be his. The Christian, then, is one who has come to that. He has such views of God and duty, of himself and his privilege, that his will is obedient to his view of the truth; he has brought all his powers into allegiance to God. The confession of the Church means that as a whole it is working together with God to achieve in every man that purpose and plan which God has formed for him. We have recognized that God's purpose for us is our supreme good. Whatever helps us toward that end is for us right; whatever interferes with our attaining that reality is wrong. Every Christian, then, has a plain path of duty before him. Every Christian knows what it is to believe. It is to have that definite understanding which he gains from his own heart, and God's Word, and the experiences of Christians about. him, as to what the desire of God for him is; namely, that he be pure in heart, kind and true and tender; that he keep himself continually under discipline, as one in service; that he believe in God's Word, and that God has ever more and larger truth in store for him. In proportion as he is obedient to this faith, his whole life shall be a progress, a bloom, a beauty, until it shall come to its final fruitage. And that fruitage shall be the attainment of God's fulfilled purpose for him. Now the question arises, How about error? The error. old-time maxims were, "Know the truth," and "Avoid error." Are they identical? Far from it. Know the truth means something very different from Avoid Avoid error, we easily can do by doing nothing. Avoid error, we can easily achieve intellectually, by knowing nothing, having no opinions, no conceptions, no purposes. Knowing the truth, on the contrary, is bringing ourselves into allegiance to the Truth. It is surrendering ourselves to the authority of what we know, be it more or less. But is there no error mixed up in truth? Doubtless. Still, we are so constituted, and the truth stands so related to us that we always have the power of seeing the good there is in the truth, and of throwing off evil. Accept, therefore, the authority of the truth you see, and be loyal to it. Imagine the injunction to a soldier, "Be very careful not to incur any wounds." Who would fight? The command is, "Advance! Charge!" Give yourself in the line in which what you do will count for the cause you represent. The effort to obey the truth is the first step to attaining larger truth. The purpose to use so much truth as one sees, is the surest guaranty of escaping error. Anselm's great saying becomes true, "I believe in order that I may know," and so does Abelard's reply, "I know in order that I may believe." The Christian Church has always believed with John Robinson, the Pilgrims' pastor, that there is "much truth yet to break forth out of God's Word." It has also abundantly proved that in proportion to the use of such truth as is revealed to each man have been the growth and blessedness and power of Christian truth in us, and the reality of our service in bringing in the kingdom of Christ in the world. ' 1 There is a story of a craven who broke his sword in the battle, and flung it away, and fled. The prince came along, wounded, bleeding, weaponless, hard pressed. Seeing the broken sword, he grasped it, and, turning, led his men back to victory.' What is that but a picture of the Christian; the weapon of truth in his hand broken and imperfect, but ever recognizing that it is still a weapon given of God, and that with true faith and strong heart and unwavering allegiance to his Master behind him, it is competent by the grace of God to bring in the day of triumph for his Lord? Therefore, "I believe" is the pæan of victory of the servants of the Lord Jesus Christ, for it is the affirmation of a manhood which unwaveringly responds to his life-giving call. |