To Believe Is To Be

There Is A Power In The Soul, Quite Separate From The Intellect, Which Sweeps Away Or Recognizes The Marvelous, By Which God Is Felt. Faith Stands Serenely Far Above The Reach Of The Atheism Of Science. It Does Not Rest On The Wonderful, But On The Eternal Wisdom And Goodness Of God. The Revelation Of The Son Was To Proclaim A Father, Not A Mystery. No Science Can Sweep Away The Everlasting Love Which The Heart Feels, And Which The Intellect Does Not Even Pretend To Judge Or Recognize.

He In Whose Heart The Law Was, And Who Alone Of All Mankind Was Content To Do It, His Sacrifice Alone Can Be The Sacrifice All-sufficient In The Father's Sight As The Proper Sacrifice Of Humanity; He Who Through The Eternal Spirit Offered Himself Without Spot To God, He Alone Can Give The Spirit Which Enables Us To Present Our Bodies A Living Sacrifice, Holy And Acceptable To God. He Is The Only High-priest Of The Universe.

As The Tree Is Fertilized By Its Own Broken Branches And Fallen Leaves, And Grows Out Of Its Own Decay, So Men And Nations Are Bettered And Improved By Trial, And Refined Out Of Broken Hopes And Blighted Expectations.

In These Two Things The Greatness Of Man Consists, To Have God Dwelling In Us As To Impart His Character To Us, And To Have Him Dwelling In Us, That We Recognize His Presence, And Know That We Are His, And He Is Ours. The One Is Salvation; The Other, The Assurance Of It.

For When Man Comes To Front The Everlasting God, And Look The Splendor Of His Judgments In The Face, Personal Integrity, The Dream Of Spotlessness And Innocence, Vanishes Into Thin Air: Your Decencies And Your Church-goings And Your Regularities And Your Attachment To A Correct School And Party, Your Gospel Formulas Of Sound Doctrine--what Is All That, In Front Of The Blaze Of The Wrath To Come?