Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1911-03-07
An Ouer-Mudane Religion
By Bishop w. A. Gambler

dwells on the glorious fact of the new
birth and the heavenly hopes to which II
gives rise Hear him: Behold wnaI
manner OF love the Father hath bestoyeo
upon US that we should be called the
sons of God: therefore the world know
eth us not because 1t knew Him not.
Beloved, now are we the sons Of God;
and it doth not appeor what we shall be:
but we know that when He shall appear,
we shall be Ike Him; for we shall see
Him as He is.
In the same tone write all the Apostles
whose words have come down to us, and
they did but continue the high and
heavenly notes of the prophetic voices
through which God taught men in the
ages before them.
David would have the secret places of
his soul illumined by the light of Gods
searching Spirit: Examine me, God.
and prove me. Try my reins and my
heart. Evidently he was addicted to
some "self-concentration". Again he
prays, Search me, o God and know my
heart: Try me and know my thoughts:
And see If there be any wicked way in
me, and lead me in the way everlasting.
And the sweet singer of Israel did not
feel that a happy death was unworthy
of consideration: Mark the perfect man
and behold the upright; for the end of
that man is peace. And again. Precious
in the sight of the Lord is the death of
His saints
IT. is not possible within\ the limits
of this article to quote other Scrip
lures but these will suffice to show
that whatever may have been the de-
fects Of the type of piety in former
generation, which the writer whose
words were quoted at the beginning of
this paper criticised, that piety was
most Biblical in the very characters
tics which he condemns. Nor was 1t
wanting in "self-consecration' because
it INDUCED INSTRUMENTATION" When
the heart emphasizes its relations to
God it is on the way to the most per-
feet conservation. Attachments in no.
Illness" are reached by way of Gods
altar and divine grace. 1t is not true
that sanity men in the past thought
little of service because they thought
much of being saved by grace through
faith" The apostolic church. in which
%the conscious relation of the soul to
God was the supreme matter" was fill
ed with the sweetest and most manifold
charities; it brought forth such a
fruitage of goodness that a new word
had to be coined for its manifold min
istries.-a word unknown to classic
Greek and from which we have derived
our word philanthropy" There was
no philanthropy in the earth until men
came to love God with all their hearts,
and until this hour there is found the
most service to men where "the souls
conscious relation to God is the supreme
matter" When penitent souls break
upon the Lords head boxes of alabaster
filled with precious ointment they do
more to feed the poor than do all the
calculating Judases who are perpetually
minifying a fervent piety and magnify
ing spurious humanitarianism.
What we need now is not censure Of
a former generation for its excellent
and Scriptural emphasis upon things
spiritual, but genuine repentance for
the worldly type Of religion which pre-
walls among us and a real turning of
our hearts to God We have INDUCED
every form OF worldliness until our re-
ligion itself is becoming too mundane
1t is no longer concerned about 1.-THE
souls conscious relation to Cod; IL is
only concerned about certain forms of
comparatively unimportant service"
and set of reform schemes. 1t thinks
little of a happy death, or Of an unhap-
by death, choosing to put utterly out Of
mind all thought of death whatsoever.
1t knows nothing of what the Scrip
world to come" st. Paul said for him
self and the early christians "our cit
izenship is in heaven. whence also we
look for the Lord of glory who shall
fashion the bodies of our humiliation
according to His own glorious body;
but these modern professors of an over
mundane faith seem to declare "our cit
izenship is in the earth in which we
look for a perfected humanity and a
completed happiness by fashioning hui
man nature through the processes of
t1of !. nett,
tation.|
In periods of rationalism men always
make little Of spiritual and eternal
things, and much of material and tenn
poral matters. The wave of rational
ism now prevalent in our country swept
over the German Universities some sew
enty-five years ago, and when 1t was
at it's height in 1910 DIR. Tholuck wrote
to DR.. Pusey with reference to condi-
tions in his own University. Our
preachers having gotten rid of the
christian doctrines by means Of the
higher criticism, are now insisting with
much earnestness upon the Importance
of taking regular exercise" Into the
same parched life some among us have
entered, and so they would have us no
longer regard 1.-The relation Of the soul
to God as the supreme matter in life
but insist that we give ourselves to a
vague something which they call "serv-
ice" BY conservation they do not
mean conservation to Gods service, but
a fussy and fidgety dedication to some
sort of schemes to ameliorate earthly
conditions among men. But such a
conservation neither blesses earth nor
honours heaven If we are to have in
the world any perennial and vigorous
philanthropy, or any persistent and po-
tent ethical life. We must find it in
that life which is hid with Christ in
God" Neither benevolence nor right
eousness can prevail among men in the
absence the vital religious experience
which is begun by the new birth and
assured by the Witnessing Spirit.
A wise man recently said with refer
ence to all this sort of thing, Our age
has listened too long to the vox hui
mana; it is time now for it to heed
the vox dei.''