Olivet Nazarene University - Aurora Yearbook (Bourbonnais, IL)

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often answered, too clearly heard, to be refused now. The strongest tempta- tion finds itself forestalled. The spirit may tremble through it all and wonder, Vacillate I may; hut could 1 ultimately fall? It feels that Power beyond itself winch always seems to hold it after its own force of resistance is ex- hausted, or brings it back if it fails, and the assurance comes, So far as my own strength is concerned, I am hopelessly lost; but the God-fate — 1 have given myself to Him! There is the Christ! Tbis will be, too, in spite of the general trend of the human race as a whole. For not even the Deluge taught the Composite Man that his only hope lay in (iod. The Destruction of Jerusalem convinced him not that faith can live nowhere but in the Son of (iod: nor will the plagues that must follow the present War of Nations compel him to know that love and life arc only to be had through the indwelling Holy Ghost. This last decision is yet to be made. Nature seems made up of necessities, but this — the moral necessity — is the greatest, most terrible, of all : the one which holds only two choices, both for each man and for mankind. In the Great Refusal there is chaos, slavery, the Second Death: in the Great Acceptance, there is harmony, freedom. Eternal Life. Who can overestimate the blackness of that hour when apostate Man, in all the adult consciousness of his human race-hood, is brought face to face with God the Holy Ghost, and rejects Him? Truly, this will be the final word, the exhaustion of motive, 1 ' the unpardonable sin. But out of the wreck, of it all there will arise a new Humanity, whose Father is the Second Adam. The Supreme Necessity will be seen and embraced as the only way to perfect freedom, untrammeled self-express ion, Eternal Life. At last there will be the Christ! I am the Alpha and the Omega, Who is and Who was and Who is to come— the ALMIGHTY! 14

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AS OXP] looks out over the great turbulent world and thinks deeply, one conviction grips the heart like a vise. The might}) importance of moral issues is only equal to the infinite strength of moral necessity. Yet that ne- cessity is such that man may be deceived and oppose it. What is there to hold us steady in the face of it all? Both the individual and the race have failed. The threads of human history seem to be terribly tangled, indeed ; but looking back to eai ' th ' s darkest hour one can remember the presence of a great Personality who was unafraid in the black whirl of it all — there was the Christ. Concern grows with consciousness. It is with an astonishingly small motive power that a little child may yield itself to God, with scarcely a conception of the frightful woe at the end of one path and the inconceivable bliss at the end of the other. But the issue is presented again and again. God would have him make no blind choices. The right decision may mean supreme sac- rifice, but the Holy Spirit speaking through his rational instincts makes him feel I must: the issues at stake are too tremendous! Such a crisis once past, the spirit sees the peril and prays fervently that in battles to come God will not forsake him for an instant. For the battles do come, no matter how many are past. Each time the thought of moral defeat is ever harder to tolerate. The real- ization of consequences becomes ever more distinct and startling. Sometimes the spirit is appalled by the overwhelming truth in a certain Old Testament incident: Did not Achan the son of Zerah . . .? And that man perished not alone in his iniquity. The solidarity of one ' s past life — aggregating an Old Testament of its own with its mottled history, poetry and prophecy — pushes one on to the intensely mysterious but continually unfolding Vision of Why I Was Born. The Still Voice — in which God was — that came after the earthquake, fire, and tempest — in which God was not — once whispered, Do right! Now it comes with new majesty, commanding, Fulfill your destiny: glorify ( Jod : lie is the Artist: be His sunset! And the call is strong. It has been too 13

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mmva JjgjMLT O. P. Deale T. Webber Willingham Adam R. Shiply T. WEBBER WILLINGHAM, President Colors: White and Dark Blue Motto: Non Solum Nobis 15