The Dillon herald. [volume] (Dillon, S.C.) 1894-????, 1910-03-24

| oI Jesus 10 TWO or three sentences OF
the most ordinary sort, it does not
seem credible that Jesus as a person
shall long survive. Whatever else
may be true, it is true that the Christ
In whom the world believes, and be-
lieving has found a regenerating
power from age to age, is the Christ
OF the Gospels. In all our present.
day-thinking, it Is this Christ whose
image stands before us, whom we
love and in whom we trust. A Christ
who has no history and whose life
therefore presents no facts for Gre
dence would be vanishing Christ
Nevertheless, the faith of which the
New Testament speaks relates chiefly
to persons. Christianity is not funda-
mentally creed, but the manifesto
tion Of God in Christ Jesus, to which
man may respond trustfully and 10y
| ally, and it is this response which we
call faith. The mission of Christ is
TO bring us to God, that we may love
Him and believe in Him, and, there
fore, serve Him. And l am per-
suaded that many man finds God in
Christ with whose technical theology
l could not agree. If all men had to
believe the same creed, salvation
| would be impossible to many of us
who do not find it difficult to believe
in the same God and the same Christ
with difference of definition.
What, then, is faith? Four our
purposes to-day as it relates to God
1T is the continued and loyal move
! ment of the entire soul of man to-
ward God as the revealer of truth and
the authoritative Lord of life
We may note also two other mean
ings of faith which grow out of this
larger meaning, for faith not only
comprises the entire nature of the in
| dividual, but also the whole field of
his activities. Faith in God implies
| faith in our fellowmen as the creation
| of God, or from the Christian point
of view, the children of God. By this
| we may not mean foolish disregard
| of all distinctions of character, nor
the assertion that all men are equally
to be relied upon; but it does mean
recognition of humanity as in
Volved in the purpose of a trust
worthy God, and therefore, itself
worthy Of confidence. He who be-
lieves in God as his Father, believes
also in man as his brother. Faith in
God implies also good faith on the
| part OF the believer. To accept God
as the giver of light and the Lord OF
life is to acknowledge ourselves
bound to be utterly sincere in our re-
lations to Him. And to acknowledge
the brotherhood of man, including
ourselves, is to enthrone the princi-
pie of good faith among men. In a
word, faith is the expression of the
souls love of truth and its loyalty to
truth; to God who is truth and whose
plans, though not understood by us,
are the embodiment of His truth; to
man, who, created in the image OF
God and redeemed by Gods only be-
gotten Son, preserves yet amid the
ruinous results of his sin, some traces
or the Fathers image and the capac-
1ty for unlimited development; to self
as the creature of the true God and
as part OF the constituted order of
things where truth forms the only re-
liable basis of harmonious action.
Faith thus defined bulks large. 1t
is seen to be not merely the transient
activity Of a single phase of mans
nature, the intellect, but the continI
ued movement of mans entire being,
intellect, sensibilities, will, toward
truth and ultimately toward the God
or truth. 1t is not for a day nor an
hour, but for all time and for all eter-
nifty. 1t is not limited to a single fac
ulty of the human soul, but involves
the whole soul. 1t has not for its OBJ.
1ect n limited area of truth, but
reaches out toward all truth, even the
| infinite God of truth.
1t is difficult, IL not impossible, to
draw clear line of distinction be-
tween what is called natural" and
what is called religious" faith. To
one who believes as l do that man is
religious being through and
through, the faith which arises in the
ordinary so-called secular" processes
OF life and has to do with practical
daily affairs is itself a fruit of the
spirit. BY this I mean that man is
creation of the Almighty, upon whose
soul and its consequent activities God
has stamped His own nature. Fur.
thermore, God has interviewer Him.
self in the very fabric of the universe.
II, as we have said, faith is necessary
to all progress, then the exercise OF
faith on the part of man displays
something of the divine nature within
him. 1t is because God has sent forth
| HIS spirit into the heart of man tha;
man is able to think Gods thoughtl
after Him in the universe and to
reach forward with those majestic
reaches Of confident expectation
which have wrought the great accom-
plishments in the material and intel
lectual development of human life in
relation to the world outside of man.
Yet 1T must be conceded that re-
ligious faith is of higher order than
this general faith because it deals
with higher order of facts. The
moral nature Of man is his crowning
possession. The apprehension of God
marks the highest reach Of his moral
intelligence. Fellowship with God is
at once his crowning glory and SUI
preme privilege. To believe in Cod 10
the highest attribute to faith and the
exercise of this attribute is condi-
toned by personal fellowship with
God. AS with every one else. God
must first be known and then be-
| lieYed. When one knnws Cod nr