Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1875-11-24

II by a wise discrimination. The tea-ket-
tie that Fulton saw was not steam engine;
it was good as a tea kettle so long as used
for that. But to make a locomotive of it
would be doing as a good many do when
they make theology.
"Oh' says one, twas that old fai tn
wrong" am glad you asked that ques-
ton. Never in a pin point was it wrong.
Providence makes. no mistakes You and
Pro Tidence. 1t was exactly right IN its
time and place. Don't you remember how
we said at first, the hardest thing in the
world is for man to wean himself from
the traditions of an older faith? The ira
dition was right when it was young; ADD
useful IN its place; the sfrou5le comes fr ON
bringing it forward out of place; putting
May for October
Is the ritual wrong? Not in tue least.
The ancient Jewish ritual was right L
was no more wrong than tae alphabet was
wrong, which the child learned But, we
dou,t Want to be learning it all the time
Is 'ne truth or the precept wrong? Not
at all. The letter is no more wrong than it
is TO pluck out the right eye, or hate your
father and mother, in order to be Chris
tan. The putting was right then because
it bit the necessity on the spot. That is
what the grand word was uttered for The
discharge of mounted cannon in war hits
the right spot, if the archery is good; but
you do not want to fire at that spot forever.
The letter is not any more wrong than it
would be for you TO give thief your cloak
after he had stolen your coat We do not
want to do that now because it would put a
premium upon thieying.
First then, do that most difficult thing
ascertain the spirit of the letter, and then
interpret right. and you will go straight.
The wrong is in sticking to the transient
calling it permanent; taking a part for the
whole. One binds the mind and whole soul
OF MAJ in bondage; the other emancipates
the spirit breeds enlightenment and trut h.
One holds the word back apd anchors it
upon the dead fats; the other floats and ad
vanees the world. One is full of growth
and truth, the other dwarfs. The one ex-
ATS, the other degrades. One is the dis
pensation of life and salvation; the other
the dispensation of condemnation and death.
This was the argument of Paul. 1t cost
him not oniy argument, but great suffering,
DO lily and mental. 1t cost him at last,
we understand, life. That was his sacrifice.
Now friends, What, after all is ceremony
symbol? will tell you. It is the doll
playing of infancy and childhood. They
are the glass eyes that symbolic good ones.
They are the China eggs that are in COM
merce. They are the wax brains we see in
the museums, and the wax nerves, and mus
cles Of this system so fearfully and wonder
tally made. That is what the ritual is.
1t s stage play, charade. We want
the meaning. no, the thing. The most diff
cult thing for men to do, repeat, is to
wean themselves from the wax, and the
glass, and the porcelain; taking the life.
the reality, the universal aud permanent
principle and idea anew
What is religion? Religion is the law of
life. It is the law of human duty and
highest privilege applied to ell life, from
the doll playing, and the school keeping,
and the store-keeping of boyhood, from the
very cradle and nursery on to the finished
crown Of manhood, and womanhood Re-
ligion is the law that handles the universal
and permanent nature Of man through all
its changes, all its vicissitudes on to the
finished stature
IF religion is the law of life in this sense
then what is life? Life is the very sub
stance man is made Of You recollecs how
The scientists tell Us that the creations of
life, ike the heat, and the corn, and the
fruit, and your own BODY, are made from
the powers of the air, water, sunshine. the
vite. forces of the earth combining, organic
ing under the law of life until they result
in the actual product. Now your life is
just that moral sunshine. and atmosphere
Life is the original material ont Of which
character is made. The law of religion ap-
piled to actual life makes the man, makes
the new man. The. Old man is the raw ma
terial Thst law applies to the whole run
fof human existence from birth to the re-
birth.