New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1873-01-26
ACCEPTABLE WORSHIP.

| a [ there a
| an alabaster boz of ointment very precious ana
| she brake the box and poured 1t on HIS heau. hI9
there some that m lrlnured against ner, anu
| said, Why this waste of the ointment mate
| for il might have been sold tor mucn money anu
| given 10 the poor And Jesus SAID, Let her alont
| why trouble We her: She hath wrought a good
| work on me. The peor We have with you Away s.
| and whensoever We will ye may do them good; ouI
Me ye have not always Verify, say uhto NO goS' gt
out the whole world, this that she hath done snail
be spoken of for memorial of her.-hark xiv, ~
In this beautiful action of the woman,
and the murmurs thereon by some of the
disciples, we have exemplifed the two op-
posing theories of the religion-the formal
or utiIitarian, and the poetical or aesthetic
while in the reproof of Jesus to the muir
murers is given an authoritative deciara-
| ton of the necessity of both. each in its
| place. The box of precious ointment poured
| so lavshly on the beloved head typifed the
wealth of love which tull souls pour out
with that unthinking prodigality which,
nevertheless, does not impoverish, because
the source whence it springs, the soul, is
| inexhaustble. Bread and blankets will be
always needed, and may be furnished at
convenient seasons and by commonplace
| people; but loving inspiration comes not
every day nor to every person, aud when it
| does come should never be checked. Reli-
| gion, like every other earthly concern, has
its work days and it's holidays, its necessi-
ties and its luxures, its food for daily sus-
| tenance and its roses for occasional orna-
ment The soul can not live on bread
| alone; 1t must have wine also; and this need
| of something more than the needful is like
| wise set for in the sacrament of the altar
| where true believers partake emblematical-
| ly of the body and the spirit of their Master
| 1t is a very dry religion which contents
itself with the observance of the required
| forms and ceremonies, the unfailing attend
aEce On Divine worship, the customary con-
tribution dropped mechanically into the un
| falling receptacle, even, in those somewhat
more spiritual the ever-recurring thanks at
mealtime, the prayer meeting, and even
| family devotion. God has not limited his
| creature to the necessaries of life. He has
layished CT the world wealth of beauty so
/ impartially distributed that the poorest
| shares equally with the richest its blessings,
and ne man, no matter how humble his
worldly rank. retaining his eyesight and
| personal liberty, can be dispossessed OF 10.
| The blue expanse of the heavens, the flower
! spangled carpet of the earth, the rustling of
| the breeze among the leaves, the songs of
birds and their plumage. the gambols of
young animals, the surprising loveliness of
the human form divine-all testify that
the Maker of all delights in beauty.
And shall not the giver of these
good gifts receive from His creatures tri-
butes in kind Offerings of selfsacrifcing
love, blossoms and fruits of abundant
wealth, rich sanctuaries, stately temples,
commemorative days whereon all worldly
thoughts, except those devoted to the kind
| ly sentiments of family and neighb0rhood,
| shall be banished. and whole communities
| give themselves up to hilarious devotion.
| That smacks of ROmanism," says long
| faced, narrow eaded, superciliously sancti
| monlous follower of Calvin: 1--WE did away
| with all that at the Reformation" Very
| true; everything that smacked Of Roman
| ism was swept away at that eventful epoch,
| and much that was good along with the
| evil. Reformations are often apt to 90 too
far and get themselves in need of reform,
and our great religious reform is an illustra
| ton of this truth
Because morbidly sensitive men and wo-
men had kneeled and prayed and wept
themselves in spiritual dementa before
certain "holy' pictures, therefore all pic
lures treating of sacred subjects, no matter
how artistically beautiful, must be Danish
ed from churches nay, utterly destroyed as
promoters of id0latry. Because the money
wrung from the Roman Catholic poor and
contributed by the rich was partly spent in
magnificent organs, and the services in
Romish churches was varied by the most
soultouching music, therefore evangelical
Christians must set their metrical worship
to the most dismal combination of notes,
and intone them in accents discordant
enough to make the angels hold their ears,
and to test even the forbearance of the AL
mighty. Because the Roman Catholic &C.
clesiastical policy had multiplied holy days
to such degree as to interfere with neces
sarv work, therefore all holy days must be
abolished, even the joyful festival which
commentaries the birth of the Saviour and
the glorious one which celebrates his resur-
rection. So far has this prejudice been car
ried in the Northeastern part of this coun-
try that there are actually intelligent young
men and women to be found in some OF Its
little towns and villages who actually do
not know the significance of Easter, and
have vague idea that it is in some way
connected with an abundance Of hard-boil-
ed, highly -colored eggs.
This doctrine of the poetry of religion, as
seen in the case of the woman in the text,
| has been brought into disrepute by another
error of popery besides its multiplicity OF
| holy days-namely, by the dogma of works
Of supererogation; doing more than ones
duty, with view of eanceling with the
\ superabundance @ corresponding weight OF
sin. This abominable absurdity naturally
| led. after the reformation. to a reaction
| against conspicuous piety, which went toe
| far in the other diree ton, leading even his
| torians, who shOuld have been impartial, to
| undervalue and misrepresent the motive of
the Crusades. the purest and most cOnspieu-
ous example of religious enthusiasm work
| ing on mutltudes of men which the world
has ever seen. OF course, we do not mean
! to say that the motives of each individual
| Crusader were pure and holy, nor do we
mean to teach that another attempt to re-
gain the Holy Land would be proper
method of displaying the beauty of holiness
| set forth in the text. But the spirit
which animated the first three Crusades