The Jackson standard. [volume] (Jackson C.H., Ohio) 1847-1888, 1875-12-16

( garments as q religious ceremony.
| Once Christ, on riding into Jerusalem,
was greeted with palms and branches.
Since that time a large body of Christians
| have carried palms and branches as n re-
| ligious ceremony.
In short, men have in many ways tax.
en- up the circumstances of Christ and
! built up a religion around them, instead
| of the substance of his doctrines and
practical precepts Christ came into the
world to teach men to think and feel
and act, and gave US an example. In
stead, however, Of thinking, feeling, and
| acting like him, we have gone to cele-
| brating the day on which he came, on
| which he left, and on which he did his
deeds. Instead of keeping the precepts
of his Sermon on the Mount we cele-
brate the mount on which they we're de-
| livered and the birthday of the evangel-
ist who communicated them to u.s.
Christ tried to make US holy. Instead
of making ourselves holy, we have made
the ground holy on which he stood, the
grave where he was buried, the cross on
which he was crucifed, the week in
church which he founded We have
many holy things; but few holy persons.
Everything Christian is now called holy
except Christians. If there are any holy
men recogn lied it is dead ones.
How the world would like to find out
what Christ ate and what he drank and
how he was clothed, that they might eat
and drink and clothe themselves like
himl How they would like to know
what walks he took, how many hours he
worked, when he retired and rose, that
they might initiate him in these thingsl
81 will initiate Christ" says one, and he
gets coat like him. ~ will initiate
Christ" says another, and he does on the
first day of the week something that He
did on that day. ~ will initiate Christ"
says another, and he carries cross like
Him. 81 will initiate Christ" says
fourth, and he forms business body or
church like Him. And very few try to
initiate Christ as he thought and felt and
acted.
Is not this verify religion of circum-
stance, instead of substance, and a vir-
tual defeat of Christ's purpose?
Christianity does not consist in dis
position of times and places, or in me-
chanical contrivances and movements
but in a disposition Of our thoughts and
feelings. 1t does not consist in being in
church, rather than in the street, or on
our knees, rather than on our feet, or in
having hands or water placed on our
heads; but in feeling kindly and acting
honestly. 1t does not consist in where
we are, but in what we are; not in our
roundings or postures, but in ourselves,
our thoughts, our feelings, our deeds.
Christs substantial self should be imi-
tated by our substantial selves; instead
of which we initiate him in accidental in
cidentals.
Christ happened to be born in a man
ger, and that manger is worshiped to-
day, yea, even to the cattle and asses that
were in the stable with him He was
born of woman, and that woman is wor-
SHIPPED to-day. His mother had a hus-
band, and that husband is worshiped to-
day He died on the cross, and that
cross is worshiped to-day Wherever
relic Of Christ is found it is adored and
has pilgrimages made to it. He banded
his disciples together for counsel; and
that band-the Church-is exalted, in
stead of Christ and his thoughts In
short, Christ's circumstances are wor-
SHIPPED instead of himself Men have
themselves about as much in
the physical surroundings of Christ as in
his mental deliverances. Jerusalem,
Gethsemane, Mt. Calvary, the Cross, and
the Sepulcher have played about as large
a part in Christianity as the Sermon on
the Mount, the Conversation at the Well |
or the parting address to the disciples.
G h + s birth, Christ's |
death, Christs burial, and |
Christi resurrection all physical facts, |
have taken up almost more Christian |
thought than his discourses. Though |
we have Christmas, a Good Friday, and |
an Easter, we have nothing of equal
prominence in a moral line. Men have
fought much over tho body of Christ;
none at all over his mind. With
strange physical Christianity, they have
thought it more important to know
whether the eat his body than whether
they have his thoughts.
OH canniballike religion, that would
eat its God, instead of wors hiping himl
Dbl gastric religion, tn at would take
Christ in through the stomach, in
stead of the heart Chr ist left not his
body, but his spirit to the world. We
are to worship not with our bellies, but
with our minds. Though we may not
Eat Christs body and drink his blood we
may partake of his thoughts; and al
though it is not certain that we could
levour Christ's body if we would, or that
It would be of any use to us if we did, it
IS certain that we can have his thoughts,
md that they would benefit u.s. These
things, therefore, instead of the former,
should engage our Christian attention.
As they who would know Virgil should
20, not to Porsilippo, where he is buri ed,
lor to Rome, where he lived, to gather
lp the circumstances of his life, but rath-
sr to book called the Eneid, where
hey could get his mind; so they who
would know Christ should go, not to Je-
'usalem or the Church, with its ceremo-
lies, but to the Bible, where we have all
IF Christ that is left in the world-his
as good preservation as
Virgirs.
Why take long mental pilgrimages to
Rome or the Holy Land when both Vir-
Ill and Christ are in the nearest book
tore? For many go to Jerusalem who
never see Christ; many visit Calvary who
lever find the Saviour. They travel all
lround him, and never get near him;
tudy all about him. and know nothing
If him. The physical geography of Pal
.stine is not Christ, as many theologians
eem to think; and to see or touch his
,ody, or even to eat it, would not be to
Ipprehend him Christ in our religion
s not physique and set of circumstan-
,es, but a mind, with its thought and
orecept; and we approach him only in
getting near him in Thought and initiate
lim only in getting like him in mind.
John Todds Reformation.