If he really believes, it makes all
the difference between spiritual strength and spiritual weakness,
between optimism and pessimism. I will not admit that it makes no
difference to a learned scholar or a simple labourer to-day whether he
accepts or ignores the doctrine of the atonement, the doctrine of
personal immortality. If he knows that Christ died for him, that there
is a future beyond the grave, it makes all the difference between
despair and hope, between misery and consolation, between the helpless
frailty of a being that is puffed out like a candle, and the joyful
power of an endless life.
My brethren, we must work and pray for a true revival of Christian
doctrine in our age. We must deepen our own hold upon the truths which
Christ has taught us. We must preach them more simply, more
confidently, more reasonably, more earnestly. We must draw from them the
happiness and the help, the comfort and the inspiration, that they have
to give to the souls of men. But most of all, we must keep them in close
and living touch with the problems of daily duty and experience.
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