תמונות בעמוד
PDF
ePub

complishments of those who are gifted with that matchless "talent for doing good." The miseries of men give the philanthropist his opportunity. Under the touch of his loving genius rise stately hospitals, colleges, libraries. The impulses of kindness sends forth the disciples of the Red Cross, who make the bloody glooms of war to gleam with brightness which even the angels must applaud. The imperfections of society are the rusty onyx in which true statesmen work in making a better social and political manhood, The sins of the world drew down the love of Heaven, until the glory of the Son of God shone in the milder radiance of the Son of Man.

The grandest of all self-discoveries is that God is with one. This was the secret of Gideon's valor: "Surely I will be with thee." The very night when this was made clear to him he destroyed the altar of Baal and set up that of Jehovah in the midst of heathenism which had hitherto cowed even his naturally brave spirit. Scientific discovery fires the zeal of the inquirer, but it is only seeing a little further down the way that leads to where God dwells. The Christian finds God coming to meet him, embracing him with His companionship, endowing him with a portion of His infinite spirit. Hence the phenomena of missionary prowess outstripping all secular adventure in daring and the sublimer courage of patiently enduring.

The biographer of Horace Bushnell, describing his conversion, says that after his prayer of consecration, "he rose with the star upon his forehead." Some have sought to read their destiny in their natal star above their heads, dim, cold, always uncertain and generally deluding. The young Christian's star touches his brow, sends its radiance of truth through his mind in confirmation of faith, and pours its warmth and power through all the energies of his soul.

INCENTIVES FROM RELIGIOUS FAITH

XVIII

INCENTIVES FROM RELIGIOUS FAITH

S the veins of a leaf converge to the parent stem, so all the incentives that

[ocr errors]

make for noble living lead ultimately to religious consecration. In each of the preceding chapters, therefore, the field of Christian. life has furnished us with the strongest illustrations of the various virtues described.

We may, however, reverse the analogy of the leaf, and say that the veins do not really converge to the stem; they rather ramify from it, and draw their own vitality from that which the stem supplies. So we may look to the religious impulse for the highest attainment in honest character, generous feeling, right action, and unselfish service.

We may broadly define religion as the sentiment for God, the feeling that He is, and that He is with men. This sentiment for God" tends to crystallize into theological definitions, whereof there are as many as there are shapes of crystals, and none of them perfect.

The theologian's dilemma is not unlike that of

« הקודםהמשך »