The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 18??-1935, 1910-02-25
THIS WORLD AND THE NEXT.
(By REV. GEO. H. MACK.1

Ne
At (By REV. GEO. H. MACK)
a. Time was in the course of Christ
W anity when they sought to fix the ey
n wholly on the next world This iii
+? is but fleeting show, this world
# soon to burn up in the judgment q
r the coming of the Son of Man for ma
. ter is itself evil, and the only spher
that should receive mans thought /
n the world to come.
1 Therefore men withdrew from tn
: scenes of busy life to the monster,
). and the hermits lodge. They set NJ
[ value upon the gains of Egypt anC
| Babalonia; the rich treasures in ar
, and philosophy of Greece and Rome.
1t was to the church, indeed, a pu
rifying faith In the freshness of its
appeal it induced a better moral life
which for some time was seen in the
church; and it fixed forever in the
Christian faith the truths of the here
after as very real to every believer.
But it was a partial view of Gods
truth. Oyer-emphasis always brings
reaction. God had also made this
world and it's inhabitant man. He
had guided the nations in their achiey-
ments and these were worthy of
thought and study.
Humanism, or a love for the truest
and best things of this world, came to
would teach him in the school of the
present
When humanism appeared, it is
needless to say, it was opposed by the
church whose Pope looked upon it
with deep disdain and dread. But the
Renaissance, first in Italy and then in
France, Germany and England, loosed
the minds Of men and led to a wonder
full revival Of thought in ali lines |
History, literature. art, philosophy |
Biblical study-all received a remark
ablt impetus.
And this new thought in turn led to |
deeper and 5ruer religious faith
Erasmus prepared the way for Luther,
and Lorenzo de Medici and the schol-
ar5 around him made possible the
oounter-reformation
All thought and life were the richer,
for now was man seen as the child OF
two worlds He possesses a dual life
related as ne IS to the present and in
spirit related to the eternal The Ref
ormation we consider then as the
time when man got on the right track
again; when he had a normal view of
himself.
This much of history. But does it
1ot tell us that we must still keep be-
ore us the two elements in their right
citations? The humanism of the pres
mt is doing us good service in making a
is consider such things as the welfare c
# the laborer, the education of every Ii
,hild, the offering to rich and poor c
like CT ali the mental gains the race h
las ever gotten 7
This is a good world. 1t is not per- Il
lament and we must not fix our faith il
0 it nor be conformed to it, But we a
aust use it--not abuse it," God n
'ould have us use it as great school ri
eyeloplng us in all the higher reaches a,
f the sane SO that we may be the c,
etter fitted for the larger life hereaf- f,
n, There is no danger from this use az
The world so long as we subordinate CO
to the further and greater end not et
aking it an end itself Not conform
y to the world but transformation a,
TO the character of Christ is our st
cal If the churc' today emphasizes be
,ther wor1lliness," it is not because nc
lie would deny the value of tahis br
orld, bur because so many see this Il.
orld and is interests to the exclu- ru
on of the other. tn