The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1895-01-05
WAYSIDE OPPORTUNITIES.
Good Thoughts for the New Year.
$3.50 By REV. E. H. CHAPLIN, DE- ****
y REV. E. H. CHAPLIN, D. D.


wrong to the right. You meet Christ
by the wayside in thousand instan-
ces, but you think, perhaps, that
these are of no consequence. Ii you
saw Christ in personal appearance, or
in grand utterance, or some great &C.
casion, you would be ready to serve
him, but in common events and cir
cumstances you pass him by. Then
come the temptations of our life and
the great crises of our being. 1t is
not the machine itself, but the work
it does that tests its value. A man
may have glorious mechanism of
moral principles; it may be perfect
and complete in everything; that is
all very well; but how does this ma
chine work in the wear and tear of
life? | repeat, these are often the
crises of mans being, the waysfde
opportunities. o, wish, my friends,
you would only realize how much OF
religion comes to us in this way
comes to us as Christ came to the
woman of Samaria. Now, it can not
be denied that we are looking for
grand occasions for religion and the
influence of religion. We are looking
for religion in complex ways, in diff
ferent forms. and in unreal shapes.
We do not look for religion as we
should, in common, plain, simple,
free utterances. The position of
Christ in this transaction illustrates
what I may call the accessibility OF
religion. 1 speak thus people
think it hard thing for man to be
religious. It is a hard thing for
man to live religion-it ought to be
hard. 1t would not be worth any
thing if it was not hard; if it did not
inspire us to the utmost effort-if it
did not require us to be constant in
our discipline, constantly vigilant,
and constantly active, religion would
not be worth anything to us. If we
are to use religion as an element by
which we come nearer to God and to
Christ-by which we are to rise to the
highest needs of our being, then it
will be a hard thing. If it be not
hard in the sense of living it out, then
it would not be worth anything.
Religion Easily Comprehended.
But religion is not hard to COM
prehend. Yet we are apt to regard
it as complicated affair. Some men
know nothing of religion only in its
ecclesiastical form. When they speak
of religion, they speak of it as it is
exhibited in a sermon, in the prayer
that which is associated with the
Church, that which is associated with
a peculiar round of ceremonies. Re-
ligion only comes in an authorized
and consecrated way, by priests and
ritual, by the unfexible ordinances of
time and place. They think there is
no conservation except in the visible
Church; no true ceremony except
that which is according to ecclesias
teal form; and so religion to thous-
ands is simply mass of complicated
ceremonies. With others, religion is
nothing but words, set phrases, words
used with peculiar meaning. You
may let a sermon be preached in
which all the great truths of the Cos
pei may be presented, in which the
noblest incentive to human action, in
which the clearest revelations of God
shall be given, in which the truest
statements about Jesus Christ shall
be given, and yet if certain words and
phrases be left out of that discourse,
you will be told at once that it is
good moral sermon, but no religion
in it.
There are thousands of people who
regard the Sermon on the Mount as
beautiful specimen of Christ's teach
ing, but think that there is little of
the Gospel in it. They turn for their
religion to the Apostle Paul, because
there are great many hard words
and sayings difficult to get at, and
curious and technical phraseology
there. They find their religion
there. They think that Christ gave
the germs of religion, but that the
real Gospel was elaborated by the
Apostle Paul. All glory to the Apos-
tie Paul for his noble services to the
Church. Thank God for those burn
ing epistles, circulating through all
ages and through all time winged
with words of power and wisdom.
But, my friends, the whole Gospel is
in the teaching of Christ, every word
of it, and all Paul, or John, or James
ever taught are but suggestions
growing out of the teachings of
Christ. The entire Gospel is in the
Sermon on the Mount; sometimes in a