The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1916-02-22

TALKS ON DIMENSIONS
Can't Narrow Christianity to Single
Measurement, He Declared
In Last Night's
Talk.

DIR. Irving P. Johnson's clear GU
pres entatiOn Of the christ an 4aith ant
christian life is making deep impress
sion upon his hearers in his addresse:
at st. Johns church. Seldom has 4
public speaker in Keokuk appeared
with such we'll furnished mind anG
such power of direct and explicit
address. The mission at st. Johns
is an appeal to sane and sensible PEG
pie who are DESTROYS of learning whar
fair and rational presentation OF
christianity is, and what it really
means to develop and use the re-
1igious instinct which is in everyone.
Absolutely devoid OF sensationalism
or inyective, the words of the Mis-
sioner, DR.. Johnson, appeal with re-
markable force to the convictions of
his hearers. Not a dull moment is
there in the very informal service.
from beginning to end. Last night. SO
large was the number Of questions
asked that he was unable to answer
them all. The remainder, together
with those propounded tonight, will be
taken up IN order and replies made.
The mission at ST. Johns is intended
not for the parishioners alone, but for
the people generally of Keokuk, who
are cordially invited by the rector and
the people of the parish
The Rev. Irving p Johnson last
night preached on the text, The
length and breadth and the depth and
the height are equal" He began by
calling attention to the fact that there
is no such thing as a thing of one or
two dimensions-a point or straight
line has no existence in fact. 1t is
merely mathematical fiction.
The three dimensions of the chris
o. ~
length of life we mean that it is
row-but that q man makes his life
with reference to eternity. It differs
from the life that lives just for the
day and the things Of the day.
By the breadth of life We mean
that it is lived for all men-not just
for a class or a set. This, ST. Paul
calls charity, and it represents the in
clusiveness of christian sympathy.
By the height and depth of a life we
mean its thickness. that which gives
1t realty. The height is worship, the
depth is reverence, without reverence
we cannot even begin the christian
life any more than teacher can be-
gin school until she has order
1t is the first thing for which we
are taught to pray in the Lords
"Su bc ny
The Narrow Christianity.
+ There are christians of one dimen-
sion, who try to narrow christianity
down to a single dimension. Their
sole conception Of christianity is zeal.
They demand that every one who
shall be saved must have their own
particular experience.
1t is not that they are wrong in
their zeal. but in demanding that God
shall treat every man alike; that
each one to be saved must have the
individual and particular experience
which he has. That every one for ex-
ample, must have certain internal
psychological experience in order to
be saved We live in diversified
world, in which no two thumbs even,
are alike. Certainly ore cannot run ev-
cry soul through the same particular
mould which We ourselves may have
experienced. With others the chris
tian life is merely philanthropy.
Their dimensions are good. but to
have the christian life one must have
all the dimensions, otherwise religion
becomes a fiction-a show and a pre-
tense, for it is reverence and worship
that give reality to the life which we
have here on earth.