The Caucasian., 1895-07-25
s-s-- --.... -. o. d,
" RELIGION AND LIFE"


unlVerb6llLy anu tneIeIOEe luDeTenCJ
of religion by no means commits VI
to the position that all religions are
of equal merit That religion II
highest which reveals the highest
conception of God, man, and their
relation. That religion We believe
to be Christianity. In it the uni
versal human heart finds it, crsv-
ings best satisted. In the Christian
life, the universal human life realiz-
ed its ideal.
Coming out of human nature thus,
religion can not be separated from
the life. Man to be what he il must
be religious, he must live the relig.
ious life. Religion is life aud Christi
anity is divine life.
True Christianity depends on fact,
Religion Is not theory but act.
Walter Harts.
Christianity, which embodies in
its world-conception the best
thoughts of the past from all quar-
ters of the globe, has for its motto
here: aye are labOrers together with
with God;" and for it's goal yonder:
SWELL DONE, GOOD AND FAITHFUL
SERVANT"
Religion thus as understood by
Christianity, the highest religion,
means new life for man, different
life, additional life, q superior and
transcendent life, which is nothing
less than the natural life of God
given to man to elevate him, to q
participation in the deity, into q
plane of existence which naturally
belongs to God alone.
Man has the essence of religion in
Just the proportion that the divine
life fills the capacity of the human
life.
George Mcdonald has to say on
this point: "Religion is neither
more nor less than life. Whoever
can think of religion a. an addition
to life, however glorious, q starry
crown, say, set upon the head of
humanity. is not yet the least in the
kingdom of Heaven. Whoever thinks
OF life as something as could be
without religion is deathly ignorant
of both. Life and religion are one,
or neither is anything. / will not
say that neither is growing to be
anything. Religion is no way of life,
no show of life, nor observance Of |
any sort. 1t is neither the food nor
the medicine of being! 1t is life
essential. The man to whom virtue
is but the ornament of character,
standing over and above, not essen-
tial to it, is not yet man."
The words of che greatest religious
teacher the world has known lend
the weight of their authority to our
position. Christ said: 81 am the
way. the truth, and the life. 1 have
come that ye might have life, and
that ye might have it more sbund-
sntly." -.,.a,. N~
The Apostle John in speaking of
Christ said: "In Him was life, and
the life was the light of men," The
Apostle to the Gentiles said: "To
me to live is Christ; not to me to
live is Ike Christ, but is Christ.
Why then is religion co-existing
with life? Because human nature
is built on the religious basis. Why
is human nature thus constructed?
Because the human being came from
the divine, is actually related to the
divine, and has the divine spirit aid
spark within him. And as the
sparks fly upward 30 the soul of man
rises to its Maker. The moral re-
sponsibility resting upon the creation
by virtue of its relation to the Gre
ator, demands the co-existence of
religion and life. If this relation
did not exist, religion could not. Re-
ligion does not create the relation,
any more than it creates what is at
the other end of the relation. It
discovers the relation.
Religion becomes conscious of
what is and acts accordingly. The
prodigal came to himself and went
TO his father. That is religion. He
was always q son, though the rela-
ton actually existing, his moral re-
'ponsibility as son. was not reco- =
ynized by him at the first The
worst man can do is 10 be Q prodi.
gal. The best he can do ID to come
nome to his father.
In this doctrine of God and man
related as father and son 10 Get the
yreat truth that God is manlike and
nan God-like, making man at his
'est the emblem of God and at his
worst the object of Gods love.
The belief that the human vor.
hipper is somehow made in the ,
LIKENESS of the divine, that the con.
cious soul is essentially one with 4
luty and that life is the progress of
he pilgrim spirit of man through
vhatever definite existence to reunion
Nth the Infinite is the underlying
lement IN all religions of truly
piritual character.
The kernel of religious faith is
hat the world is Gods, that the Gre
tor is in his creation, and that the
curse of the world is subservient to
ne realization of the divine purpose
f good.
"In the religious human life there
thus the story of the Unseen.
here is the hush and awe of the
lmnipotent and Eternal. There is
he Unseen Holy. There is an ex-
snsiou of the being upward and II
onward immeasurably in the feeling M
it" And in the feelings and af.
ections are the springs of activity.
'hus the life of the greatest activity
the life of religion.
Religion is an active life and life
TL~ H. Il