Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1875-11-10

iilt. IlcdVeu Will Ue COuSlucicu W cAlSl IL
the very nobility of your being, by which
it is made eligible to appear among the sue
ce sful and the elect; Heaven, not an estat'
afar off, some grand fruition now under ad
journment beyond the river, beyond thu
ountain; Heaven, right here, where tn
man is, where his religion is, where hi
life is, where his work is, where his virtue is
There is the treasure, the old story, how new
and fresh. We need not die to 60 to glory
we walk among her monuments every hour
if we have eyes to see them. We need MOI
cease from earthly existence, to become en-.
raptured and entranced by her harmcnies
he that hath ears to hear, may hear to-day
Religion in the better time coming, in
the beginning Of which we stand even
now. is quality OF hannah character, a
law of human duty, science of human
life, an inspiration of human destiny. On
this principle, friends, churches are going
to be founded We are in the sea now; the
jib is not filled on the new tack-but that
is the tack Churches will not be founded
on matters OF disputation; on theories OF
heeting and fuxipg speculation; but upon
the certitudes of right as opposed to wrong,
upon the grand fitness Of manhood and
womanhood. A right life will be the def
milton of Christianity. Preaching will
follow this order. Instead OF dwelling on
speculations and balancing unstable equi-
libriums for the minute, instead of toilng
away at proving and demonstrating, what
defes all demonstration, preaching will 60
right at mans life, right at his character,
right at What the eye of God looks at and
burns into all the time. It will take the
grand scale of mans being, on which he
was sketched, and unfold its laws as far as
possible, showing its relation to high
destiny within, prepared for it without and
and above. Faith is going to be practice
more than profession; it will hardly be
nsedtul to profess it. Salvation will be re-
being saved in man. The good man-who
is he good man? We al know the old
answer, and how it has confused the world,
and caused men to take second thought
before taking up Christianity Who is the
good man? We are pot to detect Linn by
The ecclesiastical trade mark upon him. but
by the sweet odor of his life, by the heaven
ly atmosphere about him and within him
by the inspiration he is capable Of f1nging
off, by his power to propagate goodness in
the earth, and there will be detective SIX !
that will scent him and sight him on the
instant. Goodness will not be a thing of
round about reasoning and inference; it
will be spontaneous. Who is the bad
man? We all know the old answer. He who
has had some nickname given TO him, who
is called one thing and anothor-sometimes
sceptic, sometimes in6del, sometimes unbe-
lieyer.-But the bad man in better and
clearer light dawning on humanity, will
and spiritual contagion, mere gathered
pustuie of vice and viciousness; a man
whose very presence and existence in the
world is a power to propagate moral pcsti-
lence. That is the bad man. Everybody
says so, nobody disputes that.
Outside matters then, friends, are vanish
ing, the varnish is fading, the frescoing is
scaling off from the outside; more and
more The real grain of the timber under
meath is coming to sight. That is what
Christianity is doing now. and here is
the marked change going on in the latter
days, which are lamented by some in COM
parison with the former days. But with
regard to that, this lament is not wise In
this way God will in fact be with men and
manifest to them; the very Christ of God
will be abroad, for the rising ana falling
of many, even to the end of time as he was
in the beg inning. The shadows will pass.
the substance will appear; and each life
will stand on its own record in the pro-
nounced success or failure, 1t shall make.
That is the coming Christianity. Remem-
Der religion condemns no man or woman,
for what he or she is not guilty Of True
religion shows no favoriug to any man or
any woman undeserving. True religion is
no respecter OF persons. It's administration
is partial n no sense whatever; right unto
the right, beautiful unto the beautiful. To
the pure allthings are pure to the defled
nothing is pure. TO this standard of i'm
Partially things are tending. The very
moving is search and sitting in itself
Men are often restless under it; it is cheap
er for them to offer substitute or proxy;
less costly to be cloaked and coa:ed, than
to be granulated from the center in love
and purity and good. This new tendency,
which is on us to-day, characterizes the re-
ligicr of the hour and the world. Let us
thank God for it, let MS be with God in it
to the browning | have do doubt, all true
life responds Amen. Let Us be honorable
and audacious enough, each and every one