The Mount Holly news. [volume] (Mount Holly, Burlington Co., N.J.) 1891-1942, 1913-07-15

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many able speak
ers. Pastor Russell was one of the
speakers of today, and his vast audi
ence was evidently much In sympathy
with his utterances. He took for his
text the words. 1.-THE Father of mer-
cies. and the God of all comfort."-2
Corinthians / 3.
In his opening remarks, the Pastor
stated that when in India, China and
japan last year, he was forcibly struck
with the intelligence Of many among
these peoples. He visited their idol
temples for the purpose of noticing
the degree Of reverence exhibited and
the status of worshipers. He was ia
vorabiy impressed; many seemed sin
cere, absolutely unmindful Of any 9th
er matter than their own worship. He
made inquiry as to what Importance
was attached to the IDOL Was 1t re-
garded as the god, or merely re-
minder of their god2 He was assured
OF the latter-that the idol itself was
known to be of metal, or stone, or
wood, and was used merely as re-
minder Of their god. In much the same
way that Catholics use the cruelty
not as worshiping the image or the
picture, but merely having these be-
fore the mind to assist in fixing rever-
ence and the spirit of worship.
Our Greed Idols Worse.
At first, said Pastor Russell, felt
disposed to chide the heather for the
horrible features which they give their
images / said to myself, Why do
they not make graceful, beautiful idols
instead of horrible ones? But a little
reflection brought me shame and con-
fusion. said to myself, Look at the
creeds. the idols. the images Of God,
set up in Christendom. We have not
attempted to picture our Deity In wood
OF stone or mineral, but we have writ
ten out description of His character
Our Christian creeds.
These creeds stand before our men
tai eyes with exactly the same hide
GUS features that the tangible idol has
before the natural eye of the heathens
Each different creed shows a slightly
different image of God. but they are
all horrible. They all picture God as
q most atrocious character, more hide
GUS by far than are any of the idols
OF heathendom.
How could anybody carve, or cast,
or model, mute image, or idol, that
would speak such horrible things as
all Of our creeds portray by descrip-
tion? Where Is the artist who could
picture a God celebrating upon the
creation Of the human family, and be-
fore beginning His work planning and
arranging a great place called He'll
land some say another called Purga-
tory, creating fire proof devils to man
these, laying up fuel for use therein
through all eternity, and then start
ing the human race with provocative
powers, with the foreknowledge that
thousands of millions would spend
eternity In these horror chambers
Who could picture or model an image
representing a God who would, after
preparing such place. inject new life
and vigor into the poor sufferers so as
to prevent their ever dying-so as to In
sure that they must live everlastingly
under those horrible conditionsl No
heather was ever capable of such an
imagination; and hence none was ever
able to picture such a God, either in
clay, or stone. or metal, or wood, OF
with the pen. 1t remained for the most
cultured and civilized peoples of the
world, who had enjoyed most of Gods
favors and blessings and Enlightenment
10 misunderstood Him most, to mis-
represent Him worst. and carry those
misrepresentation to the heather.
The Heather Know II, Too.
Missionaries have indeed reached q
few people and brought them under a
measure of Christian influence, but
their number Is small; SO also their in
telligence. Like some true Christians
here, they have a reverence for God
sadly encountered with error. The
more intelligent classes are agnostics
Christianity, so-called. has led them tc
doubt their own religions, but it has moi
given them anything In their stead
When some of the higher caste ma
dives learned that my preaching was
different from that of the missionaries
and that it presented a God of Love
and an ultimate opportunity to all man
kind to come into harmony with Elm
the matter spread among them. Com
mittees were sent to me to Inquire II
] could not stay longer, assuring me OF
audiences of the higher caste natives
They explained that as much as they
appreciated the intelligence Of the
white man and his Christian religion
they could not receive it because it pic
tured God so terrible and so unjust
as to be repugnant to their minds.
Why, said they, our gods, and oul
religion. teach us to be kind, even to
the dumb brutes, and to cause them nc
unnecessary pain. How, then, could
we worship the God of the mission
aries7 They tell us that He has con
signed our forefathers from the remot
est generation to everlasting torture
because they did not believe in Jesus
whose name is the only name by
which any can be saved We cannot
believe In so unjust God. The slight
est degree Of justice would have obi
gated Him to send our forefathers the
Message In no uncertain terms.
felt it obligatory to apologize, not
only for myself, but for all Christen-
dom. We said, We Christians have
erred. We neglected our Bible, and
thus brought on the Dark Ages. Since
then we have been trying to get near
or to the light as the days go by. and
some of US have made a little more
progress than others. / am preaching
the God of the Bible, 1.-The God of all
grace, the Father of mercies." whose
name is Love.
We said, Certain parallels and sym
bolic phrases have been misunderstood
misapplied, mistranslated; and thus.
while we had the best Of intentions,
the great Adversary, Satan, has kept
Christendom considerably In the dark,
and has led US to picture in our creeds
God who is fierce, unjust, unloving,
unwise, and who Is using His Power
contrary to every principle of right
eousness. Now the dawn OF the New
Age Ia about upon us. The thousand
years Of Christ's Reign is shortly to
begin. God is getting ready for it by
sending blessings of every kind.
We said, further, We are in the Day
Of the Lords preparation. and His
faithful people are finding a better
Nght aiming on the Bible, and are