Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-10-11
FIRST OF THE LAWS.
The Savior's Answer to the Lawyer
Who Headed the Pharisees.
MORALITY ALONE Is NOT ENOUGH.
A Reciprocity of the Divine Love Is the
Great Commandment
THEOLOGY DIFFERS FROM RELIGION
WRITTEN FOR THE p1sPATcu.i

to Christ with that deep question: wv hlch
is the great commandment in the law?'' He
represents US when he asks that. We ell
want to know that.
1t is true that the lawyer asked the ques-
tion, according to his legal habit, not for his
, own information, but, as we would say, tor
the information of the jury. The jury was
the crowd of citizens and countrymen who
were gathered about the Master in the
temple. Some were on His side, some were
against Him. There was great discussion
going on about Him. The Saducees had
had their turn at questioning Him, think
ing to bring discredit upon His teachings,
and His wisdom had put them to silence.
And now came the Pharisees with the
lawyer at their head, tempting" Him, the
record tells rs, that is putting Him to test,
setting Him on trial, trying to catch Him
in His answers. There was no religion in
the question of the lawyer. Here was no
eager disciple running to the Master, de-
manding what he should do to inherit eter-
nal life. There was no thought Of disciple
ship in the lawyers heart.
THE RELIGION IN DOCTRINE.
There is always this possibility of wide
distance between theology and religion.
tion of duty, may be no more religious than
the transactions of the Stock Exchange The
distinction between the sacred and the secu
lar does not depend on the subjects that
men talk about, or on the profession
and position of the debaters. An election
Is not made sacred by the fact that the peo-
pie are voting for bishop, nor is it made
secular by the fact that the people are vot-
ing for Congressman. A good many po-
itical speeches have been really more re-
igious than many sermons. We must not
think that people are religious-either our
selves or others-because they talk great
deal about religion. They may be
just as much opposed to that which is best
in religion as this questioning lawyer.
The difference between the sacred and the
secular is altogether difference of spirit.
That is what God looks at and cares for. We
read that one day at the Feast of Pentecost
the Holy Spirit passed by the splendid
temple altogether and overlooked the High
Priest in his gorgeous vestments, and chose
rather to visit common house somewhere
in the city, just an ordinary house, with
fiat roof and courtyard, and pair Of stairs
on the outside like a thousand others, and
to grant His special benediction to a COM
pany of common people there assembled IN
their working clothes 1t is the heart that
sight of God, and not the pious lips.
THE LAWYERS INTEREST IN IT.
This is a significant figure, this lawyer
standing in Christ's presence, looking
straight into His face, questioning Him.
listening with respectful attention to His
answer and having within him not one
smallest trace of the faintest purpose to
follow what the Master said. At the best,
ha hnd intalIaotua1 MT in Chris
tianity, nothing more.
There was a gambler in New York, who
got into the newspapers the other day, who,
it seems, had for years attended Christian
service every Sunday. He never knelt
down, he said, nor answered "Amen" to
anv of the prayers. He had never Joined
the church, nor had he ever made any
difference in his evil living. He said that
he went to that church because he liked the
preacher; he considered him the finest
preacher in the city of New York; There
are people not so bad as that in all the
churches. They show an interest in re-
igion by their constant presence, as this
lawyer showed his interest by his presence
and his question. And they listen, like the
lawyer, to all the praying and the preach
ing. And then they go away, hundred
times year, and one year after another,
and never make a change in their living,
never get any closer than they were at the
beginning to Christian discipleship. At
least. so far as we can see.. Nobody knows
what God sees.
ALL ARE HONESTLY DISCONTINUED.
And yet there times in every life when
the lawyers question is asked in earnest.
not as the lawyer asked it. The "great
commandment" what is il but the Divine
ideal of that which is the first and chief
essential in human character When we
learn it we know what God cares the most
for in the temper and disposition of His
children. We discover what our heavenly
Father most of all desires to see in u.s. And
we all want to discover that That is the
discovery of discoveries. For we are all of
US honestly discontented. The better we
are the less are we satisfied with ourselves.
Not one of US but has some sort of vision of
higher life, and is aware of the distance
between that vision and the every day
reality. We know what kind of men and
women we would like to be.
But our ideal changes. Sometimes It Is
but low achievement that we find our
selves striving after. We think that money
may perhaps content us; we will be satis-
fed if We can but gain some sort of worldly
prize. 1t is evident enough that some
people seem to have no higher ambition
than this. They bend all things this way.
They appear to be willing any day to trade
heavenly mansion for a good storehouse
on a salable corner On the other hand,
in proportion as men and women keep the
will of God, SO their ideal of right living is
more and more uplifted. Character is seen
to be the richest of all treasures.
KNOWLEDGE OF THE STANDARD.
Nov what we want, with our ideals going
iLr ha in thor
mometer according as our zeal is hot or
cold, is to know what the standard is. We
want something to measure by. And we do
not need ANYBODY to teach us that the one
accurate Judge of human life is He who set
human life agoing in this world. That
alone is best which is accounted
best by God. And so we come in
good earnest to the lawyers question.
When we are honest with ourselves, when
we stand up and look out into the inter-
minable sky, when we contemplate the GER
tain end of this life and the inevitable be-
ginning of another and realize that in spite
of all the noise and jostle of the busy day
we are still alone with God, and must give
account of ourselves to God-then we ask
in all soberness what God thinks about this
human life of ours What is the Divine stand
ard of mans behavior? What is of value
and worth while in the sight of God? What
is the great commandment in the law of
God?
And who can teach US that? Surely the
great spiritual Master. Noman ever spoke
nor will speak like this man. Christ knows
more than we do about God, Who will
deny that? Christ knows more than all the
preachers and all all the philosophers, and
all the magazines and the books about
the mind and the will of God. Christ the
manifestation, the speaking revelation, the