Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1924-04-01

shapeless substance will ever produce
ShapelesS shadow.
1T is necessary therefore, in order to keep
the religious sentiment alive and develop it
into affection to present religious truth in
such definite shape as the mind can grasp,
the memory retain, and the heart appreciate,
and al the same time to invest it with certi-
tude. Yet more necessary is this in order
to give the sentiment strength and force
enough to control the passions, form the
character and regulate the conduct
"All loopholes of escape must be stopped
and the conscience brought face to face with
realities sure and great to abash, before
their own majesty, the arrogance of self-will
and the selfshness of self-indulgence. The
dogmas of the Christian faith are invested to
an extraordinary degree with both these
characteristics They are at once broad and
simple enough for the comprehension of the
most Ignorant and yet have heights and
depths about them surprising the grasp of
the profoundest intellect. They come to the
conscience invested with a Divine authority.
The faithfuness of Him who is the God of
truth, the omniscience of Him to whose
piercing eyes all things in heaven and earth
are open, and the authority of Him who is
Creator, Redeemer, Sanctiier, King, Father,
and Judge in one indivisible Deity are pledg
ed for their certainty. The evidences con-
shutting the credentials of the faith bear on
them the visible signature of God. The in
spired records of the faith speak with con-
fdent authority unknown to any human
books. Their sanctions are drawn from the
highest exercise of enlightened reason and
conscience and from the tremendous inter
ests of future world of reward and punish
ment. The dogmatic faith possesses every
quality fitted to instruct the reason, satisfy
the conscience, and move the affections But
the cause and effect must stand or fall to-
gether. The loss of the truth involves the
loss of the sentiment evoked by it. To de-
stroy the dogmatic faith is to destroy Chris
tianity and to destroy Christianity is to de-
stroy religion"
The distinguished lecturer thus takes
perfectly correct position and sustains it with
clear and conclusive statements Of the most
profound truths.
For the revealed God of the Christian
faith these academic tyros propose to sub
stitute "a God, who is not formula, but
horizon" and they demand pragmatic re-
ligiOn." If the matter Of religion among
young men were not so serious these pre-
tentious demands would be positively ludi-
crous.
This deIverance of creedlessness by a con-
ference Of "wOrkers' in colleges and univer
stiles has a definite purpose Notwithstanding
the vagueness Of its language. 1t means to
dsplace the creed of Christendom in order
to make room for the dogmas of doubhtI
When pressed. one of the leaders in the
Conference-fn fact, the leader pre-cminent
denied the inspiration of the Holy Scrip
error and contradictions, repudiated the
story of creation in the book of Gen.
esis, and sneered at the idea OF the bod
lily resurrection of our Lord frivOOusly and
irreyerenty, asking how much the resurrec
ton body weighed. He thus proclaimed his
own creed, while rejecting the dogmas of
ngelfcal Christianity. He wants no creed
but his own and no dogmas but such as he
frames himself. 1t is no wonder he seeks
to shelter skeptcal doctrines under "a God
who is horizon"
Yet this man wanders around through the
educational institutions of the country hold
ing his conferences" and scattering his scep-
ticism among the students.
The authorities of the colleges and uni
versities of the nation should begin to be
their guard against the coming into their in
situations the apostles of creedless sentiment
tally in opposition to Christian truth. There
be many such strolling takers rowing over
the land and claiming to be expert" workers
among students. Thereby they make their
living.
1t is time to close the doors against not
few of them.
ference which published the absurd demand
for "a God who is not formula, but hori-
zon," the editor of "The Presbyterian" OF
PHILADELPHIA says:
ut would appear from this that the chief
work Of the student pastors and workers is
TO make God after the conception of the
students, or to let each student make god
after his own image. There can be no doubt
as to the reliability Of this report, because
of the excellence of the one making it. That
5ein" 50, it clearly reveals the anti-Christian
character of the work being done among
students. When God is represented as "a
formula or "a horizon,' and when science,
which here means philosophy, is presented
as the authority to which religion must be
conformed, and when the Bible is ignored as
the infallibIe guide in faith and practice. and
religion is presented as chiefly pragmatic,
then the resulting influence must be anti
Christian"
1t is quite unwise to turn loose among
youthful students lot Of raw rationalist5