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Organ of ihe Norih Carolina Conference.
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SIXTIETH YEAR.
RALEIGH, N. C, JULY Hi, 1914.
Back to the Bible
Collier's Weekly.
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ERTAIN of our wise men of today have shaded
away sin till it becomes an expression of temper
ament They tell us that we sin because our
grandfather sinned, and because our home is situ
ated in the wrong block. These are clever words of
clever comforters, and surely they ought to wipe
away forever the tears from our eyes. But they do not speak
to human need. They leave life blighted and the heart asham
ed. They leave the sinning one to continue in despair. He
does not ask that his sin shall be explained away. He wishes
forgiveness and a fresh start. In the Book, which is not
read as once it was, there are no soft words about sin. But
the way out is shown. And not only is forgiveness offered
in this Book, but man's need of comfort is met. There is
comfort in plenty. These writers knew the human heart.
They saw him broken by his toil and his grief. And for
this, too, they had the answer. They told of a Being of
love, hidden just back of this rude and temporary universe.
This love, they said, is conscious of how the littlest child and
the old man are sick at heart for one to come close to their
loneliness. When again will any company of writers say
the things they know in such telling words, such pictures of
humble life the boy far away from the faces of his home
and far gone in shame such true stories of lowly devotion
breaking through into beauty? Much is swept away between
us and them, but not one accent of Naomi's voice is lost to
us, and still the "Turn again, my daughters," is as wistful as
when it breathed through the alien corn. What richer con
solation are we hungry for that we turn from Judea? Has
the human heart changed under the wear of the centuries, so
that sin no longer seeks forgiveness, and grief has no need
of a comforter? Have our ships sailed so far that they have
revealed to us a braver continent than the fields where pain
once reigned? Is our science so acute that it has banished
failure from man's life? Is man's heart at last self suffi
cient and all-sufficing?
"The heavens shall vanish away like smoke, and the earth
shall wax old like a garment, and they that dwell therein
shall die in like manner. But my salvation shall be forever,
and my righteousness shall not be abolished." (Isa.51.6).
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