News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1914-04-15
Time FOR THOUGHT
Reason viii Do Much to Prevent
Our Convictions From Be-
coming Weak.


saith the Isaiah l., IS.
The greatest of the Hebrew proph-
cts puts these words into the mouth
of God. The Almighty is represented
as bewailing the fact that men do not
think enough in their religion. Israel
doth not know, my people doth not
| consider" so runs the divine arraign-
ment. According to Isaiah, God
wishes them to think with him. The
weakness of religious people in all
generations has been that they have
not thought enough.
1t is wicked not to think. A man
gives up his manhood who does not
think. We are unworthy of the Chris
tian name If we are too timid to
scrutinize and investigate and reason
about every doctrine which the re-
ligion Of Jesus teaches. Suppose
! that thinking does lead you into
doubt. Doubt Is oftentimes medicinal.
There is more faith In honest doubt
than In a creed about which you are
afraid to think. Doubt Is an expert
ence which belongs to a growing life.
A man must fight his way through
doubt to the clear and sunlit spaces
which lie beyond. He can do this only
by hard and honest thinking. Come,
let US reason together" saith the
Lord.
This has been the exhortation of
the Almighty from the beginning. In
the fulness of time Jesus came, and
in Jesus we hear God saying, Come
now, let us reason together" Jesus
was always reasoning. 1t has been
said that he never argued, and that is
true If we mean he never argued in
the modern sense of the word, but in
the deepest sense he was always ar
guing. His whole speech was a rea-
mightier than syllogisms and compel
the mind to reason. rs not a man
better than a Sheep" What think
ye?" IF man have hundred sheep
and one of them be gone astray, doth
he not leave the ninety and nine and
goeth into the mountains and seek
eth that which is gone astray." The
priest, the Levite,, the Samaritan:
Which now of these three thinkest
thou was neighbor unto him that fell
among the thieves?" when the lord
of the vineyard cometh, what will he
do unto those husbandmen? "If We, |
being evil, konw how to give good |
gifts unto your children, how much |
more will your Heavenly Father give |
the Holy Spirit to them that ask him." /
The Christian religion, is Gods voice |
saying, Coming, now, let us reason
togther."
Many man is not Christian be-
cause be is not willing to reason the
matter out with God in Christ. II |
our convictions are becoming weak
1t is because we do not think. If the
old distinctions between right and /
wrong are fading out it is because we
have ceased to reason with God. If
the sense Of sin is today disappearing
from the hearts Of men It is because
they are too busy to sit down and
mediate with God. have heard men
bewail the fact that they had no time
to get acquainted with their wives
and children. This indeed is tragic,
and it is also tragic to have no time
to get acquainted with ones self. We
never know ourselves until we think
about our life with God. Let us, then,
spend more time in reasoning with
him. Let us pick 10 the things which
we have lost. Let US sit down and
think about that man which we fully
to be and which, alas, We
have never yet becomel-Rev. c. B.
Jefferson, DID.