Fulton County tribune. (Wauseon, Ohio) 1883-1925, 1915-04-23
CONVERSION
(Continued from first page)

into consideration everything that be-
longs to our make-up-our tempera-
ments, our dispositions, the way we
have been brought up, our training,
the environment which has made the
deepest impression upon US, our COM
panions,-all these agents of good
and bad are well known to our God,
and being our Heavenly Father, He
takes pleasure in applying Himself
accordingly. But we, ignorant and
blunt, do otherwise; and thereby per-
hitting ourselves to become cruel, de-
stroy the chances of many. Will it
ever be known the number that have
been crippled and married by this sort
of thing? More than one has been
called upon to swallow the bitterness
of the Masters words. "What is
that to thee, follow thou me-" before
he became meek in his discipleship.
One reason why we fail to look up
on conversion from the view point of
God is, we are too liable to forget that
Christianity is not religion. No peo-
pie in the wide universe have been
found without a religion, but we are
certain that many have been found
without Christianity. One works in
wardly and the other outwardly.
Christianity is a vast spiritual leaven,
working inwardly, and religion is an
expression of a craving for the fell
lowship and friendship of the gods,
or God. working outwardly. Religion,
then, everybody has, but everybody
has not Christianity. Of this we are
sure. To express our religion is one
thing, but to feel the power of Chris
tianity in souls is quite another.
Religion can be mean and brutal, tor
turing to the death, but never Chris
tianity. The Turk in the name of his
religion kills in order to secure for
himself a berth in the home of bliss,
but a Christian shrinks from the very
thought of murder. Wars are waged
in the name of religion, but they can
nit be waged in the name of Chris
tianity. There is nothing more foreign
to the pure mind of the Nazarene
than this, and this is the all-important
point. It brings to the surface that
which we so often forget. For, if we
follow a religious leader, and if we
have not been brought to the face of
God in the manner, and by the same
methods as he was, showing the same
signs as he did. ones sincerity is in
danger of being questioned. This is
not Christianity, because Christiani-
ty does not affect all in the same way.
Christianity uses many mediums to
cause the human kind to face the eter-
nal verities of life, and the fruits are
not always of the same size, shape
and color. The gifts are diverse, but
the source from which they flow is
one.
We all believe that the twelve
apostles were converted men, and how
firmly and truly we are ~supportedby
the ways and means which were en-
ployed to arrest their attention. The
direction of their lives were not re-
versed by the same method, and
neither did they show the same signs.
The Perfect Man knew human nature
too we'll to attempt such an undertake
ing, and He was too magnanimous to
expect the same indications of sin
certify. He was sure that this would
be disastrous, and then He approach
ed them from several angles. They
were drawn to Him in divers ways
Two followed Him upon the strength
of the confession of John the Baptist
and two were brought to Him by their
brothers. He drew nigh to others
and talked with them face to face
and n was knocked down. BY this
we see that the Master considered the
nature of the men whom He wanted
to be first servants, and we are doing
right when we take time to do like
wise. For we cannot fairly expect
for all to be converted in the same
way. and neither can we justly hope
for all the converted to give forth the
same kind of evidence of their CONVEX
sion.