Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1911-05-30
FAITH is NOT DISCREDITED FIFTH
By BISHOP W. A. GAMBLER.

i
The religion of good men is sometimes
criticised by shallow persons declaring
EFT nothing more than inherited faith
derived from their parents. Suppose the
charge is true, does it. amount to any
thing worthy of consideration?
Certainly the sacred Scriptures do not
contain or encourage the idea that any
mans faith is to be discredited because
1t is the faith of his fathers. When God
appeared unto Moses, giving to him the
great commission to deliver Israel from
Egyptian bondage, He revealed Himself
to His servant as THE Lord God of your
fathers, the God of Abraham, of Isaac,
and of Jacob. EXODUS iii:16. When
Joshua succeeded Moses, Jehovah APP
peared to him saying, GAS I was with
Moses, so will 1 be with thee. Goshua
i:5). And throughout the Old Testament
the heavenly Father delights in calling
himself 'the God of Abraham. Isaac and
Jacob"
In like manner when Jesus appeared
among men He did not claim that He
had come to set aside the ancient faith
of Israel, but to fulfill 1t. In the Ser
mon on the Mount, which may be called
the constitution of the kingdom Of heaven
on earth, the Master said, Think not
that 1 am come to destroy the law or
the prophets: 1 am not come to destroy,
but 20 fulfil. For verify 1 say unto
you, Till heaven and earth pass one jot
OF one title shall in no wise pass from
the law till all be fulhned'. (Matthew
v: II and 49,. And in all the subsequent
teachings of the Christ. whether he is
instructing his followers or confounding
His foes. His constant appeal is to the
Old Testament. He was the great con-
sentative among the teachers of men.
After Him the Apostles follow invaria-
bly, His method in this particular. They
rest all their arguments upon the reve-
lation which had been granted to the
fathers. When writing to the Romans
Paul says, What advantage then hath
cumcision? Much every way: Chiefly
because unto them were committed the
oraeles of Cod. In his argument be-
fore Agrippa he appealed to the proph-
cts: King Agrippa believest thou the
prophets?" (Acts XVI: 90. When he
was an old man in prison. and knowing
that he would never be liberated but was
doomed to death, he wrote to Timothy.
his son in the gospel exhorting him in
these words: CONTINUE thou in the
things which thou hast learned and hast
been assured of, knowing of whom thou
hast learned them; and that from child
thou hast known the holy Scriptures
which are able to make the wise unto
salvation. through. faith which is In Christ
Jesus al Timothy iii:14 and 15. The
great Apostle to the Gentiles does not
seem to think that the faith of Timothy
Is less worthy of being maintained, but
rather more deserving of being retained,
because he had received 1t from the
holy hands by which his childhood had
been guided. He would have him remem-
Der of whom he had learned the things
of faith IN which he was exhorted to
continue. And in an earlier chapter in
the same epistle we are informed how
very TRADITIONAL was the faith of Tim
othy: When / call to remembrance the
unfeigned waith that is In thee. which
dwelt first in thy grandmother Lois, and
in tiny mother Eunice, and am persuad-
ed that Is in thee also" Oh Timothy
i:5). How differently some teachers of
the present day would have talked to the
young preacher! They would have said.
Cast off the old faith of your grand
mother and mother, and think for your
self. Will you be forever tied to their
apron-strings? Perhaps Paul had
more serious purpose in view than have
our modern novelty -mongers; he was not
trying to show himself original. IAN in
dependent" or an "up-to-date man of
progressive ideas; he was simply and
sincerely trying to do Timothy good, to
guide his feet in the path of life and
to show him how to lead others, to
heaven
Paul was like all the great religious
leaders who have done anything worth
while in the work of saving men; he was
no itching innovator, but a reverent rem
ovator of ancient truth overlaid and for
gotten by men. Such was Martin Luther.
Such were all the Reformers; they would
have resented nothing more quickly and
warmly than the charge that they were
trying to impose a new faith on men.
They called men back to the ancient
Scriptures of Moses and the prophets and
the apostles. They claimed a part in the
common salvation" for which the mar
tyrs had died and the faithful of all ages
had earnestly contended. in like manner
Wesley and his associates in the great
revival in England in the eighteenth CEN
fury emphatically declared that they had
no new religion to offer. Speaking for
himself and all who laboured with him in
the gospel John Wesley said of the re-
lgion which they professed and which
they sought to propagate, I'VE pretend
to no new discovery in religion. We aver
it is the one old religion; as old as the
Reformation, as old Christianity, as old
as Adam"
Wesley was too much of scholar, as
well as too much Of saint, TO pretend
that he had made any discovery in re-
ligion. He was quite familiar with