Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1911-05-30

church history, especially with the his
tory of doctrine, and hence he did not
dream that he or any man could add any
thing new to the faith "once for all de-
livered to the saints. 1t is only the ig-
norant and half educated who go shout
ing through the streets and screaming in
the churches, Eureka every time a
crude fancy takes speakable form in their
disordered and vain minds.
This is not the age for finding out a
new Christianity, but the age for believ-
ing with all our might the "old. old story
of Jesus and His love" and telling it with.
all fervor and swiftness to those who
know it not If our fathers and all who
went before them failed to correctly in
terpret the teachings of Christ and the
apostles. surely the Gospel must be a.
very intricate and obscure system, and
we can not be sure that our children will
not decide that we knew nothing about 1t
in our day, even as some among us are
disposed to claim that our fathers were
all befogged about it in their time. Shall
we be of those whom the Apostle de-
scribes as they who are ever learning,
but are never able to come to the knowl-|
edge of the truth?"
If the essential truths Of the salvation
which Is in Jesus Christ have never been
apprehended by the generations who have
gone before us, we may well despair of
ever coming to the knowledge of them.
We may call ourselves truth seekers.
but we may as well understand that
though we seek we shall never find the
truth. Indeed, some men, calling them
selves preachers, have adopted as their
motto the silly saying of the German
philosopher who declared, IF God should
give me choice between the possession
of the truth and the pursuit of It, /
should choose it's pursuit rather than its
possession. Such an idea reduces the
seeking of the truth to a mere past-time,
like fox-hunting, or rather more like the
chase which so delights young pups that
bark all day along the line where some
one has dragged a foxtskin before them.
A man who calls himself as a preacher
and at the says he is seeker
after truth, does thereby give the best
of reasons for his refusing to preach
In such high matters as the welfare
of the human soul no man has a right
to speak until the search for truth has
ended in finding it. What will he preach
if he is stil seeking to find out what is
true? The Apostle to the Gentiles, and the
Hebrew Psalmist before him. said II be-
lieve; therefore have / spoken. Some
modern apostles reverse the apostolic
declaration and say II doubt; therefore
speak" Returning TO the figure of the
dogs in the chase, they say, When you
hear me barking, you may know am
only trailing, and 1 never expect to
tree. The only thing that seems to
have any power to call them OF from
the cold trail which they are ever rum
ming is to find any body who processes
to IN a GA him thew
proceed at once to rend. They believe in
chasing the truth, but despise the idea
of catching up with it. This their way
is their folly.
For my own part. I prefer the set
tied faith of the sanity men and women
who have gone before to the restless
running and ceaseless barking of men
who profess themselves to be engaged in
a vain chase of truth which with the
cunning of the fox forever eludes them.
The matter of religious truth is too SOL
emn an issue to be reduced to the level
of mental sport. 1t is a matter of life
and death to myself and to all souls.
1t may not be treated as a past-time.
That the best people whom 1 have ever
known accepted certain great doctrines
and by the light of them found their
way to God through Christ, and ever
lived in the beauty of holiness, triumph
ing at last over death and the grave, is
to me something more than presumptive
proof that their beliefs were true. When
1 compare their faith with the teaching
Of Gods word and find 1t accordant with
the Scriptures, will not renounce their
creed and frivolously fall in with the
uncertain teachings of men who like
gypsies never camp two nights in the
same place.
1t is greatly TO be regretted that such
men uproot the faith of thousands of
young men who come into our cities
from their homes of piety in the coun-
try, and then fail to give the victims
of their false and egotistic teachings any
solid truth upon which to build character
and order conduct Alright. They make
prayerless these young men, who learned
to pray at the knees of devout mothers.
and then set them adrift without hope
and without God in the world To any
such young man, who may chance to
read these lines beg to say, go back
to the faith of your old mother. Her
faith is worth infinitely more than all
the smart sayings of the pert pulputeers
who would have you renounce IT.. In
the order of providence I have travelled
in many lands, and have observed all
forms of religion and doubt. l have read
some, and am reasonably acquainted with
the great books of theology and philoso-
ply which men have written. But after
all l have found nothing better than the
faith / learned at my mothers knee.
With our plain people can most sim
cerely join in singing, ''the old time re-
ligion is good enough for me-, or in
lines more dignified and reverent I can
sing:
Faith of our fathers! living still
In spite of dungeon, fire. and sword:
o how our hearts beat high with joy
When-eer we hear that glorious word;
Faith of our fathersl holy faith;
We will be true to thee till death!