The Carbon advocate. [volume] (Lehighton, Pa.) 1872-1924, 1878-12-14
GLOWING ONES NEuGHRORs.o


AT the Masonic Temple, New York city,
last Sunday, Rev. O. B. Frothingham's sub
ject of discourse was Loving ones neigh
bors, the first religious duty" In opening
his very eloquent discourse, he said:
A President of the Sanhedrim Iwho was the
last in that position before the coming Of Christ.
and who was the founder and head of liberal
school of Interpretation. has related that on one
occasion a Hebrew man asked him what in one
word was the substance of the law. The an.
swer was -" Whatever thou art not willing to
do to thyself do not infiict upon thy neghbor.
This is the subs ance OF the law all else is but
Interpretation" Toward the close Of his life q
sceptlc approached Jesus and asked very SINH
lar question What was the great command
mentl This Is what was said -" Thou shalt
love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and
with all thy soul and with all thy mind. This
Is the first and great commandment. And the
second Is like unto 1t; thou shalt love thy
reighbors as thvseif. ON these two command
ments hang all the law and the prophets"
With these teachings as his texts Mr.. Froth
ingham announced the proposition that not
only is The love of our neghbor made equa as
requirement with that OF our God, but it antici-
pates and precedes it. The love Of man is first,
and then comes the love of God. The first les
son in religion is brotheriy kindness; the last
is worship and alteration. But this is not the
usual method 1t is usual to begin aloft and to
reason downward to Degn with distractions
and come afterward to facts; to begin with
ideas and talk later of performances, The the.
Ory was that we must love God first, and that
| the more we love Him the more we shall love
man. I think that this is unreason. 1t is in
3 ifah 1a hat a. fxtrah nf a1nu nj
| the Supreme and reason down we win come out
at some small ape ture instead of at large one,
Religion thus started becomes desrotism or
blgotry OF hypocrisy.
And now let Us reason the other way, from
below upward. 1t is not natural for people 10
love one another. On tle contrary it Is natIr
al for them not to love one another. Men who
al g thrown together in society do not seem like
a company OF brothers They are greedy ad.
Yenturers. He'll is simply an imagined reser
vOir for the eternalized rancors of their hearts.
1 But jusG as soon az men begin to serve and love
one another, Just so soon will sweetness and
goodness enter into all their conceptions of the
| Supreme. God Will be father and the gate oil
| heaven viii open to the four quarters of the
word. The devils will be expelled II ON our re
liglon. and, instead of demons, there will be
angels coming dOwn to teach and enlighten
mankind.
In answer to the objections made to the doc
trines of loving man first Mr. rockingham said
1 have no mind to show God in an unlovina
light. But judge Him by His deeds, as We
judge cur neighOor by his, and what becomes
Of the exalted attributes of Justice, tenderness
and truthfulness which are associated with the
ideal OF the Suprems Beinsi Look upon nature
ana what DOVE see : Famine, pestlsnce, ser
pents, ravenOus beasts, myst eriOus diseases
which fall upon the innocent and agOnize thelI
lives. Was it good God to allow all these in
the universe I We say that God is true yet 81
far as we know it the appearance of nature is
all deusion. All our seperstitiOns, all our Olt
systems of credulity, are simply misreadings Of
the Diety, Can you demonstrate that God It
true from world that is ful of deceit All
that we have that is good, honorable and ven
eTable comes from man There is no more low
in the world than is enshrined in human hearts
Conscience is an organized sense Of justice
earned by ages upon ages of thought, study
suffering and sacrifice. Laws, Jurisprudence
and courts are the attempts OF man to Tealiz
Justice, Man has made religions and he has no
always made them well. There never has beer
a finished revelation. People adore above as
mystery that which they despise below in man
1t was theory among the mystics of the early
Church that man is a fallen angel; that how
ever depraved he might be there was at the
bottom OF his being God, This was not alto
gethcr unreason. Every man and woman ha
within himself the germs of divinity and a ca
pnctY 80 divine as has never been guessed at
Mr.. rockingham thought that even domestic
economy was not too low stage at which to be
gin to fulfil the second great commandment
The temper Of mankind depends more upon Jht
way that their food is cooked than upon the
kind of religion they have. do not say that
he is not greater who can go without his din
, ner than he who demands to have 1t wen COOK
ed But do say that as men and woman ART
constituted, the condition OF their hearts de
pends more upon their dinners than uDon them
0eties The new religion would 40 most amplI
justice to the ideal side of mankind but IN Orde
that IL should not be all an eY nes0ence ana al
empty dream we must begin ut the Oeginnin!
and study now men may i've together Us nRtur
al beings.