The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1886-11-06

calls attention to our personal endeavors
in the matter of our salvation.
If there is anything worth having on
this side of the horizon or beyond it, it
is worth effort. That which costs us
nothing, though it be the very throne of
God, is worth no jot or little more than
the price. A cheap salvation is fab
ric of shoddy. The gospel which is
howled by ignorant babhlers upon street
corners, which is accompanied by fife
and drum through crowded thorough
fares, makes a momentary sensation
but brings upon itself enduring con-
tempt. A religious life without toll
and sacrifice and even suffering, is not
the life to which Jesus invited when he
said: "Whoso will be my disciple, let
him deny himself, and take up his cross
and follow me-" He who would follow
the Great Leader must needs come to
Gethsemane and Calvary. There will
be times, indeed, when he will be trans
figured, when he will hear the voice of
God exclaimipg, "This is my beloved
Son ~ There will also be times of
darkness and bitterness, when from the
agony Of bis heart will arise the wall of
despair, my God, my God, why hast
thou forsaken me ?"
~ Any conception of religion that
relieves us Of responsibility, is radically
wrong. Any conception of religion that
leads us TO lay off upon any shoulder
whatsoever the burden we can bear or
ought to bear,-that impels us to look
to any higher power for that which we
can do ourselves, that encourages US
to pour every complaint into the ear of
infinite goodness,-is false and ruinous.
1t belittles us. It robs us of ouc proper
power. That which our own hands can
achieve, we have no right to pray for.
There are many things with which 1
would not trouble my friends, much less
my God ! Yet we are assured, from
certain sources, that to poster the Lord
with trifies is the highest attainment
of piety. If we can only become sane
tilted as we cancel our manhood, let US
retain our manhood, and refuse to be
sanctifed. The "throne of grace" is
no refuge for cowardice; the atone
ment is no cover for meanness. The
brow of the loving Christ is not to be
pierced again by the crown of thorns
we needlessly weave from life's daily
sins and worries. There is enough left
as the basis of my appeal to God, after
| have myself wrought to the utmost
and suffered to the last.
q Much Of what passes in the relig
ious world for 'trust in Ged'' is simply
mans native Incidence with lying
label. A swinish indisposition to think,
lack of sufficient energy to doubt,
passes for living faith in Jehovah.
Much of what is called resignation to
the Divine will, is simply good feed
ing. We feel slumbrous and comforta-
BILE. 1t is easy to submit to the will of
God, when we are too sleepy to dispute
it, too lazy to resist it. Submission
means som ething when it comes at the
end of battle. When you know what
it is to wrestle with God, when you have
lifted up your right arm and defied
him, and he has not crushed you, but
touched you and conquered you by his
love, perhaps you may then say with
faltering lips, "Thy will be DONE"
Perhaps you cannot, even then. Time
alone may subdue the rebellious spirit,
time and the revelation it brings Of
the purpose Of the sorrow. Too often
we are false to ourselves and struggle
with words that have no experiences in
them. We use the language of conflict
when we know nothing of struggle.
The vocabulary is without life or sense.
We cheat ourselves into the belief that
we are dealing in realities, when we
only traffic in cant. A genuine expert
ence of the sterner kind will make us
careful in our experiences will add to
the words, "Work out your own saliva
tion," the others that follow, with
fear and trembling;'' will break up
our drowsy Indifference and passive
ness; will teach US that in the pro-
cesses of salvation, in the culture of
the soul, there is work for the human
as well as the divine. Into it must go
the labor of man as we'll as the infu-
ence of God
"There is" says Emerson, "a time in
every mans education when he arrives
at the conviction that envy is ignorance;
that imitation is suicide; that he must
take himself, for better, for worse, as
his portion that though the wide uni
verse is full of good, no kernel of nour-
ishing corn can come to him but through
his toll bestowed on that spot of ground
which is given to him totill. The power
which resides in him is new in nature,
and none but he know what that is
which he can do, nor does he know, UNI
til he has tried. A man is
relieved and gay when he has put his
heart into his work and done his best,