Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1924-06-19
OLD-TIME RELIGION
BY BISHOP W. A. GAMBLER

before our fellow men, conforming to their
human customs and maXims. and seeking
their approval, but by walking befo2u God, |
seeking to be confOrmed to Hia mage and
likeness, and counting nothing better than
His appreciation. 1t thus shows that hui
man perfection is to be found in God, and
in God alone; not in mechanical l.. >esses !
of human conduct, but in the Divine regu-I
laton of life and the ennobling forces of
grace which issue from a heavenly Father
hood.
AS a great exposition Of the creed has
said this first sentence Of it, 1T teaches
that which makes a ran truly righteous is
not any effort on his part to acL~" y ac-
ton a completeness and Wilderness Of char
acter which may command, if it does not
aim at securing, the admiration of his fell
lowmen, the commentators of himself, but
the fact, that leaning on the invisible God,
looking to the Father who is Almighty, who
can call those things which be not as though
they were, he finds in Him righteousness
and perfection which he has utterly re-
nounced in himself, but which, having been
found in his heavenly father, has a necessary
and inevitable tendency to dominate and
sanctify all his human and mundane rela-
tons, and which is personally and inwardly
the realization of an idea which cannot
otherwise be achieved, but is doomed to per-
petual and recurring disappointment.
and thus the old words are verified
when we know the Almighty God, for we
walk before Him and are perfect"
And every other tenet of the creed is, as
the first, equally vital to moral life and
fruitful Of spiritual graces. They all carry
the human heart into the invisible and
spiritual world, and stand it there in the
presence of God the Father, God the Son
and God the Holy Ghost.
The creed of Christendom underlies all
the good in the civilization of Christendom.
It's tenets are simple that children and
the most illiterate among men can compre-
bend them, and they are at the same time,
so sublime that the wisest Of philosophers
can rest his faith upon them.
In recent years there has been a wide
spread tendency to fashion moral life on
mundane models, rather than according to
the pattern shown us in the mount. Many
men have embraced atheistic systems of
ethics With Mr. Herbert Spencer they have
sought to find the data Of ethics" in hui
man nature and earthly conditions, rather
than in the Divine nature and heavenly
standards.
The fruits of such folly now visible
in moral disorder on every. side. Such
result was inevitable. Well may we now
cry with the Psalmst: F'Help, Lord; for the
gOdly man ceaseth; for the faithful fail from
among the children Of men" (Psalms ii:1.)
When faith in God grows feeble the faithful
among men become fewer; and creedless-
ness corrupts conduct.
Attacks upon the creed have been fol-
lowed by assaults upon many of the funda-
mental principles which underlie and sus-
tain social order Revolt against Gods
truth engenders rebellion against Gods laws
Atheism breeds anarchy.
We have had quite enough anarchy of re-
volts against both settled truth and essen
tial law
1t is cheering to note, however a strong
reaction against these things.
The recent general assembly of the South
ern Presbyterian reaffirmed its faith in
Gods word in the most dignified calm and
confident manner.
The Northern Presbyterian general assem-
bly, set its face against modernists. Faithful
bishops of the Protestant Episcopal church.
with firmness and doubtless with pain con-
demned the heretical teachings Of one of
their number who has persistenty rejected
and repeatedly derided most essential parts
of the creed.
Let no man condemn these clean courts
of these great churches They have done
no more than they ought to have done
If liberals revolt against the creeds Of
the churches and demand the creed Of creed
essness, let them get together in an organi-
zaton framed and fashioned on that pat
tern. That would be honest. But it Is es-
sentially dishonest to remain In an ortho-
dOX church, live on its resources and then
attack its principles
The churches have the right to formulate
their faith and to defend it. No mans lib
erty is circunscribed thereby; for no man
is required to Join church remain with
in it's pale, who repudiates it's principles.
The liberty Of church to proclaim its
belief is quite as sacred as the freedom Of
any individual to speak his mind.