September 1924
T HE K I N G ’ S B U S I N E S S
604
Oh, the fallacy of a religion which does not satisfy the conscience of man with the satisfaction that satisfies the conscience of God. But why go further? Think of the fallacy of a religion which sets aside the supernatural, shrouds the grave in silence and shuts man up to a limited life of forty or fifty or sixty years— a quick, sharp pain— a gasp for breath—- death— the grave clods and-—forgetfulness. Is that the cure-all for the twentieth century? Is that the latest thing Athenian culture of the hour can give us? Is this the best product of a university course? In a world of perplexities, tragedies and woes, has the Athenianism of the twentieth century nothing better to offer than a religion without authority, a faith without doctrine, and a Christ without character? For the heartache, for the memory of yesterday’s sin that bites as the sharp tooth of a ravening wolf, has the new religion nothing better to offer than the knife of the sur geon to cure the disease of the body; has it no medicine for a mind diseased, no remedy for the pain of the soul? As our eyes grow dim with age has it no vision of a holy city, a haven of rest; when life’s fitful fever is over here has it no nobler pulse-beat to give us there? When we stand on the threshold of the five minutes after death can it do no better than take away from us all the sweet stories of heaven we learned at our mother’s knee? When we stand at that place where the ways part, where time is no longer a high road and eternity unrolls a dim, uncertain route, can it give us no better sign-post than an interrogation point, no better direction than a guess? If it be so— then this new religion is the most forlorn, the most hopeless, the most fallacious, unintellectual, cruel, heartless, concept of human limitation, contradiction and confusion ever invented within a dry, moistureless skull, to deceive and betray the troubled soul of man. For bread it gives us a stone, for a fish it gives us a serpent. Instead of a living, sentient, thrilling religion, it is a mummy, a juiceless, withered mummy. Instead of setting us upon a foundation it flings us into a sea which has no shore and whose broken waves continually toss us into the deeper depths of unsounded darkness. Oh, New Religion! thy name is fallacy and thine out come-—despair. B E A U T I F U L C H A R T S It gives the editor, personally, great pleasure to commend the advertisement o f Mr. P . S. Borich on Page 5 9 2 . Mr. Borich is a master artist in painting charts. He is a devoted servant o f God and has been my personal friend for a quarter o f a century. I have from his hand the most beautiful chart of the Tabernacle I have ever seen. Mr. Borich says he did not do it, but that the Lord did it. It has helped very many people to catch the vision of the sacrifice of our High Priest and o f His high- priestly work.
It is fallacious to seek to build a religion which bids men look within themselves for hope. You might as well exhort a man to look down the crater of a flaming hell. It is a fallacy to build any religion which ignores the con troversy between sin and holiness; between a being who hates holiness and a holy being who hates sin. It is a fallacy to build a religion which does not seek to bring the conscience of man into accord with the con science of the universe—M;hat is to say, the conscience of God. In a world where God invariably punishes every violation of his law before he forgives it, what folly, what worse than folly to set up a treaty between God and man which does not rest upon a basis of satisfaction rendered to God, satis faction to his law,' his government and being. What a fall acy to attempt to set up a religion which denies the neces sity of atonement; a necessity written into the very fabric of things; written in the law of heredity; written in per sonal experience and echoing in the words and the truth, “Whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap;” revealed in every electric chair and hangman’s rope and coming down to us with unabridged accent in the unre pealed original law of God, “Whoso sheddeth man’s blood by man shall his blood be shed.” A necessity illustrated, repeated, typified, reannounced and affirmed from Eden’s gate where the first victim is slain till that hour when Jesus cries “ it is finished,” and an apostle says, he “ died for our sins according to the scriptures;” not only in fulfilment of the scriptures but according to the doctrine of the scrip tures— that is— sacrificial atonement. in the land where was heard the voice of the Lord. Its customs and institutions still preserve echoes of tone and teaching of the Divine Word.” Every Bible Student, Teacher, Preacher Will appreciate the helps and “ local coloring” given in Bible Manners and Customs George M. Mackie, M. A. Order Today Cloth $1.00 Another Book to Help You See Petra, Perea and Phoenica A . Forder A Book to Help You Know Archaeology and the Bible George A. Barton Cloth $3.50 If money does not accompany order, goods will be sent C. O. D. unless otherwise specified. If books are to come by mail add 1 0 % for postage. “Biola Best Books” “ Preserved Echoes” — Descriptions of old time districts and places, beautifully illustrated by actual photographs. Cloth $2.80
B I O L A B O O K R O O M Bible Institute, Los Angeles, Cal.
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