Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1916-09-01
GELATINOUSNESS
FOR GOODNESS? ?
Jellyfish Negativeness Most
Dangerous Substitute For
Christianity
By william t. EIIin

most dangerous substitute for Chris
\ tianity current to-day. a jellyhsh mega
tiveness, which is as tlmid as a musk
Erat, passes current as goodness. In
some minds piousness and spinelessness
are, synonyms. A common idea OF
goodness is not to disagree with any
body even with the devil himself. Our
i grandfathers wer called Dissenters, but
their grandchildren are of the creed
called Assenters. We agree with every
body and everything. from the PROPOSE
tton that God and man were both ori-
ginally in the yolk of an added egg,"
to the familiar doctrine that what
ever is, is right" and that to be popu-
lar is the chief end OF man and wo-
man.
Although 1t may be sheer bosh. the
newest ism and spasm may get re-
spectfui and sympathetic hearing from
Christian people. After ALL" says the
current notion, at does not matter what
you believe, so long as you try to be
Aind." Therefore. the latest colored
fGkir from Bombay, IL he be at all
clever can get large following, a fat
living, and much sweet adulation from
Boston women who have "outgrown"
the illiberal creed of their Puritan for
bears. No cult is too silly to find a
vogue, be 1t the religion Of walking
naked through the grass in the sun
/ light or of breathing by a certain rote.
or OF entering into the silence OF a su-
preme Egoism, or the burning OF in
cense to the sun, or the worship OF
neUulous Mind, or the Hinduism Of
I ~ F~rv-, . -.
tuse OF trying to catalog all cur fol-
lies?
| Any earnest chronicler OF the times
must confess that, as a whole, our So
ciety IS intellectually enervated. We
are not sure what we believe. Boston
and New York are almost as ready to
hear Hindu Yogi as a BILLY Sunday.
/ Old religions, new religions, compare
/ tive religion, no religion-all are pretty
much alike to your modern man or wo-
man. This is true TO a degree that
would alarm the average minister, II
/ he knew IL, of many persons within
the churches, as we'll as OF the great
mass outside. Present-day Christians,
owing perhaps to lack OF leadership,
are willing to let many precious in
heritances go by default. They sur
render the Christian Sabbath almost
without a protest. So also they let the
Bible go from the public schools. The
proposition that this is a Christian ma
tion, is likewise permitted to go by
default. The integrity and inspiration
OF the Bible is yielded quite as easily.
once let anybody-be he a soapbox
orator. or hedging college professor+
say that the consensus OF modern
scholarship affirms"-and shoe! the
Christians run like chickens before a
hawk. without waiting to see whether
the bird that a6rights them may not
be only a crow.
When to Stand Up and Fight
Opportunity, the Sunday schools of
, the world are this week called into
the school OF study OF old Paul of Tar
sus, to learn to stand up and contend
for the truth. AS this lesson and many
other New Testament passages make
clear, controversy may be q Christian
duty. The early church fathers were
great controversalistS. Truth was so
precious in their eyes that they would
be alienated from friends and homes.
and even from life itself, for its sake.
There is something majestic about the
spectacle Of those great intellects
battling over doctrinal and ecclesias-
tical points. We have entered into the
l. eritance they left, but we have for
gotten their militancy I wonder If
the reader Of these lines can, on the
instant, name a single great Christian
controversalist in North America to-
day, a champion Of the truth as 1t is in
Christ Jesus? In the past there have
been the men who have made Christen-
dom their debtors.
Controversy on a high plane, which
will not dodge or mistake any facts,
nor impugn the motives OF a brother,
is one of the essential methods of
Christian Progress. There is a sense
in which every Christian leader and
go. @r, - n.
versalist.
I hasten to add that Christian con-
troversy is as different from church
squabbles and UNCONVENTIONAL bicker-
ings and petty quarrels as an eagle is
from q mosquito. There is no war
rant in Scripture for the miserable lit
tie chickering's which sometimes stultify
the life of a congregation.
The first qualification of contro-
versa!ist-as Paul makes clear. in his
second letter to the Corinthian con-
verts-is an unimpeachable personal
record. He must go into court with
clean hands. The self-seeker and the
money -lover cannot contend success
fully for the faith of Christ. That is
why Paul pointed to his own record in
Corinth and elsewhere. He tore aside
the mantle OF personal reserve, and
showed that he bore in his body the
marks OF the Lord Jesus. Pauline con-
duct squared with Pauline doctrine All
during those arduous tent-making DAYS.
and through perilous prosecutions and
personal sufferiags, he had been un-.
consciously preparing his credentials
for the great debate. Thus does the
everyday duty, well done, prepare US
for life's great crises.
The Cause of Controversy
Like every other pioneer, Paul knew
the bitterness OF seeing others follow |
along the path he had blazed in order
to wrest his leadership from him. In
addition to gathering the fruit of his
labors, they tried to discredit him At |
ter he had established a Christian
church at Corinth. these false shep-
herds came TO mislead his flock, for
their own advantage. II seems as If
always during the churehs periods of
activity there have been these pretend |
ere and usurpers, with their special
isms and cults, and their criticisms of
the church. 1t is no new plague from
which the church suffers to-day. Claim |
ing high titles and especial gifts for
themselves, these false apostles had
attempted, apparently, to wean the
Corinthian Christians away from Paul. |
and to cast aspersions upon his au-
thority. his ability, and his financial |
integrity, in the matter of the col |
lection for the Jerusalem poor. Evil |
IDENTIFY. also. these usurpers had con- |
doned unchristian practices on the
part of church members, SO that they