The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1891-06-19

spirit is everywhere: but, again, to
put it in action and make it work and
glow we must have the great Christ
ian Church. You must give an idea a
body unless you are willing to have it
STAY ghost. You do not ride upon
invisible railways or consume the in
visible products of invisible factories.
Invisible brotherhood becomes visible
and working idea, visible
blessings through your Order. Invisi-
BILE religion becomes visible working,
hallowing influence through the
Church.
Am I right when | say that knight
hood means the service of the seen
brother? If am right, then it is the
first step toward knowing and serving
the unseen Father. So says the text:
And this commandment have we
from him, that he who loveth God
love his brother ALSO"
1t is by way of the seen brother that
we approach the unseen Father. 1t is
by the avenue of brotherhood that we
learn the secret of fatherhood. When
ST. James gave the definition of relig-
ion, and he was compelled to say
that it was pure religion and undeflled
that he was deflning,-he said that it
was, ITO visit the fatherless and wild
ows in their affection, and to keep
himself unspotted from the world" I
know that the church has not always
seemed to look at it so. There have
been times when religion has seemed
to lie in putting the seen brother on
the rock or burning him for his opin-
ions. There have been times when
to be a good hater has seemed to be
the mark of the religious man. There
have been times when religions have
seemed to be merely the holding of GER
tain opinions. But you do not blame
the faculty of a medical college for an
epidemic of diphtheria, and you ought
not to blame religion because it has
been abused and deformed, because
it has sometimes left brother-helping
and the service of the seen brother
out of the account. When we get
back to first principles, we always find
the seen brother as the guide to the
unseen Father There is a picture of
the Judgment day given by ST. Mat
thew,-one you doubtless remember
and the Judge says to those on his
right: ''Inherit the kingdom pre-
pared for you from the foundation of
the world: For / was an hungred,
and We gave me meat: I was thirsty
and We gave me drink: | was a strang-
er and We took me in; naked, and We
clothed me: was sick, and We visited
me: was in prison, and We came unto
me-" And those addressed are very
greatly surprised and say: Lord,
when saw we thee an hungered, land fed
thee? or thirsty, and gave the drink?
When saw we thee a stranger and
took thee in? or naked, and clothed
thee? or when saw we the sick, or in
prison, and came unto thee?" And
the answer comes, 'sVerily [ say unto
you, inasmuch as We have done it
unto one of the least of these my
brethren, We have done it unto me. )"
Can you wish higher authority than
this for the claim that it is by way of
the seen brother that we come to
know and serve the unseen Father?
And SO | say the thing for which your
order stands-the knightly spirit-the
service Of the seen brother-is the al
phabet of true religion. And [ say,
further, that where religion has
shown itself weak and meaningless
and contemplate, there the knightly
spirit has been lacking: there men
have pretended devotion to the I'M
seen Father and ignored the seen
brother. We get away from this CEN
trail truth, and we move heaven and
earth with our Quarrels and jangleS
about single and double procession,
and inspiration, and election, and
Jonah's whale, but when we are hon
est with our religion and faithful to
it's spirit we come back to the service
of the seen brother and the unselfish
spirit of charity and love as our best
guides to God. In the midst of our
windy debates and fervid heresy-hunt-
ing and gnaveling about this and that,
a little child, it seems, is taken and
set in the midst of us. and voice tells
us that except we become as simple
and loving as that little child, except
as we go about doing good, except as
brothers, we cannot know the mean
ing either of life or heaven. / am not
here merely to say pleasant things to
you: but know you to be pledged to
greater brotherliness. greater charity,
greater unSelfishness and love among
men. You are living in time whose
chiefest gospel is the gospel of getting
on, and it cheers me and helps me, as
/ think it must every follower of the
Carpenters Son, to see you fronting
and fighting that gospel of getting on
with the gospel | helping on, which
is also the gospel of Jesus Christ. The
round silver dollar stands on it's edge
to-day and on it is printed ''In God
we Trust" but while it bears that in
scription it is really saying, that round
dollar, "Thou shalt have none other
gods but me-" And men hear that
when they cannot hear the
cry of the widow and the sobbing of
the orphan, and they tread widow and
orphan and every human brother I'M
der foot, that they may creep in the
dust before that dollar. Is it nothing,
o Knights of Pythias, that you stand
against this heartless spirit with
Christ's great truth of brotherhood on
your standards and in your hearts? Is
it nothing that you are standing
against the ruling spirit of every man
for himself? In time of unrest and
selfishness and what looks like indif-
ference to everything without the
dollar mark upon it, [ thank God for
your order, which is a witness that the
dollar is not the chief end Of life, and