Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-08-09
WHEN SORROW COMES
There Is No Philosophy That Can
Hold Out the Consolation
THAT RELIGION HAS TO OFFER.
In All the Theories of the Wise There Is
No Such Word as Pardon.
CHRISTIANITY REACHES THE MASSES
WRITTEN FOR THE DIsPArCH.l

Inc subject is the Consolation OF Re
Egion. A wise man wrote book once
about the consultations of philosophy. No
doubt he discovered a great many philo-
sophical consultations. One of the diff
culties, however, about that sort of consola-
tion is that one must be a philosopher in
order to appreciate it. Philosophy is for
the wise
The old philosophers, the Epicureans and
the Stoics, whom St. Paul met at Athens,
taught an immense deal of truth; and the
truth they taught was exceedingly helpful
and uplifting. Put the best teachings of
those two philosophers together, and you
get pretty fair imitation of Christianity.
But the Epicureans and Stoics never got
much influence over the people. They
lived in the most irreligious and immoral
era of all history, and included nearly all
the good men of their day, and they were
always trying, as we say, to "reach the
masses" But they never succeeded. With
all their truth and with all their goodness,
the world about them still went on believ-
ing lies and following the devil, absolutely
uninfuenced.
NO MODERN SUBSTITUTE FOR RELIGION.
| These PHILOSOPHERS were of necessity re-
served for the educated and the cultured
They were like the substitutes which some
excellent people propose to-day to take the
place of religion-elevated, ethical, altruis-
tic spiritual, but essentially philosophical;
and, therefore, unpersuasive and, indeed,
| lmcomprehensible, except to people of a
philosophical turn of mind; having no un-
| derstandable message to the common people,
| who, after all, make up considerable ma
| jority of the inhabitants of this planet
| These schemes-positivism secularism,
ethical culture, and that sort of thing-are
most excellent, and, indeed Christian so far
as they 90, but the immense difference be-
tween Christianity and any sort of philos-
| ophy is that Christianity has something to
say, and is able to say it, to every man, wo-
man and child, learned or unlearned, the
world over. 1t is not only the philosophers
that need consolation. The "consolations
| of philosophy" are not enough.
Philosophy, indeed, is able to console the
| philosophers only when they stand in no
great need of consolation. Philosophy is
an excellent religion for cultured people
in fair weather.
NICE FOR FAIR WEATHER.
When the skies shine and business is
prosperous, and there is money in the bank,
and home is pleasant, and books are friend
ly, and nobody is sick, and no sense of sin
darkens the past or the future-why then,
if one is philosophically inclined, and "up''
to that sort of interesting speculation,
philosophy may, perhaps, give all the con-
ISOLATION that is needed. Philosophy, that
is, is an admirable consolation when there
is no sorrow.
But let the skies be overcast; let trouble
follow trouble in funereal procession along
the way of life; let discouragement and
doubt and discord and doctors bills and
death come in to take away all delight and
desire of living; let the sense of sin and the
necessity of salvation get hold upon the
conscience, and where are the consultations
of philosophy? What can the philosopher
say beside the sick bed and the death bed2
The only thing know that he can say out
of his honest heart is that cry which Pliny
uttered in the midst of his bitter bereave-
ment-Pliny himself a philosopher of the
philosophers-"O for some strong and abid-
ing consolation In the presence of the
real sorrows Of life, in the face of death, in
the sight of sin, philosophy is simply dumb
There is no strong and abiding consolation
in philosophy, even in philosophers.
DOESN'T REACH TO HEAVEN. l
Philosophy is all down here on the
ground. There Is no voice in it speaking
about God, or about the life beyond the
grave. Its teaching is entirely ethical; its
concern is with daily conduct That sort of
teaching is immensely important, and that
concern ought to be the chief concern-and
was, in Christ's day-of the Christian re-
Ggion. But you have got to have something
more than that in life which has the
mystery of death at the end of it, and the
mystery of pain all through it.
Somebody said to me the other day that
he could very readily accept the ethics of
Christianity, and if there were nothing but
ethics in it he would very gladly become a
member of the Christian church. But q
simply ethical Christianity would have no
answer to the profoundest questions of
human life; except 81 know not" 1t would
have to stand here among the ills, and
pains, and sins, and funerals, with dumb
lips. 1t would be like philosophy, offering
no consolation. 1t is the peculiar blessing
of religion that it is able to
WIPE AWAY MEMS TEARS
"Comfort ye, comfort ye my people" is |
the errand on which the ministers of the |
Christian church are sent. "Come unto me, |
all ye that are weary and heavy laden" is |
the gracious invitation which they bring. |
"And saw the holy city. new Jerusalem, |
coming down out of heaven from God, made |
ready as a bride adorned for her husband |
And 1 heard a great voice out of heaven
saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is
with man, and he will dwell with them,
and they shall be his people, and God him
self shall wipe away all tears from their
eyes; and there shall be no more death,
neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall
there. be any more pain; for the former
things are passed away"
1t is worth while to read that amid the
prophecies of the millennium which are Just
now so plentiful 1t is somewhat different
from most Of them. What ST. John saw +
was not what Edward Bellamy or William
Morris see. But it is the Christian vision
of the twentieth century. 1t is a look into
q land of universal consolation.
Consider the Christian revelation Of
divine love.
THE CROSS OF CALVARY.
The Christian religion teaches US that
God is our father, and that He loves us
more than the tenderest of human fathers
loves his children. The central symbol of
Christianity is the cross of Calvary. And
one of the blessed revelations of that cross
is the truth that human pain and divine
love can go together. God loved Christ un-
speakably. - Christ was the "only begotten
Son of God" whose giving to take away
our sins was the supreme assurance of Gods
love for US. And yet Christ suffered. All
through life he went poor, of humble sta
tion, accustomed to hardship, having no
place to lay his head, unpopular, subject to
insult, acquainted with weariuess, having
intimate knowledge of disappointment and
ingratitude and injustice, finally enduring
the shame and agony of crucif1lon.
God loved him, and yet all this was in
life. And when we see that, and have such I
ills in our lives, we know that the pain is :