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IMPORTANT AND TRUE

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Pacific Press Publishing Company · Mountain View, California · Mar 1, 1905

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 31, No. 9.

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IMPORTANT AND TRUE.

By Dr. Forsyth

THERE are many gospels which men are preaching to-day. There is the gospel of intellectualism, making its appeal to the intellect. There is the gospel of moralism, making its appeal to the ethical nature. There is the gospel of estheticism, making its appeal to the artistic nature. There is the gospel of symbolism, making its appeal to the imagination. In their extreme forms, each of these gospels exaggerates a part of man's nature which can not be dominant without disaster; and even in the less extreme and more admirable forms, they attempt to minister to the spiritual nature of man through some subordinate faculty, with a foreordination to failure. Man needs God. Dying man needs the Living Christ. The intellect can bring us only to thoughts about God, not to God. Morals can bring us only to determinations for God, not to God. Esthetics can bring us only to representations of God, not to God. Symbolism, however exquisite and suitable, can bring us only to symbols, and not to the Deity symbolized. The Gospel of Jesus Christ brings us to Jesus. In the central realm of spirit the Living Christ comes to us, demonstrates Himself to us. Therefore, let the first thing be first. Christ within, and thoughts, feelings, volitions, thenceforth spring from a new life, while intellectualism, moralism, estheticism, and symbolism, cease to be dangerous.”
—Dr. Forsyth.