Article November 20, 1902 Issue

Religious Items

with contributions from Beecher, John White Chadwick, Canon Westcott

The best theology a man can have and the most satisfying creed he can endorse and the most virile faith he can possess, will be found in an inherent power which gives him the victory over the world; over its follies and foolishness; its sins and temptations; its allurements and deceptions, and enables him to conquer the great world of carnal forces without him and the greater world of subtle selfishness within him. A faith that endures through seeing him who is invisible anchors life to "the evidence of things not seen."

No one need lose faith to-day, for though we are seemingly in an age of doubt, we have just as many evidences of divine power to conquer unbelief as in the time when Abraham believed God, or in the days of Jesus when he cast out devils and turned Saul into an obedient apostle. The simplest sort of faith, if it be like that of a little child, will open the way for God to come into the life, and His coming means omnipotence,—divine authority and power to master all opposition to right, and drive out every lurking foe. So complete is the change that John calls it being "born of God." It is a new life in every essential feature, a new life that makes everything new to the man who possesses it. Whenever you find yourself able to overcome an evil tendency or desire, or see others so changed that now they live a life opposite to their former one of selfishness and sin, then know that you have the best evidence of the newest victory for the old faith.—The Standard.

With this view of it, we need not talk much about goodness. It is the life only that is essential. Quality of life is what we desire and need. All talk of goodness implies a conventional standard, a life of routine, a formal excellence. It is not this we are to aim at, but what is genuine, vital, eternal. A natural, wholesome, sincere life is the best one, and, therefore, the one with most of virtue. It is even essential that we shall be unconventional in order to be genuine, that our virtue shall come from the heart, that it shall express our real sentiments. Other wise we lose ourselves in what is proper and becoming, and forget what is just, true, and loving. But the good life does not needlessly reject what is conventional, but vitalizes it, makes it again a genuine expression of the impulses of the heart.

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