The gold leaf. [volume] (Henderson, N.C.) 1881-1911, 1894-05-31
VITAL RELIGION.
What it is and How We are to
Practice It.
I New York Herald.I

) What it is and How We are to
Practice It.
, New York Herald.I
, Pure religion and undefiled before God
: and the father-James, l: 27.
No more succinct statement of what
is essential in the formation of a re-
ligious character was ever made
We are told in simple language.
which the humblest can understand,
that Gods requirements are few that
this life can be made worth living, and
. the other life anticipated with pleasure,
: by obeying two injunctions-namely,
being helpful to those who are strug-
Cling with adversely and keeping our
souls clean and wholesome.
If ''pure religion and undefiled, y
embodied in our daily actions. will in
sure the approval of God, and if it con-
sists in doing all the good that lies in
} our power and in making for ourselves
record of impregnable honesty, then
we must agree that religion is indis-
pensable and we can no more afford to
live without it than we can live with
out roof over our heads or food for
our table.
If the Church will pardon us for the
criticism, we should like to say that it
has taught men to look at life from the
wrong standpoint 1t tells us that we
must believe certain doctrines before
he can lead Il certain kind of life.
These doctrines are of a complex char
acter and sharp controversy arises. If
we must believe before we can live,
then unless we believe we cannot live,
and many noble soul has lost its grip
on the higher life because it could not
make the doctrine Ineligible or even
reasonable. That is misfortune of
the gravest kind and one to be greatly
deplored. When the Church says to
man, you must accept this and that
! dogma, and accept it with the shade of
meaning which | ascribe to it, it makes
religion too much of an intellectual
process, while the spiritual process is
lost. If a man rejects the dogma he is
apt to think that dogma is an essential
element of religion, whereas in very
truth it is nothing of the kind. That
mistake may prove to be fatal, and his
| whole life may be blighted.
On the other hand, when a man is
I told that since this is Gods world, and
he is Gods child, be must therefore
seek the approval of God by being of
service to his fellows-encouraging the
weak, lifting up the downtrodden, de-
Tending the oppressed, setting an ex-
ample of honorable dealing which will
be attractive to others-there is no
room for controversy, and the whole
debate possible is as to the best way
of accomplishing these results. He
may begin this work without any dog
mas Whatever, may not know that
there is such a document as creed in
existence, but you cannot deny that he
is loyal follower of the Christ. He
need not hesitate to carry his pure
motives, his uprightness, his self-sacri-
flee to the foot of the Throne and need
have no fear that he will not be well
coined by angelic hosts.
Moreover, he cannot long pursue
such a course without becoming, in its
best sense, firm believer. He may
not accept all the Thirty-nine Articles,
but that is Of no consequence. He
will accept the general principles on
which the earthly career of Jesus was
based, and the moral law which He
proclaimed in such startling phrases
that we can hardly resist calling it a
revelation.
He will not only believe in God
who rules the world wisely and justly,
and in Providence which overleOks
the experiences which come to each
one of us, but will perforce reach the
conclusion that this God has arranged
things in a fatherly way.
When he is seeking for an ideal life,
the best conceivable life, the life after
which it would be- perfectly safe to
model his own, he will find it in the
Christ, and the record of it in the New
Testament. The great example will
impress itself on his mind, and his re-
spect for the Nazarene will grow to
admiration, and his admiration will
increase until it becomes worship.
Further than this, he will see at a
| glance that there is right and a wrong
in the universe He does not know
how evil originated, neither does he
care. 1t is sufficient that it exists and
that he must avoid it if possible. 1t is
plain to him that the right enlarges the
soul and makes it strong, healthy and
happy, while wrong hampers his action
and makes him cOwardly. 1t does not
take long then to discover that it is
always better, even though it be at
great cost, to maintain the right than
to surrender TO the wrong.
Once more he sees that no man COM
pletes his work in this life, and AS in
completeness is an anomaly in a wisely
governed world, he reaches the con-
clusion that beyond the confines Of the
present there must be a future; that
death is only another name for change,
and that he has nothing to dread when
that change comes.
He began by living good life but
while living it he has gradually ac-
quired a series of beliefs which consti-
tute his greed. 1t is not the creed of
the Church, but it is quite sufficient
for all his purposes. No Church can
afford to reject him for he stands where
St. James stood when he wrote the
words Of our text. and where Christ
stood when He preached the Sermon
on the Mount.
He has in his soul all the essentials
Of vital religion, is equipped to live
and prepare for immortality.