Newark evening star and Newark advertiser., 1914-11-14
FIVE REVELATIONS OF MORAL
AND SPIRITUAL PROGRESS
What One Learns from of Nature Bible Experience and
christ's Personality

which God makes known His di-
rective, controlling and constructive
spiritual power.
From Christ's personality one finds
the test of the character and qualities
of His own life. Here Is the plane OF
intimate friendship. Whatever is
gained as a disciple of truth and of
Gods nature and character, from ma
ture, Biblical literature, the church,
or experience, much more is gained
from loving companionship with one
who is transcendent in the purity,
moral integrity, and spirituality of
His character. The touch of personal
comradeship here has saving power.
Consciousness of the presence of the
Christ In individual and community
life contains the supreme test OF
moral power and spiritual success.
This indwelling of the spirit of the
Christ is not a figure of speech, nor
a dream, but is reality as certain
as any law OF nature. The union of
the sunlight with the growth of the
vegetable and flower is not more real.
The indwelling IS not to be taken In
the sense of physical conjunction,
but as an intersphering Of soul-life.
The Christ thought and spirit go out
to man, and our own thought goes
out to Him. These thoughts and i'm
pulses, motives and incentives. de-
sires and sympathies, intersphere
with Christ's thought and spirit
purity of life and character, ever
predominating, and thereby Christ
and men become knit to one another.
An Inquiring Mind.
But spiritual gain in these respects
implies an inquiring mind and a
receptiye spirit. There must be search
after truth as men search and delve,
run risks and endure hardships in
search after the precious stones and
nuggets of the earth. A man of
scientific pursuit win travel widely
and search patiently for new epeci-
mems OF flowers, or of insect and ami
NAL. Ifa moral and spiritual truths
are to be known and appropriated in
individual and social well-being they
must be sought for sincerely, pray
erfully, courageously, perseveringly--
all the qualities that are used in seek
ing anything else regarded as val-
uable are to be used in seeking God.
AS the Bible has endured through
all generations. as the church has
endured through centuries against
powerful enemies and numerous OBJ
stacles, so is the individual to endure
hardness as good soldiers meet op-
position and criticism in the search
after truth. But the very difficulties
tougher the moral fibre and develop
spiritual power If the Bible and the
church were weak and lacking in
teaching and inspirational power
they would have succeumbed long
ago. They are surcharged with
spiritual vitality and herein is the
secret of their persistence.
Both Bible and church have theiE
sphere Of influence in developing the
life of God In the soul OF man. What
one learns respectively, IL learned
truly, from nature and experience,
Bible and church, and the personal
ity of the Christ, will not contradict
one another, IL considered rightly In
their proper bearing and relationship
to one another. Each one reinforces
all the others, and the discerning In
quirer and searcher after truth may
have the service of all in the devel-
opment of his personal spiritual self.
CLERICUS.