The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1914-05-18

ence Independent Of us. Their birth-l place. their permanent home is the
 mind of God. From Him they have the world, seeking entrance inton our minds and hearts. that they may en-s able us to know the Heavenly Father. and Jesus Christ whom He has sent. and so gain eternal life.
 Beyond 8 doubt, it is within God s power to act directly on the soul He
 might en1ighten, encourage, inspire 1t without making use of any bodily sense or organ. But it surely would not be in keeping with His wisdom to deal with us after that fashion. Since He has given us faculties for the acquisition of knowledge, it is highly fitting that He should employ them himself in speaking to us. He will not leave them wholly in the ser vice of our lower nature No! He will consecrate them to our highest in terests and to His own glory, by nak- ing them His own pathway to our souls and by using them as instru- ments in the work Of our salvation. We know from experience that He does not employ them in this way. Through them we learn His goodness, power and love, our destiny and oblf- gatfons, the reward of fidelity, the penalty of disobedience. Through them we receive holy impulses, help full suggestions and powerful graces. From the wonderful world in which we live, from the inspired pages of Scrfpture.- and from the lips of living teachers who entreat; exhort and re- buke with all patience and doctrine, they gather a priceless store of heav- enly truth with which they feed our hungry souls, fI1ing them with the knowledge.s the fear and the love of God. From the constitution of man. therefore, and from the fact that God cording to the laws of our nature, we are amply warranted in concluding nay we are bound to conclude that creeds. laws and ceremonies are inte- gra1 necessary elements of true relig- ion and right worship
 Some men will deny that there has been any revelation They assert that God has not spoken to man at any time. We do not admit the truth Of that claim, but even if it were the truth, even if religion were nothing more than the summing up of man s own musings on God. and the story of the attempt to reach God, we shou1d still feel the need of religious creeds,' laws and rites. The only man who can get along without those things is one in whose soul there are no re- religious convictions. principles or emotions.
 There is natural. irrepressibIe ten- dency in man to give outward expres- sion to his inner life. At times, in deed, it is advisable and even iInper- ative for men to keep their thoughts and feelings securely locked up in their breasts. Silence is often a sa- cred duty.
 Unbroken silence, however, a come pIete burial of ones convictions and sentiments. is not desirable. They have a. right to grow. to expand. and to fruit on the world. Neither is it pos sibIe to utterly suppress them. AS wisely and successfully may you bid the winds to cease from blowing, fire from burning, mountain torrents from 1eaping down the hills, bid the thoughts, desires and emotions of the human heart from manifesting them selves in words, signs and acts. Opin- ions, beliefs, Judgments find. express sion in speech as easily, and surely as water finds it's level; anger dis plays itslef in flushed faces, vehement words and violent acts: fear in trem- bling limbs and pallid countenances; love in glad smiles. gentle words and tender caresses In thus revealing themselves these emotions but obey a law of our nature. that unless there be some sufficient reason for their destruction or concealment, they should seek and secure expression through one or another of the bodily faculties.
 Thus it is and thus it must be with religious beliefs and emotions Unless they are weak almost to the point of death, they will not long consent to lie hid in the heart. Like the rest of our thoughts and feelings they anx- iously seek to make themselves known and soon or late they go forth into the world in thesshape of creeds, sym bols. ceremonies and laws. the very externa1s which many men are fond of decrying and wish to exclude from the worship of God, though they are willing to let them have place in all the other relationships of life. If these men realize the force of their words, and stand by them in their full meaning, if they banish all these things from their lives, Ca thing that may well be doubted so far as the great majority of them are concerned) then they stand se1f-convicted of hay ing neither reverence nor love for the great God who made them.
 There are two other strong, imper- ative reasons why we should manifest
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