Article May 19, 1906 Issue

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GEORGE WALLACE PENNIMAN with contributions from W. C. BITTING

If we believe in the risen Christ, if there is a resurrection for us, there will be abundant evidence of it in our lives. If the spirit of Christ dwells in our hearts it will animate our lives, and our lives will have somewhat of the purity and courage and devotion of Jesus' life. Our deeds, our dispositions, the way we get along with our neighbors will be better testimony than all the "articles of faith" which were ever framed. We shall feel new strength, we shall believe that we can do whatever we ought to do. We shall believe in the realities of the spiritual world, the spiritual life, the spiritual strength. We shall not think that to eat and drink and pile up our goods is all there is to life. We shall know that it is not the best of life. We shall know that to stand by what we believe is the truth and to do what we think is right, is better. We shall know that truth and righteousness and love are not idle dreams and fancies but the very stuff life is made of, and we shall believe in these things and serve them more than houses and land, and fine clothing and good diners. We shall see how such a spirit dwelling with us and talking to us by the way will make life seem richer and grander than we had thought it could be. We shall begin to see and understand, better than we could by reading it, how Jesus was stayed up and enabled to do his work, and even to set his face steadfastly toward Jerusalem and martyrdom, because he knew his was God's cause, and his strength the strength of the spirit which God had given him.

REV. GEORGE WALLACE PENNIMAN.
The Universalist Leader.

Sympathy is essential to a true theology. No man can be understood by his enemy. He will not bare his secret self to one who hates him. Even if he did, the unsympathetic could not have the qualifications for knowing him. This is more true of God and our knowledge of Him than of our understanding of one another. Only the pure in heart see Him. One must love Him to see Him anywhere, here or in heaven, just as one must love the flowers to know botany, or aesthetics to know music and art, or love his friend to know him. It is both morally and intellectually impossible to know God if we ignore Him, and rule Him out of life. Theology is not a matter of sheer brain. It demands moral sympathy just as unity of selfhood with the facts of any realm is a necessary condition of knowing that realm. The unspiritual man must always have a false theology.

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