Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1924-11-13
.OLD-TIME RELIGION
BY BISHOP w. A. GAMBLER

follow it Wheresoeyer 1t might lead. Wherev-
er men dwelt, whatever their condition. no
matter how remote no matter how destitute
they might be, to him they were souls to be
saved"
In these plain and profound statements
the President points to the unquestionable
fact that the basis of good government is
pure and undefled religion
The American republic is nation founded
by faith and established by religion. ASH
that acute Frenchman, M. de TocqueviHe
said most truly, religion gave birth to
Anglo-American society,"
AS religion has f1ourished or waned since
the foundation of the nation, lawessness has
subsidized or prevailed. The life Of the peo-
pie, it has been religious or faithess
has determined the force or failure of the
law
Such being the the alarming 1awIess-
ness now prevalent is attributable to the
decline of piety in the hearts and homes of
the people. IT'S correction will come by the
return of the people to God.
Francis Asbury and his ministerial con-
temporaries contributed to the founding of
the Republic by the great revivals of religion
which under God they brought to pass and
promoted
They were not social reformers crying
with strident voices for the correction of
this\disorder that evil; but they were
preachers of the gospel, crying in the wilder
ness, saying, Repent, for the kingdom of
heaven it at hand" They believed the
gospel with strong confidence, and therefore,
they spoke to the people with heavenly au-
thority and not as academic scribes and So
cialistic Pharsees.
During the last thirty years we have had
an increasing number of clerical reformers,
many of whom were afflicted with an en-
feebled faith in Christ. They have not re-
lied on spiritual forces to renew and reinvig-
crate the moral life of the nation Their
treatment of social disorders has been Gu
taneous rather than constitutional. Hence
they have organized innumerable associa-
tlons, societies, leagues, councils, commits
sioners and bureaus. Upon the operation of
all their complicated machinery they have
expended millions of money and immeasur-
able energy. But the results of their mis-
guided efforts have been more than disap-
pointing. To a degree they have been posi-
lively damaging to the religious life Of them
selves and all who have heard and needed
them. They have brought to pass an age of
doubt and of lawlessness.
The time has come for the people to turn
away from these social Messiahs with their
superficial reformations and gospels of I'M
certainty.
The time has come for ministry to
genuine faith to return and call the people
back to God
President Coolidge correctly described the
ngelical labors of Francis Asbury and his
comrades when he said of the consecrated
DdCuoIOr DlSnOp, FRANCIS ASDury came TO
America to preach religion. He had no idea
that he preparing Men the better to take
part in great liberal movement the better
to take advantage of free institutions, and
the better to perform the functions of self
government. He did not come for political
motives. Undoubtedly they We're furthest
from his mind. Others could look after pub
lie affairs"
Francis Asbury was not running to the
congress of the new republic and the legisla-
lures of the sovereign states with all sorts
of bills, petitions and manifestoes. He was
quickening the religious life of the people,
being fully persuaded that Christian life
would surely and speedily manifest itself in
both the making and the enforcement of
good laws.
To that plan, patterned after the method
of Christ and the apostles, we need to re-
turn. We have had enough of the futile
efforts of trying to make life by law instead
of endeavoring to make law from life.
There has been no revival of religion that
has pervaded the nation for more than fifty
years-not since the days of Moody and
Sankey. We have tried all sorts of social
porus plasters and moral nostrums to heal
the disordered life of the nation and there
by we have made the case no better, but
rather worse by the quack treatment thus
employed
Nothing will save us from lawlessness but
the quickening Of the life of God in the
souls of the people.