Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1912-01-30
1t is Time to Sound the EVGngeListic and
Experimental Note
By Bishop W. A. Gambler

customed to every form of christian
activity except a pronounced evangel-
istic and experimental type While
that type has not been wholly absent
from the country, 1T has been seen
most in the rural districts and smaller
towns. In the larger towns and cities
there has been more of every other
sort of religious effort.
We have had speculative christian
| ity, trying to save men by making con.
cessions to the carnal reason and elm
mating every element of the supernat-
ural from religion, in order to make
belief so easy that every sceptic might
be reckoned as a believer and all doubt
be. counted as saving faith. That, has
given us a lot of negative preach
ments, which have failed to do. any
good whatsoever; for men are not saved
by what they doubt, but by what they
believe, and useful preaching is not
that which spends all its force in de-
nying what others believe. but in at
firming what the Scriptures teach all
men to believe Negative preaching
can no more fill life with spiritual
power than pumping water out of a
cistern can fill it with the cooling ele-
ment which quenches human thirst
Then, we have had also the rituahstic
type Of christianity; for it is one or
the strange contradictions of the hu-
man mind tat it follows rationalism
and ritualism at the same time. Hence
in the rationalistic period through
which we have been trying to hold men
by concessions to what is called taste
Men have been busy "enriching the
service" while they have been engag-
ed also in impoverishihg the sermon.
Perhaps 1t is quite convenient for one
who has lost faith in the essentta1
truths of christianity to conceal his
lack of personal belief by reciting the
formulas by which holy men in times
agone expressed their religious devo-
ton. In the days of the Saviour's life
| in the flesh q Sadducee, who denied the
doctrine of immortality was the high
priest, and he constantly executed a
splendid ritual which was in flat con-
tradiction of every essential item OF
his negative theology. That sort of
farce has been repeated many times
since in the history Of religion. But
such methods are as impOtent as they
are insincere.
We have had, along with our prevail
emit rationalism and pretty ritualism' a
mania for a sociological gospel of hu-
Inanitarianism. Men have been rum
ming hither and thither on every sort
of errand Of mercy to the bodies OF
their fellows, trying we might suspect
to make up in ministries to the body
their utter lack of concern for the needs
of the soul An age of unsettled faith
is wont to lay much stress upon nu-
man endeavourS. It has conscious
ness of having lost something, and at
the same time an unwtningness to
| acknowledge it. even as a conscious
bankrupt often INDUCES in flaming ad-
vertising in order to conceal the fact
that his liabilities exceed his assets and
that he is approaching financial wreck.
BY such meth DDS men seek to persuade
themselves that they can still have the
fruits of faith after they have cut or
the roots. We are nearing the end Of
this delusive and disappointing human
.tarianism 1t has undertaken to visit
the prodigal son in the far country and
carry him some new clothes and fresh
food without bringing him back to his
fathers house, and that sort of shallow
relief has not been satisfactory to even
the prodigal himself. The masses-the
submerged TENTH" as some call them
have begun to answer our apostles of
salvation by soap and soup that they
have wants above their bodily needs,
and that they can not live by breao
alone
OF the same spirit as our gospels Of
rationalism, ritualism, and humantta-
rlanism, has been what might be call
ed, for want of a better name, the Cos
pei of ecclesiastical machinery. 1t has
| been the fashion Of some to save a lost
world, or rather to try to save II, oy
a system of meetings and move
ments." A recent writer has put ne
case we'll in these words: ut is per-
haps the outstanding peril of the pres
| ent day that 1t has an exaggerated and
pathetic faith in the potency of public
meetings, the peril lying in the fast
| that there is the consequent temptation
to believe that when there has been
big crowd and a big shout the work
is done"
We have been relying too much upon
| elaborate schemes of pulleys and levers
! to uplift a fallen world, and we have
been depending too little upon personal
efforts for the fallen and too little upon
divine power by which alone such ef-
| forts can be effectual.~ Men have sat
! isfied their consciences with reference
\ to calling sinners to repentance by call
| ing a convention or conference on
evangelism to discuss the method Of
| doing the WOTks anu AIOIl ShSA oSSCAA-
blies they have returned to their homes
more indifferent than ever to the needs
of their fellows for having spent several
days declaiming about those needs.
It is time to sound the note Of evan
gelism and personal experience. To
that note the world in every age has
always responded, and the men Of our
day will respond to IT. as all who have
gone before them have done. About
more academic questions they know lit
tie and care less; and, truth to tell,
the preachers who drag those themes
into the pulpit know precious little
themselves about such subjects. To q
man acquainted with the literature of
theology and PHILOSOPHY it would be
amusing, If 1t were not painful, to hear
one of these raw tyros exhibit his ig-
norance to an amazed and confused con-
gregation which is too ignorant to I'M
derstand him and afraid not to say he
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