Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1924-04-08

lieved. That which one believes may De
false or true, but 1t is the creed of him who
believes it.
A man has right to think for himself,
and certainly in our day there is no restric-
ton upon the freedom of thought; but in the
exercise of the right to think for himself
is likely to think wrong as to think
right.
The privilege of thinking for himself does
not secure a man from the possibility Of
thinking enormously, just as the right to go
where he pleases is no assurance that ne may
not miss the destination he desires by TAX
ing the wrong road. When person who Is
characterized by excessive self-suffciency
denounces the use of all roads in which any
who have gone before him have walked, ana
asserts the right to proceed along path
which he has blaZed for himself through
trackless forest, the chances are that he
will lose his way and find himself to be no
more than "a babe in the woods with
nothing better than a cry
Roadless rowing in thought Is as little
likely to reach truth as forsaking established
highways and taking to the woods is
likely to bring one to any place which a sen
sible man would care to visit
A who really thinks, and knows what
Is required for genuine and profitable think
ing always reverences the thinkers who have
gone before him and takes careful account
Of what they have thought
Another conceit Of the advocates Of creed
1essness is this is a progressive age and
creeds hinder progress" Tht 1 contradicted
by every chapter in the hitory of human
progress. There has not been made any ad-
yancement in any field of thought by the re-
lection of what preceding generations be-
lieved. In every branch of science and
philosophy men have gone forward by pro-
ceeding the principles established by
those who have gone before them. Where
is there in all the world a sane mathema-
tician who affects to despise the character
and calculations of Sir Isaac Newton? Even
in fields of thought on which no light of rev.
citation has fallen there are accepted creeds to
which seekers after truth look mariners
look to the pole star.
In matters which it has pleased God to
reveal, Of course there is in the very nature
Of the case a degree of flXity not found in
other realms. Revealed truth is definite;
for ambiguous revelation would be no
revelation at ALL 1t is unreasonable to con-
ceive of an equivocal revelation as to con-
ceive OF equivocating God.
A revelation is, therefore, authorita-
tive trust. 1t is committed to the trustee
ship of Gods Church, and it is deposit too
sacred to be treated as a mere mutabe
philosophy which may be changed by the
tickle moods Of human consciousness, or
mutilated in order to conform it to the cur
rent cogitations of each passing generation.
The God of Christianity is not deifed
politician who submits the principles
vealed in His word to human referendum
for approval or rejection of the qualified
voters Of any age-even the self-appointed
electors Of a scientific age claiming the
right to fix the terms of the franchise of
learning under which they presume to pass
on the Word of God.
The faith of the church is not something
which has been evolved by any process his
toric evolution. 1t is not the outcome of
any form of naturalism whatsoever. 1t has
not been discovered by the intellect of man,
but disclosed by the mercy of God. 1t is
not a discovery Of earth, but a delivery
from heaven.
Hence says st. Jude, Beloved, when l
give all diligence OF write unto you Of the
common salvation it needful for me to
write unto you, and exhort you that you
should earnestly contend for the faith which
was once for all delivered to the saints.
(Judge 81 The mood which he thus en-
joins upon the saints in the primitive church
was not that of disposition to mend this
deposit of revealed truth, but of martial
mind to defend it. The apostle was not
theological pacifst, but soldier of the
Cross.