Evening Republican, Volume 18, Number 306, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 December 1914 — Back to the Bible [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Back to the Bible

Application o! the Scriptures to the World Twtay m Sm byEarisent Men in Vartan Valka el Life

(Copyriadn. 191 A by Joseph aBowM STOOPING TO CONQUER, WE ARK CONQUERED. (By WARREN A. CANDLER, D. D„ LL. D., Bishop of'the Methodist Episcopal Church, South.) “The Bible still remains the great sublime, enduring work of the Eternal who loves righteousness and hates iniquity.’’—Dr. Newman Smyth. The temptation to do evil that good may come of It Is one which easily

• I ■■ "“I besets a man who Z* wishes to do good. (k But Kis a delu * f ’ ...... MB sion and a snare. If' jWI We can not ho P6 . W| to rea P a harvest V, of Sood from sowf Ing B ee dß of evilV This was the essence of the temptation of Jeßus 1D the wilderness. “The r * devil taketh him U P tnto an exceeding high mountain, and s— showeth him all the kingdoms of

this world, and the glory of them; and saith unto him, All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me.” It was a proposal that the King of kings and Lord of lords should “stoop to conquer.” The final triumph of holiness in the earth will be when “the kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of the Lord” (Revelation 12:15); but Jesus could not consent to make a short cut to that result by way of a compromise. He chose rather to reach it by the longer and harder, but surer way of the cross. It is a deadly form of infidelity to believe that the right is so weak that it can not win without an alliance with the wrong. There is no darker atheism than to believe that God can not or will not care for his own cause. Jesus did not consider for a moment the proposal that he become a vassal of Satan by an -act of homage. He aimed at a kingdom and a crown, but not under Satan’s suzerainty. To the diabolical suggestion came his sharp response, “Get thee hence Satan: for it is written, thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shaft thou serve.” It is of the same substance as devilworship to attempt to do goodly doing evil. It never can be right to do wrong. The man or the church which stoops to conquer is always conquered by stooping. THE TWO WILLS IN MAN. (Ry His Eminence JAMES, CARDINAL GIBBONS.) “Hold fast to the Bible as the sheet anchor of your liberties.”—U. S. Grant There are, so to speak, two wills In man, the superior and the inferior.

They maintain an Irreconcilable warfare with each Other, each contending for the mastery. No human being that has arrived at the age of reason la exempt from this warfare. It is waged in the breast of the saint as well as in that of the slhner, though ordinarily with different results. The struggle begins with the dawn of reason and ends only

with life itself. The superior will strives to elevate the soul to God and to act in obedience to the divine will. It inspires sentiments of charity, joy, peace, patience, meekness, modesty, .continency, chastity.' It struggles to obtain the mastery over the flesh. The lower will endeavors to subject the superior will to its control. It is attended in its train by hatred, malice, envy, lust, Intemperance, gluttony, and such like. “The flesh lusteth against-the spirit and the spirit .against the flesh, for these are contrary one to another.” But although the struggle between our spiritual and animal nature is fierce and incessant, the result depends on ourselves. By the grace of God the superior will can always conquer, if we are only determined that it shall. The flesh may strive to captivate and allure us, but It cannot capture and enslave us against our will. Thq. most violent and ferocious passions may assail us like hungry wolves eager to devour us; yet we can escape as unharmed as Daniel In the lions* den/ Our free will, dwelling in the citadel of the soul and fortified by the grace of God, is impregnable. Many try to soothe a guilty conscience by ascribing to mental or bodily maladies what, by right, is attributable to a perverted will. The man that makes his passions responsible for his crimes is less excusable than the astrologer whom Shakespeare

holds up to ridicule: "We make gulk ty-r) our disasters the sun, the moon, and the stars: as if we were villains by necessity, fools by heavenly compulsion, knaves, thieves and treachers by spherical predominance, drunkards, liars and adulterers by enforced obedience of planetary influence.” THE LOST VIRTUE—HOSPITALITY. (By RT. REV. JOHN N. M’CORMICK, D. D., Bishop of th® trrotestant Episcope! Church.) “According to the testimony of Christ himself, itls a sign of reprobation to have a distaste or aversion fotr the word of God.”—His Eminence James, Cardinal Gibbons. It Is a common saying that hospitality of the old-fashioned sort is al-

most a lost virtue. Thp v smre,/ room and the open house are not such popular institutions as they once were, and the latchstring does not always hang ready for the wayfarer’s touch. There is a great deal of week-end-ing and. of social entertaining, but not enough of ungrudging hospital-ity-to those who have no other claim than that of

guest, and who cannot return our favors in kind. Our family life Is too selfish and too calculating. We need to return to this primitive virtue, which Is recommended in almost every book of the Bible. The people of the Bible were a hospitable folk. Villages and private houses had their guest chambers.'The guest had the right of asylum. His entertainment and his protection had the sanction of religion. The stranger within the gates had recognized position and reciprocal obllgatlons. “The stranger that sojoumeth with yo.u shall be unto you as the home-born among you and thou shalt love him as thyself.” This was the Old Testament law, and in the New Testament we read: “Forget not to show love unto strangers, for thereby some have entertained ’ angels unawares.” And at the Last Judgment the righteous, said Jesus, are to be commended thus: "I was a stranger and ye took me In. —Inasmuch as ye did It unto one of these, my brethren, even these least, ye did it' unto me.” The Prophet’s chamber which the Shunnamite woman and her husband prepared for Elisha brought untold blessings to their house.