The Greeneville daily sun. (Greeneville, Tenn.) 1918-1920, 1918-10-12

The need of suffering and crum-
bling world now is a religion based on
indubitable fact; it must be sane and
rational and able to speak with I'M
questioned authority. If the Power
which the universal heart has recog-
Enized from primeval times is a Being
who has definite relation to the soul
of man, relation that has to do
with its eternal veal or woe, then
that Power must be defined and
known. Human intellect has done its
best to define God and has ignomin-
iously failed. Science, which deals
strictly with phenomena, that is, with
things as they manifest themselves
in properties and forces, can speak
with authority only Of secondary
causes may be reasoned. Metaphysics
begins where science stops, steps out
of the laboratory and daringly essays
to define the nature of reality. 1t
finds reality best defined as agency:
whatever can act as a cause is real.
God, in terms of metaphysics, is real
| ity acting as Agent.
The power of the soul to recognize
Supreme Being and its relation to
Him we term our religious conscious
ness, and our thought about God
must be adequate to its satisfaction.
A mere force acting as agent, no mat
ter how great or august, cannot sat
isfy the religious craving. Nothing
can meet its needs but a coalescence
of all the ideals we have of every
kind of excellence "The intellect
brings its ideal; and the conscience
brings its ideal; and the affections
bring their ideals; and these, togeth-
er with whatever other thoughts of
perfection we have, are united into
the thought Of one Perfect Being,
the ideal of ideals, the supreme and
complete, to whom heart, will, con-
science and intellect alike may come
and say, Thy kingdom come; thy will
be done" (Bowne). This is the ideal
Of our religious consciousness and for
its satisfaction Being must be found
who shall take up into Himself and
completely realize all these ideals of
excellence. The. heart has always be-
lieved in His existence, but neither
science nor philosophy nor the in
sight of poetic genius has discovered
him. Plainly, He is to be known
only through His own self-revelation
and that revelation to be complete
must be in terms Of human nature.
The Bible purports to be such a self
revelation of God, and it will be in
teresting to see if the portrayal of
Him there can satisfy the ideal of our
religious nature.
Our cognitiye ideal demands a
world-ground who is unitary, omnip-
otent, omniscient, omnipresent and
infinite in every attribute, capable Of
being the ultimate explanation of all
that is. Our ethical ideal requires
that He be absolutely without ma
, Lightly Of any sort, exercising a con-
slant good will in infinite mercy and
tenderness; whose province it is to
forgive guilt when melted in repent
ance. The ideal of the affections is
One who is boundless in love, whose
heart is conferred in others and vel.
comes the love that goes out from
human hearts in quest of its infinite
object. So our "ideal of ideals" must
be great enough to be Creator, Sus.
! tainer, and Governor of the universe
/ good enough to be forever at an i'm
I measurable remove from evil of every
5 kind, absolutely just and righteous
and given to immeasured forgiveness
/ self-sacrifcing enough to lay down
His life as an atonement for mems
! iniquities and save them from the
consequences of their sins. His Ii
: the God whom our religious nature
E requires for its satisfaction and this
c is the God who reveals Himself in the
: Book which we call His Word. HI
4 shines forth there on every page, anC
in the life of His Son every attribute
e that we require in Him is fully mani
tested. A sane and rational religion
s TO meet the need of a crumblins
world? 1t is to be found only in thu
religion of the New Testament where
!, the omnipotent God is portrayed al
4 the prodigal's Father, the Friend Of
E sinners. and the worlds Redeemer