Tulsa daily world. [volume] (Tulsa, Indian Territory [Okla.]) 1905-1919, 1913-12-07
GREATEST HINBRANCE TO THE
CHCHyH II MIIlIpMCA-
IION on CREEDS.
A new RELIGIOUS impulse.
Pride of Opinion the Most Foolish
OF All Pride- of Men, Says
Minister.

not quite, filled the auditorium Of
tho First Presbyterian church, U. s.
A., Of Sallisaw, Okla, last Sunday
night. the pastor, Rev. Frederic ID.
Sturgis preached notable sermon
bearing on Modernism and God
SENSE" Taking as his text: Thou
shalt have no other Gods before me" p"
Deuteronomy XX,3, Dr. Sturgis said:
That our relation and attitude to-
ward God since "all things are
naked and opened unto the eyes Of
Him with Whom We have to do
should become a part Of our very
selves goes without saying We must
learn the spiritual life as well as ac-
cept its truth, if we are to have God
and His power in our works
The farmer scatters his grain in
the fields to feed the hungry world.
He looks at the sky and the weather
yaue lie measures the rainfall and
calculates how many bushels Of corn
or wheat or bales Of cotton there will
be to the acre He rejoices that his
handful Of seed viii presently be
multilicd into an abundant harvest,
as if he were the multipller, And
all the while God, in the background,
is working through the calm pro-
cesses OF natural law to make 1t
sure that summer and winter, and
seedtime and harvest shall not fail.
He fosters every grain Of wheat as
carefully as IL It We're an infant In
it's mothers arms. He summons
the clouds OF heaven and the germ
mating forces of the soil and bids
them minister to It, Oh, ounces
that we are, in Gods great school!
There are those who sit down at
their tables every day and eat with
out a word OF grace" They fall
to like dumb creatures at a trough,
without thought Of God
A stubborn ObstaCl,le In the Way OF
Truth.
Dr. Eilkensou has well said, 1--WE
talk too much with men and too
little with God" In order that we
may follow the true process of de
velopment we must Investigate and
analyze and that the best results
may accrue therefrOm We should
use our hest reason and Judgment in
searching the Scripture for light
and the lives OF our fellow men for
experience and example.
As Christian leaders and workers
We are constantly talking Of divine
things, but how can we expect those
among whom we move to grow de-
Vout If We are not men of God our
selves? II our lives as followers OF
the Master are not hidden with
Christ in God" how can we win and
train other lives? II the wisdom
from above is not ours--a part OF
our very character-if we are not
pure, peaceable, gentle easy to be
entreated, full of mercy and good
works, without doubtfulness and hy-
pocrisy," how can we build up the
church Of the Living God and win
others into the Kingdom
There are very few twentieth CEN
tury men who say in their heart
There is no God" or who would deny
a Creator and Governor Of the Uni
verse. The age Is not atheistic. We
are met, comparatively speaking, by
little direct opposition to revealed re-
ligion. Its moral teaching Is respect
ed the sacred person OF it's Founder
Is held in reverence; but to feel the
power in which the God-sense is ap-
parent. dealing immediately with ones
inner self, is rare and becoming more
rare as the years go by 1t Is no
longer a typical thought even for
Christians The Creator has become
indeed "A God afar off''--a God as
soCiated with men and women by
vague, roundabout connections or only
through laws and consequences. And
II is this condition Of affairs that
presents a stubborn obstacle I'm the
way Of truth. and the church will not
move on trlumphantly until it man
ages to get over this hindrance;
hindrance which cannot be explained
away as merely new device of the
devil, and which is OF too serious
nature to be allowed to pass without
some search for the reason of 1t. Hon
est Christian leaders will ask whether
there may not be something To blame
for it in the terms in which Christian
ity has been put before this genera
ton.
There is doctrine--a very good
doctrine indeed which has been
highly favored in late years by many
of our theologians. the doctrine
styled in the schools. "The lmmin
cncc Of God" The teaching of which
is that God lives and acts in all
things that He has made. and every
motion of life or force anywhere in
the universe is the direct motion OF
God.
All this is true-a truth To teach
and truth to rejoice In. And while
it remained merely a portion Of the
thinking of theological eXperts-re-
mained where 1t had to he weighed
against other counter balancing con-
ceptions-it did no harm On the
contrary il tended. In many places TO
the enrichment OF religious under
standing. But the thought Of the