Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1912-04-23
SHRIVLED CREEDS AND SF1RUKEN LIVES
BY BISHOP w. A. GAMBLER

more refined Self was the center around which
everything revolved.
We need not go to the ancient world to find proof
of this truth; we have elegant, peasure-loving
heathenism all around us, and notwithstanding the
presence of Christian atmosphere, which 1t can
not wholly escape utterly resist, this modern
heathenism is sadly selfish and hard-hearted 1t
repels infants from BOSOM and dries its breasts
of motherhood in order to pursue gddy round of
pleasure not sticking at infanticide itself in the
prosecution of its unholy ends. 1t decries foreign
missions to the unevangezed nations of the earth,
speciousy pleading the superior demands Of charity
at home" and then it refuses to practice at home
even the form of charity in which it processes to
believe It bestows millions routs and balls, and
stingily does out mites to relieve human want
AS has been intimated, it's small gifts are squeezed
out of it by the pressure of prevalent christian at
mosphere; it's petty donations do not spring from
any real benevoIence of it's heart, but from fear
of being utterly despised if entirely Indifferent to
the calls of charity Our heather classes in Christian
lands are as hard the hardest, as any one will
find who digs very little below the surface of their
yes. They defy pleasure ID burn incense to
themselves. Their piety is conventional and their
creed is doubt
Men may dream that we can preserve moral life
and humane endeavours in the absence of faith but
they are mistaken; and if the experiment is tried,
It will end in disappointment and despair. These
trees of life must grow by the river of life, else
tehir leaves will wither and their fruits fail
The supreme need of day, therefore, is re-
vival of religion in the true sense; not mere emo
tional excitement, but real return to the living
Cod All sorts of sociological schemes forthe relief
of physical want will be found Intellectual; the evan
gelism of social relief can not itself survive in
faithless atmosphere. 1t be hailed as practical
christianity" but in the end it will be found ut
terly impracticable, if not entirely unchristan
hating shriveled faith never have zeal enough
to run the errands Of mercy which needy race
requires For the multiplied forms of beneVolence
which modern civilization needs, only robust clear
eved confident and courageous faith will be found
sufficient The spectacle of church with an ema-
ciated PALE aenemic faith trying to relieve the
wants of a sinful and suffering world is positively
ntifu1-as pitiful as dying mother trying to nurse
from dry and sunken breasts perishing child
In recent years there has been strange dispo-
sition upon the part Of many who profess and call
themselves christians to do everything and anything
but turn to God. They show readiness to fashion
and fame new forms of ecclesiastical machinery to
organize relief corps of one sort and another, to
scout" the country and the town, to appoint
committees and elect officers; but they run away
from facing God and dealing directly with the MOST
High. If money is to be raised for their manifold
schemes they do not rely upon e1love OF christ
to beget the generosity NEEDED in ORDER to get the
RN~-F
of giving a banquet and emptying mems pockets
while filling their paunches "Banquetings, reveE
ings and such like" were known in st. PauPs day.
but we do not read of them as the financial devices
of the church the first chapters of whose history
are recorded in the Acts of the Apostles Perhaps
they would be scarcely common now, II men hao
not lost faith in forces of nobler and more heaV-
eny nature 1t may be safely predicted that beneV-
olence by banquet and charity secreted while chewing
will not be reliable for getting cash from ungener-
ous souls long Men will discover the trick: in vain
is the snare set in sight of the bird
If the church is to do its work in our day. 1t must
he filled with benevolence born from above. The
demands upon it too great and its opportunities
too wide to be met with the output OF trlcKllng
generosity which like dry-pump has to nave mucn
poured into it before you get very little out
of it. The heather world in foreign lands and the
unsaved millions in the home land can not be saved
with efforts less than those which are sprung by the
highest faith.
Men of shriveled creeds and shrunken lives are
too nearly impotent to be effective for the worlds
vast needs today. Our hearts must be opened to &C
cent the great beliefs for which the teachings OF
Christ CALL or lives will never rise to the helgnCs
of service for which mankind cries