The Emporia news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1859-1881, 1872-10-11

| 1tS SAOEICuCO III CNCiJ uAIcCItOn,
and their culture fails to be admi-
rable, because it is based on one
sided views of truth, and limited
by the prescribed tenets of their
faith. 1t is not an answer to this
statement to say that true chris
tianity is never popular, and that
even its Founder was not popular.
It was the narrow sects that hated
Him. 1t was the Scribes and Phar-
isees whom He denounced that de-
spised Him. The common people
heard Him gladly, and followed
Him, and received his society and
ministry by thousands. eE
1t is also not to be denied that
there are styles of character and
culture only indirectly formed by
Christian ideas, or Influenced by
them, that are extremely lovable.
There are men and women who
have had no conscious Chris
tam experience, whose faith is
either negative or a most in
definite quantity, who make no
public profession of piety, who do
not even privately count them
| selves among Christians in name,
yet who are nevertheless among
the most am1able that we know.
Their courtesy, their benevolence,
their thorough integrity of char
acter, their hearty goodwill mani
tested in all society, their tolera-
ton and charity, make them uni
yersal tayorites- They ignore all
sects and all religious and polite
al differences, and become social
centers sometimes for the church
itself. MANY Christians prefer
them for companions to those who
are enrolled with them on church
registers, and are puzzled to know
why it is that they love them more
than they do those who are nom
inally their brethren. 80
The most lOvable men and wo-
men we know are under the con-
troll of one Of two motives, viz:
the sympathy of humanity, or the
sympathy of Christianity. Both
are alike universal in their bear
ing and reach, and both produce
the finest results ON human char
acter that are possible to be
achieved. Those who are under
the control of the sympathy of hui
manity know no sect, and they on
ly become unlovely when they
single out some class of men as
the recipients of their goodwill
and floir GOOD oaSao, Ill., l..
manitarian who delivers to one
idea, and concentrates his sympa-
thies and his charities upon a sim
gle class, not only Injuries his own
character but his lovableness and
popularity. Precisely as when
one concentrates his sympathies
and labors upon sect, does he
cease to draw the hearts of all
men to him. No matter what
faith We receive into-our heads,
our hearts will love the man who
loves all men, whether he loves
them as a man or Christian; and
our hearts are right The man
who knows no limit. to his human
sympathy, and the Christian who
knows no limit to his Christian
sympathy, are those who hold the
hearts Of the world, and who, in
that sympathy, possess the only
solid basis for a broad and catho-
lie culture $50 s.a. s. .Etf>i q. 20 !
The. Christian ought to be the
better and the broader man. The
Christian. of genuinely j catholic
sympathies is the better and the
broader man; but, alas! Chris
tian of this type is exceedingly
rare. The whole culture of the
Christian church is sectarian, and
only here and there do men break
through the walls that have been
built around them, into that large
liberty of sympathy and thought
which is every Christians birth
right. We fail everywhere to rec
ognize in our sympathies those
whom the Master recognizes; for
the Masters love is simply The
love of humanity, based on 81
broader knowledge Of its nature,
it's possibilities, and its destiny.
The sympathy of. humanity is |
wholly good SO far as it goes, but |
it falls short of Christianity in |
that it fails to recognize the i'm |
mortal in the mortal 'fs'-e.">'s
p We are led to this exposition by |
the Contemplation of a notorious |
fact in the literary history of the
time. 1t is a subject of sorrow
among the churches of the coun-
try that the higher literature of
the day is very largely the prod
net of men and women who have
little Christian faith, or none at |
all. Did it ever occur to these
churches, or the preachers who
represent them, to ask why this is |
the case? Why is it that these
men and women have the culture
that makes their productions ac-
ceptable to the world? Why is it |
that they, without any, organized
schools 70 help them,i or organ
lied bodies to .patronize them, |
produce that which is read by all |
schools and all bodies, and are the |
grudgingly acknowledged leaders
in literary art? There is some
sufficient reason for this, and it is |
not a reason that credoundsato the
credit of the type of Ghristiani-
ty which prevails. 1t is time to
look this matter squarely and
candidly in the face. These men
and women are not base usurpers
of a sway which by. any fairlyl
achieved right belongs to others.
They rule because they have the
power to rule. They prevail be-
cause of excellence. The public
are not deceived by them, nor is
their pre-eminence the result of
accident. Either their sympathy
of humanity is better, as a basis
of culture and an inspirer of
thought, than the sympathy of
Christianity or the sympathy of
Christianity-pure and large and
catholic-does not prevail among
ther17 churches. Something is |
wrong somewhere; and we can
find that something nowhere but
in the narrowing and dwarfing in
fiuence of sectarian culture,
The sympathy of humanity was
strong in Shakespeare, and it was
given him to, weave at once his
own crown and that of the Ian
guage in which he wrote. 1t was
strong in Dickens, and the whole
Christian world tarned away from
its own fountains to drink at that
which his magic pen uncovered. |
It Is strong in the hundred men
and women whose brains and |
hands provide the books which
tho -orid Il -aa5;.,r- e., H. T.