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Show Too Many Seem to Have Lost Sense of Their Relationship to God By REV. RALPH W. SOCKMAN, Methodist Episcopal. Too many persons are spiritual orphans. Our sensa of relationship lo God is like that of a lad whose parents had died before the boy was old enough to know them. The orphan knows from pictures on his wall and the accounts which he has heard that his parents had lived, but he has not the joy of their companionship. Likewise, many people believe that there was a God who created the universe and that there wasa Jesus who lived in Galilee, but they have no feeling of personal relationship. To such persons Christmas is a second-hand affair, like the impersonal imper-sonal festivity arranged for orphan children by some institution. The spontaneous joy and personal devotion which characterized apostolic apos-tolic religion are missing in so many of our churches today. Just as the adult goes through the same motions, but not the same emotions as does the child at the appearance of that bewhiskered gentleman called Santa Claus, so the modern churchman goes through the same motions, but not the same emotions as did the First-century follower of Christ. Formalized and organized religion has lost so much of its lilt and thrill. It is as if we had kept the words of the Hallelujah chorus without the music. . |