The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-09-11
EXPLAINS GROWTH OF CHRISTIAN LIFE
Rev. Mooney Takes Chris tians in the Making"
 as Theme

At the Second Presbyterian church yes D. Mooney, had as his subject, "Chris- tians in the Making" The sermon was based upon texts found in 1 John 5:12, Phillipians PIP and the sixth verse of the eighth chapter of Romans.
 There is confusion in the minds of many people as to what constitutes the Christian character said the speaker.
 ''In the first place, confusion often ex- ists in the minds of Christian people, and especially of young Christians. The period of enthusiasm immediately follow ing their conversion does not last, but which they are unable to understand. They do not remember that enthusiasm cannot always remain at the same pitch, that it Is a natural phenomenon that re- taxation follows effort. They become dis appointed because they feel that growth in the Christian life is too slow. It must be remembered that one cannot grow in Christianity by leaps and bounds; there must be slow growth. There Is no full year or day.
 There are some Christians who be- come gloomy because they catch fresh views of their own sin in all it's hein- ousness. This Is a favorable mani festation rather than not. To be able to get a keener view of ones own sin, with realization of its awfulness, in- dicates a better development in Chris tianity. Peter himself had this experi- ence.
 There is confusion in the mind of the world as to what the Christian life is. It misjudges, and from lack of insight gets the wrong idea of the Christian. It says that the Christian life is only a mat ter of taste or liking, as some men have a liking for politics, or philosophy, or art-a matter of personal temperament. Others say that it is matter of train ing, of education, that a man who has been brought up under Christian home ideals is influenced by them to follow them. Still others hold that the Christian like is a formal kind of life, and judg- ing by externals, that the Christian is as covetous, as selfish, as unworthy, as the non- Christian.
 '"The real Christian experience is a light. Every man who is follower of Jesus Christ has the light from aboye It is a living relation between God and the Christian. It is the only. life that Is constant. living relation between harmony, order, love. goodness.
 '"The purpose of the life is to repro duce in the lives of all who adopt 1t the qualities of Gods own character. It begins along the lines of process of development; 1t is a gradual unfolding and increasing until the victory of sal vation and redemption is reached.
 "when we understand that the life is a process we are able to comprehend that the moral and spiritual life now and then meets defeat. that the old life in which the new development is staged, now and then, although lying dormant, rises and leads the Christian into temptation. We must rise from temptation and press on toward the mark. It Is not a question of how much inconsistency there is in the Christian's life. but of how glaring those inconsistencies are, that counts.
 But because it is possible for the Chris tian to sin, we should not Hull ourselves into false security. God tells us that we are to work out our own salvation. We must strive to come up to all the de- mands of the Christian life, for we wrestle with the powers of wickedness, with evils all around us. It is only because of Gods light in the Christians heart that he is able to come out victorious in the great struggle"