejected when
these are rejected
Some of us ran away with the doc
trlne of Election thinking it the
whole Gospel of Christ; whereas, our
fragment was incomplete, unsatisfac-
tory, and misrcprcscntcd the Gospel,
when taken alone. Others graspcd the
doctrine of "frcc grace" and ran away
with that, claiming that 1t was the en-
tire Gospel - ignoring the Scriptures
which referred to election" etc.
These made similar mistake, and
similarly misreprcScntcd the Gospel OF
Christ in its Wilderness, its solidarity.
Others grasped those Scriptures which
assure us of n universal opportunity
for salvation, and interpreted them TO
mean that all mankind will attain
eternal salvation, regardless of their
wills and cooperation. Others found
difficulty in harmoniZing the relation
ship between the heavenly Father the
heavenly Son. and the holy Spirit, and
this contention led TO Unitarianism on
the one hand. and to Trintarianism on
the other. Others of us caught the
doctrine of "baptism," and made of 1t
the entire Gospel, and thus did violence
to the lengths. and breadths, and
heights, and depths of the true mes
sage, the true Gospel, of which St
Paul in our text declares that he was
not ashamed
Noting the logical mind of st. Paul
who can doubt that he would be
ashamed. as we ourselves are, of the
lIh VI Nht Ntl
Gus crceds which more or less oppose
and contradict each other? We may
be sure that what the Apostle would
endorse, as the Gospel of Christ" we
need not he ashamed of. Hence our
determination should be to search the
Scriptures and TO find that one reason
able message of the Divine Plan which
t., cl
Things at Which We Gagged.
Men and women do not find it diff
cult TO believe in a wise, just loving
and powerful Creator just such God
our hearts and heads tell us we should
expect; just such God rational peo.
pie find no difficulty in worshiping
Indeed, while some OF us in the past
may have believed In the total de
pravlty" OF the race, may we not real
ize that Notwithstanding the fall. there
Is still In the human mind and heart
something which has "longings inf
mite" something which cries out for
the living God, and which commands
our reverence and worship, in proper
| tlon as he is recognized?
Spiritually we gagged at the sugges-
tion that n God of all wisdom, love.
| Justice and power ever created our
race with the foreknowlcdge and fore
ordination that practically all of these
thousands OF millions must suffer eli
ther purgatorial torture for several
centuries, as our Catholic friends pre-
/ thn n thn ct IN
| irrational theory of us I'rotcstants that
| eternal torture is TO be the fate OF all
except the eject few, the saints, who
now follow in the footsteps OF Jesus
Il course contrary to the world and all
the tendencies of life around us. Well
may we gag, and the sooner we reject
and eject this entire mass of un-Scrip-
tural dogmas. the better. AS whole
II comes to us from our honest. but un-
enlightened forefathers, who verify
thought they did God service in tortur-
ing one another. even TO the extent of
burning one another at the stake, be-
cause OF little differences along the
lines of these doctrines of devils" q
Timothy iv, u.
The rich spiritual food ana the strong
faith, which we, dear friends, as Bi-
BILE students. should desire and seek
for are TO ba found only in the Bible It,
self. We should not spurn suggestions
from one another, but we should re-
ceive such suggestions tentatively, and
the Word of God should he searched,
so that our faith should not stand in
the teachings of men, but in the power
of God, as set forth in the Word of
God. From this quarter only can we
expect information respecting
The Gospel of Christ"
OF which st. Paul was not ashamed.
That Gospel has two distinct features.
Primarily 1t relates to the world of
mankind, and instead OF telling us
that either centuries of purgatoriM sut-
fering, or an eternity of torture awaits
the world, its message is that, in Gods
dino tip,n c,nnt hlneuinn au,aifs tho