Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-08-17
PAINS OF THE BODY
Have Nothing to Do With the Wei
fare of the Soul Hereafter.
ST. PAUL DIDN'T URGE ASCETICISM
When He Besought the Brethren to Present
Living Sacrifice.
PHYSICAL RELATIONS OF. TIE SOUL
WRITTEN FOR THE D1spArcH.I

living sacrifice. holy, acceptable unto God,
which is your reasonable service"
If Christian duty were always urged upon
such grounds as these, there would be bet
ter Christians and more of them. ST. Paul
has two arguments:the first is divine mercy,
the second is human reason. Where will
you find arguments more persuasive? Let
religion deny the love of God and present
the heavenly Father as one who is no father;
let religion picture God to man as the re-
lentless keeper of an eternal dungeon, hot
with flames unquenchable, saying, "1f you
do not believe this, if you neglect to do that,
down you 60 into this horrible dungeon for
ever and ever"-and what soul will thus
take courage and look up to God, and draw
near to Him, and try to serve Him? And of
what worth, supposing that some soul were
after this fashion turned away from dark
ness-of what worth would be this fright
ened goodness?
Or, let religion discredit or contradict
mans reason, and delight in being unreason-
able, and declare with Tertullian, sit is
certain because it is impossible;" let re-
ligion prohibit investigation, set up stakes
and pile up faggots for everybody who may
dare to think, saying, "You must receive
and believe this because 1 say so, without
venturing so much as even to think OF
thinking''-and religion can convert only
slaves and fools. Who can respect its con-
verts or its creeds? Who can trust the hon.
esty of the believer whose assent is thus'
compelled, or who can believe the truth of
doctrine winch thus defends itself against
examination and breads light?
REVERSE of THE PICTIRE
But put religious duty and faith
upon the grounds whereon the
apostle puts them; let religion say to
men: "You ought to do this because
God, who is your heavenly Father, and
loves you, wants you to do it; you ought to
believe and follow this because you can see
for yourselves what right and reasonable
thing it Isl" let religion speak of God Of
mercy and Of reasonable service, and it
may persuade men, then.
It is upon these grounds that st. Paul
urges the Christian duty which he describes
as the sacrifice of the body. 1t is duty, he
says which God asks of us. and our own
reason emphasizes the voice of God. The
sacrifice of the body-''that ye present your
bodies living sacrifice, holy, acceptable
unto God''-what does that mean? The disei-
pline of the body has entered in some form
into all religions, because the body is the
instrument of sin. It is only after consid-
erable progress has been made in the spiritual
life that the mind is recognized as being also
the instrument of sin. But everybody who
is conscious of sin at all. is able, and is
compelled to associate sin with
the body. 'The flesh lusteth
against the spirit" 81 know that
in me, that is, in my flesh, dwelleth no
good thing. These are familiar express
sions which emphasize the association of sin
with the body. The adjectives "carnal" and
spiritual" are words with q meaning
which is instantly recognized. Miserable
man that am, who shall deliver me from
this body of deathI" This is the cry Of uni
versal humanity. 1t is the body, we feel,
which keeps MS down, which puts tempta-
ton in our path and makes us sin. To
walk after the flesh'' is the description of
man of evil life. "They that are in the
flesh cannot please God" eff ye live after
the flesh ye shall die; but if ye through the
Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye
shall live."
RELATION OF BODY AND SOUL.
Such thoughts as these have always Dos
sessed the mind of man. and everybody who
has had any desire to ''live," has set him
self, after some fashion, to ''mortify the
deeds of the BODY" Along with this asso-
citation of the body with sin, has gone also
a recognition of the relation between the
body and the soul. The body, which
touches sin on the one hand, touches the
soul on the other. It has been perceived
that Q mans physical condition affects him
not only physically by giving him dis
comfort, and not only intellectually by OBJ
serving the clearness of his thinking, but
even morally and spiritually in some
measure. The body shapes the soul
It has been noticed, however, that
the effect of the body upon the
soul is more than likely to be bad. Perhaps
the good influences which reach from the
body to the soul are overlooked and taken
rather as a matter of course. But the bad,
dissipating, lowering influences have
ALWAYS attracted more attention. The body
has been universally regarded as bad COM
panion for the soul. The best thing for the
soul, good many people have thought, is
to keep at distance from the body, and to
be its enemy rather than its friend. 81 keep
under my body" st. Paul says and en-
phasizes his example by the illustration of
two fighters, one holding the other down and
pounding him.
One of the most formidable of all the
heresies which have assailed the Church
was MaEichaeism. Manichaeism began early
and stayed late. 1t vexed the Christians of
the first centuries, and lived to defy the in
quisitors of the Middle Ages. Indeed, as
an unconscious principle of conduct, it has
not yet altogether vanished out of the Chris
tian world. 1t is the principle which under
lies asceticism. 1t Is the motive which, in
Lent, inspires everybody who is fasting for
the sake OF fasting. Manichaeism was an
assertion that all matter is essentially evil.
God did not make the world, the Manichses
declare, the devil made it. Holiness con-
sisted in removal from all things material.
The greatest grief of those old heretics was
that they had any bodies at all.
DEVELOPED TWO THEORIES.
Manichaeism developed into two opposite
theories of religious living. Some held that
the body, being our enemy. must be scourged
and beaten. and starved. Manichaeism
perched Simeon Stylitis on his pillar, fast
ened hooks into the backs of devotees and
swung them to and fro at the end of long
rope, forbade marriage, drove men into
caves and forests, clothed them in hair
shirts, put pebbles in their shoes and spiked
girdles about their waists, and made their
lives unspeakably miserable
On the other hand, by natural reaction,
others who affirmed that the body is evil,
plunged into all manner of drunkenness
and beastly living. They said that God
looked only at the soul; the body mattered
little. They said prayers with their souls
and let their bodies 60. The body might
have its own way, the soul could not.
Against all perversions of the truth about
the human body stands this word of ST.
Paul. A living" sacrifice, is what God
wants. The offering of q living body, not
beaten With straps, and torn with hooks.
and worn out with fast and vigil, but strong,
FL IL