The citizen. (Honesdale, Pa.) 1908-1914, 1910-09-07

your daughters shall prophesy, your
old men shall dream dreams, your
young men shall see visions, and also
upon the servants and handmaids In
those days will pour out my spirit
Joel ll:29-29.
The day that saw the canon of
Scripture closed and Gods revelation
to future generations discounted in
advance marks dark, sad chapter in
the history of vital religion. In
every age God has poured forth His
spirit upon all flesh. Sons and daugh-
ters have prophesied, old men have
dreamed dreams and young men have
seen visions. The servants and hand
maids have felt the throb and urge
of the Divine Spirit, but not a syllable
Of later revelation has ever crept into
the sacred pages.
When the canon was closed men
began to think of the Golden Age of
revelation, as in the past, and to
speak of the Holy Land. We are only
just recovering from the incalculable
injury of a closed canon.
Jesus opened up the old canon of
His day and added it's richest treas
urer to the Bible. Then he declared
that there was revelation yet to come
He struck blow at the closed canon
which should have been remembered.
God spoke in no different way to
Moses or Samuel or David or Isaiah or
Paul or Jesus than He has spoken
to the spiritually quickened of all
generations.
yield to none in my reverence for
the truth which shines forth from
the pages of the Bible, but Gods voice
has never been silenced. He never
spoke more clearly or distinctly above
the clouds of Sinai than He is speak
ing in thousands of hearts to-day
Nietzsche may cry, God is dead. My
God is alive and His voice can be
heard wherever a human soul stands
forth for righteousness or justice, or
human brotherhood, wherever love to
God and love to man is fealessly pro-
claimed.
Many sons and daughters of our
time are prohesying. They have
caught the divine idea of the universe
and seen into the eternal heart and
meaning of life, but many of them
have been labeled with approbrious
titles and Stunned even by the church.
So difficult is it to recognize the divine
word when we hear it; so difficult to
believe that men and women of to-
day are temples of a living, speaking
God; so difficult to see that the new
light which Jesus promised is grow
ing brighter before our eyes in the
great movements of these prophetic
times-the new theology and the
awakening Of the social consciousness
throb with the urge of divine life,
proclaiming a God immanent in His
world and working for mighty con-
summation. The old phrases have
lost their power to grip the minds
and hearts of men. The truth they
contained must be clothed in a new
terminology and harmonized with the
modern mind.
Gods call for readjustment is be-
ing answered by devoted scholars in
Germany and England and France
and America. Preserving all that is
best in the past, they are listening for
the voice of the God who has never
failed to speak to the successive gen.
erations of His children.
In almost every land to-day there
are movements toward the solidarity
Of the race, an emphasis on the things
which unite men In universal broth
erhood. We are becoming conscious
of a call to answer such questions as
these Is 1t really necessary that
the greater portion of the people of
this world should be miserable in a
dreary existence? Can 1t ever be any
advantage to man to keep others In
poverty and wretchedness? Is II
worth while to fight with one another
instead of helping and encouraging
one another? Is hate better than
lover Is property of more value thSn
human beings?
These questions come from those
who are listening for the message OF
God to our time and have heard Him
say neSe InlnBS OuBnt not 10 De.
Everywhere I meet militant souls,
who have caught the vision of new
heaven and a new earth and are
afiame with zeal to make the crooked
straight; TO tear down the walls which
divide men and build up a spiritual
unity which has room for all and a
sympathy with everything which
makes for common good. They are
witnesses Of Gods presence, showing
forth the throbbing spirit of God
within the spirit of man. The church
which does not adjust itself TO this
spirit Of the times. but stands aside
In magnificent isolation is doomed,
and ought to be. The forces which
are at work to-day are throbbing with
the thrust and drive of the spirit of
Jesus. In all the changes OF the pass
ing centuries, that siprtt has captained
the hosts which strove for progress
and enlightenment and the common
good.
What power there would be in
united church laundering the claims
of righteousness IN the face of the
forces organized In the service Of