Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1910-11-08
n Call for a ReuiOaL
II R Rd Bsno 4. Candle, From Wall Street

save men by taste having failed, the
editor calls for a return to the method
of saving them by grace. He seems to
feel that something really substantial
and reliable in religion is required TO
clean the country of filth. of graft. and
of greed, petty and big, Of worship of
fine houses and big lands. and high
office and grand social functions" He
heaps together in the bundle of evils
which he wants cleaned away things
which at first sight might seem to be
unrelated but somehow we feel that in
so doing he does not violate the princi-
pies of just classification. They are all
of a class. Some of his neighbours who
have worshiped most fervently fine
houses and grand social functions
have been nationally conspicuous for
swapping wives and footing corporations
Many of them also at the same time
have held church membership very much
as they hold membership in their clubs
1t is necessary to complete their social
equipment. But such playing at religion
never has uplifted character, and it
never can. 1t does rather defile the life
with a subtle insincerity which is alb
solutely subversive of high character
Men can not trihe with the hottest things
without corrupting life at its fountain
head. Christianity must be every thing
to him who embraces ii, or il is moth
ing. 1t can not be a mere round of
ceremonies and decencies and proprieties
without speedily becoming the veriest
sham.
This editor is right, therefore, in call
ing us back to more earnest forms of
life than all these things involve. He
wants religion in the home; he calls for
lives of prayer; he insists that we need
the most earnest type of religion to save
the country from moral wreck. And he
49, Of
religion under the spur of the motive
to which he appeals? Hardly.
We can not get a revivai of religion by
seeking a revival of religion. No where
in Gods word are men admonished TO
seek religion or to seek revival OF re-
ligion. They are always urged to seek
God. All the revivals of religion which
have blessed the world in the history of
the past have come when men have I'M
dertaken to seek God. None have ever
come otherwise. We can not defy even
a revival of religion. God must be the
supreme object of our love and desire.
Herein is our trouble: We have lost
God. Men called preachers have explain
ed away the Word of God, making it no
longer a sure word of prophecy, but an
antique for the critics to analyZe and
discuss. The moral law has been lower
ed. The ten commandments have been
reckoned as a piece of Mosaic plagiarism,
applicable to the moral nee0s of ancient
nomads in the wilderness but of no more
than a qualified bearing on the life of to-
day. The Sermon on the Mount has been
treated as IAN irridescent dream. The
iordship of Jesus Christ has been denied,
while treacherous compliments have been
poured out upon his name as that OF
great teacher and a noble martyr. His
teachings have been defied or set aside
wherever they have stood in the way OF a
rampant wordliness or an insurgent ra-
tionalism. The outcome of it all is that
multiplied thousands have lost all knowl-
edge of God in their souls. To all in
tents and purposes God is dead to them.
They take no account of His will in any
of their plans and doings, but live as If
there were no God. They are atheists
without taking the trouble to declare for
mally the atheism which they have in
wardly accepted.
The people must now be called to seek
God He is a real, living Person, and He
will be found of those who sincerely seek
Him. But He must be sought as the
supreme need of the lives of men. He
must be sought for His own sake. He
will not be found of men who seek Him
simply to remedy a bad commercial situa-
ton or TO cure social and political ills.
He will not consent be used as a sort
of celestial and omniscient chief-of-police
to help us suppress grating and stealing
and RIGHTEOUSNESS. 1t is quite true that
if all the people turned to God they
would be turned away from every evil
thing; but they will never turn to God
until they feel that the worst disaster
in life is that one should fail to know our
heavenly Father. They must be made 20
feel the sorrowfulness of the orphanage
of the soul until like the prodigal of the
parable they begin to say each within
himself, 81 will arise and go to my
Father"
We have had already too great dis
position to try to use God for all snrfe 81
social ameliorations, moral reforms, and
politicaI renovations. It is time now we
sought Him for Himself alone. 1t is time
we began to cry with the Psalmist.
Whom have ] in heaven but thee, and
there is none upon earth that desire be
side thee. Then indeed we shall md
Him when our hearts pant for Him a.
the hart panteth after the water-brooks