Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1924-01-05


Gothic" churches which found all over
the Christian world? Why did this foolish
contributor to the Homiletic Review ignore
or depreciate all the forms of beauty which
have spring from Christianity? Is he igno-
rant of them or does he have bias against
the Christian religion in favor of Grecian
pagansm? Does he value art above
igion.
1t should not be forgotten that purity of
life is the chief product of Christianity, and
that beauty of art Is one of its by-prod-
ucts.
1t Is we'll for mankind that this Is true
II holiness had not been the chief end of
the Jewish religion, as well as the prime
object of Christianity, mankind would be
now in a hopeless condition. The human
race can not be saved by art. In the times
and places in which art has been most flour
ishng foulest immortality has been frequent
ly most prevalent In fastidous aestheti-
cism men have never found any purifying
power. 1t did not save the artistic athe
mans. Their commonwealth persisted when
their art was most glorious. 1t was utterly
Intellectual to save either the Grecian people
or itself. 1t has passed away a beaut-
full dream yanishes.
st. Paul the great Apostle to the Gentiles
did not appraise very highly Grecianism as a
force by which Christianity might have been
improved. He says the gospel of crucified
Christ was unto the Greeks foolishness" Ct
Corinthians 1929. Perhaps that which the
anti-Christian Greeks called "foolishness''
some modern minds" call ''narroWness."
The mistake which lies at the center of
the misleading article in the Homletic Re-
view is that Christianity is product of nat
uraness, cOlored by climate and affected by
soil. This is capital blunder. Christianity
is revelation from God, and works its re-
lation from God, and works its redeemin g
results with equal power in all lands and
among all peoples, being to them who be-
lieve, both Jews and Greeks, the power of
God and the wisdom of God" 1t is the full
millment of the Messianic hope of Israel,
which was not a conception suggested by the
soil of Galilee the climate of any land.
From this Christ idea Christianity derives
its name, and the religion of the Christ could
not have originated with any other people
than the Jews of Palestine.
Upon this point Rev. Stanley Leathers, D..
D., one of the ablest of the hampton lectur-
ers, speaks most aptly and forciby.
The birth of Christ would have been i'm
possible in any other land than Palestine.
Not only can We not imagine it springin G
into existence among the mountains of
Greece or the plains of Rome; but it would
have been a moral mpossibilty for it to
have arisen there. Why? Because the very
soil had not been prepared. There was
nothing there for it to support itself upon,
to lay hold of, or to spring from. Palestine
was the natural birthplace of this religion,
and it could have originated nowhere else
why not? Because nowhere else was there
the definite and fixed conception of Christ
We too often regard the name of Christ
as personal appellation; it is not so; it is
strictly and solely an official title When
we say that Christ was born in the region
OF Augustus, We mean that a person was
then born who was the Christ. But the per-
sonal name of Him who was so born was
Jesus and not Christ. That this Jesus was
the Christ, that He had the right to fulfill
the office which that name implied was the
earliest assertion of the religion which was
afterwards named for Him, but that asser-
ton would have been unmeaning where the
name was not known and not understood.
And yet so completely has this assertion
been found and felt to be true or at all
events characteristic, that after an expert
ence of eighteen centuries we still call the
religion of Jesus Christianity, name derived
from the office He fulfilled and do not call
1t by any name derived from His personal ap-
pellation. But the very name Christ alone
and Of itself, is witness to mass of thought
and fact, OF idea and anticipation, without
which it could have taken no hold and would
have made no way. There was in the mind
of the Jewish nation the conception of a
Christ, which was the very basis and foun-
dation that the religion called was to rest
upon, and without which it not only would
not have stood for day, but also could not
even have come into existence.
If the writer of the ill-considered article
in the Homletic Review will think on these
things, he will come to see perhaps that
Christianity could not have been improved by
a birthplace in Greece 1t could not have
been born there at all It's birthplace deter
mined its nature and it's nature fixed its
birthplace. Jesus was bound to be born in
Bethlehem, and not in Athens. One might
as we'll propose to change the name of our
blessed Redeemer to Jove Apollo to
change the birth place of Christianity to Greece
and modify its essential character into Hell
lenism.
At last, what the apostles of naturalism
intend by all their proposed amendments to
the Christian religion is to denature it. But
this never be done. They may corrupt
Christianity, reject it altogether; but its
character is too fixed for them or any
else, to change it. An angel is not qualified
to amend it. SO Paul wrote to the Galatians
Though we, Or an angel from heaven, preach
any other gospel unto you than that we have
preached unto you, let him be accursed."
Galatians 1:S)
Christianity is the final religion. Neither
its facts nor its principles can be changed in
this or any future age. 1t is the last and best
hope of the world. Christ no after age shall
eer outgrow.'
Bethlehem and Calvary must ever remain
the dearest spots On earth to the childI en- Of
men.
All the close of the year 1924 Christianity
is the same it was in the first century when
Paul preached at Athens and Corinth and
Phlippi. 1t is what it ever must remain
"the power of God unto salvation" Neither
literature nor art can substitute Or super
sede it.