The Washington times., 1894-04-01
Sunday Morning Thoughts
on Religious Unity.
Religion is one: its forms are many.

Religion is one; its forms are many.
,'vice has no friends like the preiudices which
claims to be virtue"
"When the judgment is weak the pre1udice Il
strong"
Continuity of one line Of thought on
any given subject sinks deep ruts in the mind
that, under any parallel lines are difficult, and
the variableness of free generalization al
most impossible II sometimes seems that
the average estimate of religion is, first, get
ting a belief, and subsequently loyal defense
of that belief, against all the assaults oil
thought, reason, and scientific discovery.
Perhaps the great lesson of the hour is the
acceptance of the fact that belief in God, the
all-prevailing force Author, Creator, pre-
server of the universe, the belief in the i'm
mortality of the soul, the obedience to the
indwelling voice of conscience, the living
enlarging flame of Altruism. in no way depend
upon the unqualified acceptance of crystaliza-
tions of human thought about God and the
soul that have been handed down to us as
inerrantly sacred.
The imagination of the child is as vivid and
forceful when the horizons rim bounds his
universe as when in full maturity he mas
become familiar with the earth's dimensions
and possibilities and gaze5 into the deaths OF
space. So the spirit in man doubtless became
the ruling force, aspiration the habit OF his
soul. while the mind. the acquirer, and as
sorter of material fact. has comparatively
limited scope. If we were thinking on any
other subject we would not hesitate to assume
that no adequate mental concept of the scope
and importance Of the relation oil Things
could be possible to mind confined to the
belief that this little globe OF ours was the
center. the all of importance: that for which
sanll fhinps were made -
Man is so naturally IN earnest about mate
rial things that he pays but little heed TO the
yesterdays of knowledge and discovery. No
one now studies astronomy from the learned
treatises extant when Copenicus dared to
think. The madeeval castle, with its
moat and drawbridge. no longer frowns from
the hilltop for the perpetuity. the conser-
yation of exclusive right. but church
creeds and architecture born under these
same conditions survive.
There was abundan. food for thought in
your Thoughts Born of Easter" Each oil
your contributors gave you the thouSht
uppermost in his mind. II is safe to say that
the temperament of the man had less to do
in the arrangement and presentation of that
thought than the effort TO make the thought
impulse conform to his own inherited or en-
grated belief. Do people ever think that u
far greater amount of vitality is expended in
the defense of prejudice than in any effort
What we really do believe may well take
care of itself. If the plant requires such care
full nursing it must be il is an exotic, neither
indigenous to the soil of the mind nor in
tended to flourish to a full frUitage in the air
and sunlight of our aspirations.
The celebration of Easter having been
adopted by the Church as festal day. the
termination of the forty days or more. or less,
a custom of our people, and is looked forward
to with pleasurable anticipation for many and
various reasons For example. two young
ladies of evident intelligence and refinement
exchanging condolences in cable car on
Good Friday, said:
Il shall be so glad to see Easter morning,
am so tired of praying"
Yes" said her friend. land am so tired
of my Winter clothes, and, you know. one
must wear them. no matter how hot it is, until
Easter"
Easter is not of Latin origin but OF Anglo
Saxon. Eastre. Foster. German 0stern. and
is from Eastre or Ostara, the Anglo-SaSor
goddess of Spring. No people take kindly to
the abolition of the festival days, and. doubt
less, when the German tribes were forced to
accept Christianity. the concession OF theii
Spring festival day was made to them pro-
vided they would forget Ostara and think oi
it as the day on which the Saviour of mar
arose from the dead but at all events We
know the day was not celebrated in the early
church. One would not find, however, in al
the sermons of the day any hint that it was
an adopted child of Christianity.
However. the more festival days the better
the more the human heart can be made to re-
joice and be glad. either in the thought of the
renewed life of the glad ..springtime, or by any
reminder of the love and care of the Father
the better.
But the thought that was uppermost in my
mind, in spite of all l could do to try and en-
ter into the spirit, of sermon, service, music
flowers. and beauty was this:
"God is spirit, and they that worship Hin
must worship him in spirit and in truth"
When does the time come when form an(
symbol give place to the simplicity of under
lying truth? If a form or symbol Of a truti
seems necessary TO attract the thought of
child or a savage, at what point of develop
ment does it cease to help and become a hin
drance to the acceptance of the true realitie!
that constitute the religious life, or life in the
spirit!
Is it a duty, is it expedient, to seem to
believe what you do not believe?
Is it safe to try and force your mind Il
accept thought which is directly at variance
with all your mental processes?
Must the acceptance of new thoughts tha
come to the lnQulilng soul OF man OepeLC
solely upon their beng made to fit anteee
dent thought or the expressed thought o
other minds?
Prejudice aside. are rot the thoughts tha
come to the various minds as necessary Il
their healthy growth as the leaves tha
breathe in the same air of heaven for the
infinitely various vegetable forms?
Can creed. fixed and invariabe. fit more
than one mind in the infinite differentiation
of consciousness?
Can creed fit any one mind or soul for
any given time. provided that soul is alive, in
conscious growth?
Is not the acceptance of a creed as a final
ity sublimatcd agnosticism? viz: l now know
all that ever can be known about the
relation of God to the universe. to my Owl
soul, and all souls. The universe of God is
one; Gods law must be one, complete in it.
self; therefore the souls of all man bear &
like fundamental relation to that Law. Is moi
sectarisaism the survival of tribal existencei
A cynic has thus defined sect: "a limited
commune of egotists, banded together on the
assumption of true and unalterable deflni-
ton of the indefnable."
Let us compare few of your curren,
"Easter thoughts" 3" for in the honest compari
son of the best thoughts of others is help fol
our own. Disputation and argument is the