Religious Items

The natural man has no understanding of the things of the spirit. They are out of his reach. They require spiritual perception. Hence it follows that men may be intellectual and scholarly, and yet totally incompetent to pronounce upon the truths of the Bible or the facts of religious experience. An ignoramus in other affairs may be a better authority on these things than a philosopher, because they require not the eyes of a philosopher, but the eyes of a Christian. Therefore Jesus said: "I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes."

Religion must be approached heart first and not head first. Any man who has sense enough to give his heart to God will be able to see what all rationalist critics will never see. The secret of the rocks is with the geologist; the secret of the stars is astronomer; the secret of languages is with the philologist; the secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him.

Now if we think of the kingdom of heaven as that body of spiritual truth, and complex of ethical laws, by the light and guidance of which good men shape their lives, and which Jesus taught in his religion, what is the relation of the Christian Church to it? It would be easy enough, I think, to say what it ought to be. It clearly ought to be of the closest and most intimate sort. The professors of the religion of Christ, and members of his organized Church ought to be Christians in the strictest and most exemplary way. As far as is humanly possible, they ought to be filled with the spirit of the Master, and ought to direct their lives by his example. They should be the ones in the world to whom the kingdom of heaven has indeed come, the Lord's Prayer having been answered to them. We ought to be able to say, "If you want to know what the Christian religion is in its purity and simplicity, if you want to know what the kingdom of heaven on earth is, look into the hearts and lives of these men and women."

Rev. A. B. Hervey, Ph.D.
In The Universalist Leader.

Now, far be it from us to deny the presence and value of feeling in Christian experience. It cannot be absent where the experience is genuine. But it is subordinate and secondary; not the origin of that experience, nor a chief factor in it, but the consequence and fruit of quite different spiritual activities. Repentance toward God, faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ, the appreheusion of truth concerning ourselves, concerning sin, concerning God, concerning Christ as Saviour and Sovereign, concerning humanity and its needs, concerning life and its duties, these call for a clearness and vigor of thinking, the exaltation and concentration of our highest faculties, that ought not to be clouded and bewildered by an excess of feeling. When the vision comes, when we see in some measure what God really is, and what we are in His presence, in view of His holiness and in view of His love, there will be feeling enough, poignant and irrepressible and not transient, but it will rest on a basis of clear knowledge, intelligent conviction, and intelligent faith.—The Examiner.

Thus far in history we have only been able to make the great idea of the communion of saints real in a partial and piecemeal way. It is hard to forget the differences which keep us apart. Yet the inner fellowship is a fact which has the right of way. The divisions are unreal and will pass by; the real thing is the brotherhood of all believers. First, we must recognize the common faith. Is this man Christ's disciple? Then he is my brother. How often we are tempted to reverse the process and say: "Is the man of my opinions? Then he may possibly be my brother." The one great gift the promised life has to offer us, after the vision of our Lord, is the unclouded appreciation of the communion of all believers.

The Congregationalist and Christian World.

If the spiritual world is to have the fullest reality for us, we must have some experience in the spiritual that is genuinely our own, not a hollow echo of something we have heard from others. In a Christian community, where the language of religious experience is familiar, perhaps there is no greater danger besetting the spiritual life than this danger of merely imitating the experience of others. To face the reality of a genuine religious experience means much that is uncomfortable; real willingness to see the facts of our own life and need as they are; the breaking down of our pride, the giving up of our selfishness, the putting of ourselves really and persistently in the presence of God's supreme revelation in Christ.—H. C. King.

The promised land of holiness is before every one of us. The Christian generations which have preceded us have all been spies for us, bringing tidings of the hardness of the way, but all uniting on the goodness of the land and the blessedness of its conditions. Now, as in the days of old, there are Calebs and Joshuas on the one hand and faint hearts on the other, but now, as then, God is with those who are bound to overcome and who will conquer in His sign.

The Christian Advocate says: "As the cloud went before to show the way, so God by many providences goes before His people to make their way plain. The trouble is, so many do not recognize the providences, and refuse to be guided by them; they overlook God's hints and directions, and find no thought of God in their plan of life. With faith they might be as sure of direction as were the Israelites in the wilderness, and as free, too, of the needless worry and fret which makes the burden of the way."

Bishop E. G. Andrews of the Methodist Church says: "We do not think now as we did half a century ago. We see God and Christ and the Holy Ghost in a different light. In my younger years I thought of Him as a personal being in some distant part of the universe. Now I think of Him as a power within us, and I am impressed beyond measure with the all-pervading beauty and glory of love as a means of transforming humanity. We see that it is love that accomplishes God's work in man."

God offers to every human soul a "promised land." But it can be won only by overcoming the giants of temptation. Hence the Bible represents the Christian life as a warfare, and Paul carefully points out the armament we need for the conflict. (Ephesians, 6: 11-18). "No Canaan of success in any pursuit, can be gained save by the conquest of the Anakim." This is especially true in the spiritual realm.

The Watchman says: "It is the tendency of fear to magnify dangers and obstacles. The ten spies saw everything in an exaggerated form. Every man was a mighty giant, every city strongly fortified. But they forgot that the Omnipotent would have gone with them to the battle. And we may be sure that, if we go forward in the path God marks out for us, in confident reliance upon Him, He will give us strength and wisdom for every need."

Rev. A. E. Dunning writes in The Congregationalist: "The Bible mirrors human experience. Therefore it never grows obsolete. Every generation sees its journeys pictured in the approach of the Israelites to the promised land, and their defeat on its borders. But Moses and Caleb and Joshua still rise up as leaders, and the spirit which makes them strong and patient and triumphant is the spirit which the Bible tells us is of God."

Rev. J. Mervin Hall says in The Watchman: "In my judgment, here is the next great forward movement of the Church of Christ. How can we expect universal brotherhood until we have genuine Christian fellowship in the individual churches? And when the world beholds the demonstration of genuine brotherhood in the Church it will be drawn toward the kingdom of God with irresistible power."

It is easy to "tell the old, old story" of Christ's salvation. What the world needs is men and women who show what Christ has done for them. Testimony for Christ is valuable, but the best witness for him is in the holy lives of his professed disciples. Christians now, as the Epistles of Christ, written by the Spirit, are to be transcripts of his mind and teaching.—The Examiner.

We have just as much religious life as we show to God in secret—just that, no less, no more. Whatever is not wrought between thee and God, with no record but His eye, in chaff, which the wind driveth away.

To fill life full you must open it upward toward truth, beauty, goodness. Seeking things below takes our strength out of us; waiting on the Lord for His higher gifts renews our strength day by day.