The herald., 1895-11-12

j enactments made in the spirit Of human
brotherhood, whose highest law is the
! Jaw Of service, and is rot the fattening of
| private greed, but the furtherance of pub
lie good.
But, again, we must guard ourselves
against that definition of Christianity that
makes its essence lie in a form o. So
| call I'd religious experience. We have
been 700 much in the habit of estimating
| the amount of religion we possess by the
degree of spiritual circumstances we
| have. The result has been a separation
| of religion from life and the develUpm ent
| of a morbid, unreal ubjsctive piousnesg
| tnat may have little true religion in it.
| Christianity is not so much a personal
| experience as 1t is personal service.
! There is no warrant anywhere.
| for the distinction too often made
| between Christianity and a selfsacrlfic-
| ing morality. If the Christ spirit is the
| spirit that sacrinces self for the good of
| others, if the Christ spirit is the spirit of
| unselffshness, then wherever and vhen-
ever that spirit is manifested, conscious
| " or unconsciously there Is bit of true
Christianity. Whatever the good the
| world holds is of God. There are not two
| sources of good any more than there are
two standards of right. Wherever love is
Offering itself up for the SAKE of others,
wherever there is a laying of self on the
altar of the common good, wherever
is taking upon itself freely the form of
one VINO serves, whether that service be
in the church, the home, the office, the
field or in the halls of legislation, there is
vision of Jesus, there is a revelation of
the mind of Christ. 1t matters not
whether that soul has heard of the his.
torlc Christ or not, it is a Christian soul
il it is doing Christly things. Jesus never
made invidious distinctions between
forms OF good. The only criticisms he
had to offer were on those pretended
righteous who regarded the church as
close corporation having monopoly on
the correct brand OF morality. And when
one of bis disciples stopped man who
was uolng q good WORK, because he did
not follow with them, Jesus said, Forbid
him not, for he that il not against lis is
Tor US. Jesus Christ did not come to dis.
credit the good he found in the world,
even when it did not bear the ecclesiasti-
cal trade mark. He did not come to rem
der of no value the moral qualities al
ready existent or to set u another source
of good. He did not come to develop the
moral sense of society, 10 create COM
munity of conscience, 10 organize hn-
manitv in righteousness, to get the good
that was baptized with Larger. more
vital good, to bring the world under
Gods law of mutual service, to usher in
the reign of new love before which all ills
and wrongs anc miseries OF life void for
ever vanish. And the religion of Jesus
must not be confused with any feverish
experience The religion of Jesus was
best Xempll6ed, not on the mount OF
TRANSPORTATION, but on the plain where
the people were, and where Borrowing
heart needed the touch OF helpfulness.
Christianity is not a spasm of unearthly
| sentiment but the service OF unselhsh
| love. And Christian state Is not a COM
! monwealth whose business sessions in
its cou IS aid offices and legislatures are
opened with the doxology or closed with
prayer out government which shall re-
| gard itself as the servant OF the peoples
! good rather than as the agent of rail-
ROAD lobby or the liquor league or the
Standard Oil company.
i Further, Christianity must not DO
COMPOUNDED with any organic form in
which it may claim to present itself.
| Christianity can no more be identified
! with church than with o state. 1t is
not form, 1t is a principle. That the
churci. is supposed to represent the ap.
plcation of the ethics cf Jesus to human
life is true. Blu. the church has too often
parted from its original fern or band