The Modernism Way

Another road is called Modern Thought Highway. Many of the intelligencia tread that path. It is dotted with universities and schools of higher education, and we find people peddling books up and down this highway, for the folk on this road are the learned of this world. They are too proud to accept, “Thus saith the Lord,” but bow down before science, before modern thought, before philosophy, and all the different delusions that are turning men away from God. Let me cad you the testimony of a man who admits that lie is treading this road. It is written by Professor Melinowski:
“Personally, I am an agnostic. That is, I am not able to deny the existence of God: nor would I be inclined to do so, still less to maintain that such a belief is not necessary. I also fervently hope that there is a survival after death, and I deeply desire to obtain some certainty on this matter. But with all that, I am unable to accept any positive religion — Christian or otherwise. I cannot positively believe in Providence in any sense of the word, and I have no conviction of personal immortality.”
In other words, this man says, “I should like to go to the city of God, if there be such a city. I should like to spend my eternity there. But I cannot trust the Guide Book, I cannot believe the sign-post, I cannot put my confidence in One who says He came from there and went back, and is Himself the Way there.” Yet this man is a great deal more modest than many who tread this road. He goes on to say:
“Thus, as you see, I profoundly differ from the confident rationalist or disbeliever of the past generation or two. We all know the story of La Place and the discussion which he had with Napoleon the First about his system of Celestial Mechanics. The Emperor asked him: ‘What place have you given to God in your system?’ ‘Sire, was the answer, ‘this is an hypothesis of which I have never felt the need: It is the proud answer of a confident atheist, but it does not ring true to the humble agnostic.”
Men today will tell you frankly, “I never felt the need of God; I do not need Him now, and I do not feel there will be need for Him in eternity.” But Melinowski continues:
“On the contrary, I should say that God is a reality and not a hypothesis, and a reality of which I am in the greatest need, though this need I cannot satisfy or fulfill. The typical rationalist says: ‘I don’t know, and I don’t care.’ The tragic agostic would rejoin: ‘I cannot know, but I feel a deep and passionate need of faith, of evidence, and of revelation.’ Personally, to me, and to those many who are like me, nothing really matters except the answer to the burning questions: ‘Am I going to live, or shall I vanish like a bubble? What is the aim, and the sense, and the issue of all this strife and suffering?’ The doubt of these two questions lives in us, and affect all our thoughts and feelings. Modern agnosticism is a tragic and shattering frame of mind. To dismiss agnosticism as an easy and shallow escape from the moral obligations and discipline of religion — this is an unworthy and superficial way of dealing with it. Is science responsible for my agnosticism and for that of others who think like me? I believe it is, and therefore I do not love science, though I have to remain its loyal servant. Is there any hope of bridging this deepest gulf between tragic agnosticism and belief? I do not know. Is there any remedy? I cannot answer this either.”
The blessed, holy Word of God answers every one of these questions, but the modern mind turns away from it all, and says, “No, I would rather go on questioning, go on in uncertainty, than to face the problem of Jesus Christ.”
But Jesus Christ is not a problem, He is the solution to every problem for life, for death, and for eternity. Listen to the poor woman at the well. Wonderingly she gazes at the Jewish stranger who seems so ready to deal graciously with the Samaritan, and she says, “I know that Messias cometh, which is called Christ: when he is come, he will tell us all things.” Oh, the questions that were welling up in that woman’s heart — “If I could only see Him maybe He would answer all my questions, maybe He would solve all my problems,” and quietly, earnestly, kindly, Jesus looks upon her, and says, “I that speak unto thee am he.” She took one long look into those fathomless eyes of His, and in a moment every question was answered, and back to the city she ran, and said to the men, “Come, see a man, which told me all things that ever I did: is not this the Christ?” Yes, He is the answer to every problem.
You remember it is written in Proverbs 14:12, “There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.” All these different pathways which have been indicated are the ways that seem right to man, but end in outer darkness. When Thomas asked the question, “Lord, how can we know the way?” Jesus answered, “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me” (John 14:6).
Do you want to know the way to the city? Jesus is the Way. Do you want to mow the truth in regard to the great problems of time and eternity? Jesus is the Truth. Do you want to know where life is found, so that you may be a new creature? Jesus is the Life And, “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him” (John 3:36). My friend, surely you want to find the way to the City. When at last you lie down and say good-by to your friends and loved ones, surely you want to be able to say, as one dear saint of God did, “Earth is receding and heaven is opening.” If you do, you need Christ, for He alone is the Way to the city of God, and He says, “Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out” (John 6:37).
Are you saying, “I should like to find the way, I should like to know Christ, but how may I make His acquaintance?”
“If I ask Him to receive me,
Will He say me nay?
Not ‘till earth and not ‘till heaven,
Pass away.”
If you will come as a sinner, confessing your guilt, forsaking every other refuge, and put your trust in Him alone, He will save you according to His Word, and you shall know Him as the only Way that leads to
“Jerusalem, the golden,
With milk and honey blest.”