Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1910-07-26
A Minimum of Greed Can
Not Produce the
Maximum of Character

Character can never be loftier than the
motives from which 1t springs. low
motive leads one to a low level Of life,
and a high motive raises one to a high
plane Of being.
This being true. it is not strange that
Jesus and the Apostles always appeal
ed to the highest motives. The christi
anity which they taught meets men in
the attitudes of their natures because it
aims to bring men up to the most ele-
waited state of existence. 1t cares moth
ing for the impulses which arise from
worldly wisdom. earthly expediency. and
human policy. All these are OF the earth.
earthly. and it proposes to call men to
heavenly and divine things.
Hence it's appeal is to the atoning love
revealed by the cross of Christ, the holi
ness of God which we are invited to share
by becoming partakers of the divine ma
ture, the future life with its eternal re-
wards and everlasting penalties, and ali
the powers of the world to come In which
we find the spiritual forces by which
the heart is regenerated.
Such christianity wrought the most
revolutionary results on both individual
and social life in the first century.
Through ii common men and women were
so changed that they exemplified the
most uncommon virtues. In an age which
was surcharged with national narrow
ness and racial antagonisms, they
breathed a spirit of worldwide charity.
which embraced men of all lands, all
nationalities and all races in the lines
of its gentle and generous ministries.
Men like Saul Of Tarsus, who was of the
strictest sect of the Pharisees, were lift
ed out of their petty sectarianism and
bitter bigotry, until they cried out, I'VE
are debtors both to the Greeks and to
the barbarians, both to the wise and
the unwise." (Romans 1:1D. They were
so cleansed of base covetousness and low
ambition that they despised earthly
things which in any wise hindered their
spiritual life. counting such things loss
for the excellency of the knowledge of
Christ Jesus their Lord" for whom indeed
they suffered the loss of all earthly good.
They rose superior to persecution and
pain, and rejoiced in the tribulations
which befell them on account of their
faith. They loved not life, nor feared
death, but, living or dying. they exulted
in the fact that they were their Lords
own possession. They could not be
driven to deny Him by threats, nor al
offers of worldly advantage whatsoever.
Thousands of them out of devotion to
Christ advanced to martyrdom with the
ardent enthusiasm at bVtdegrooms going
to the marriage altar.
The christianity, which they thus ex-
emplifed and propagated, rapidly spread
despite the most powerful opposition. 1t
triumphed over the hatred OF the heath
en- world and the hostility of the Jew
ish hierarchy. No power under the sun
was able to stay its progress or with
stand its influence. 1t turned the world
upside down, although it used no carnal
weapons. Unaided by political support.
phiosophic assistance, or ecclesiastical
favour, 1t overcame the most formida-
bic foes, and established itself quickly
in all the great centers Of Western Asia
and Southern Europe. letter of the
younger Pliny, governor of Bithynia. in
Asia Minor. to his friend the Emperor
Trogan, written about seventy years
after the death of Christ, says OF chris
tianity that 1t has spread on all sides;
in towns, in the villages, and in the
country; the temples of our gods stand
deserted, and sacrifices have now Tor
long time ceased to be offered" Ter
tullian, the Christian apologist, who
wrote about a century later says to his
heather opponents, I'VE are but Of yes
terday, and yet we have taken posses
sion of your whole country-towns, is
lands. the camp, the palace. the senate.
the forum; we have left you only the
temples"
This vast victory christianity achieved.
not by any Ccheme of compromise or
worldly policy, but by calling men to
God, by appealing to the highest and
holiest motives. And in every age which
has followed 1t has won the greatest
triumphs by the same methods. On this
elevated platform Martin Luther and
the Reformers stood. Wesley and the
English Revivalists Of the eighteenth
century as Knox In Scotland had done
before them, made their appeal to the
same great motives, and by the mighty
movement which they set up they
changed the current of modern history
From the days Of the Apostles until now
all the great christian movements Of the
world have proceeded from the same I'M
earthly forces. Appeals TO shallow mo-
tives have never wrought any great ana
permanent good among msn.
Eerein is discovered the weakness of
much that goes in our day under the
name of christianity, and herein is
found the explanation of the inefficiency
of a good deal Of what men call preach
ing in this generation. Such religion is
impotent and such preaching powerless