The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1896-06-01
ARE WE PHARISEES?
Rev. F. w. Hamilton Asks and An
swers the Question.

The Test is Willingness to Lift Others
Up to the High Position We Have
Reached-sympathy Proof of Dis
cipleship.
Rev. E. W. Hamilton of Boston, form
erly of Portland, occupied the pulpit of
the First Uniyersalist church yesterday.
After speaking of the pleasure it gave
him to be in the pulpit of his home
church, he took for his text Luke VIII, 9.
The terror of the name inspired by
Richard of the Lion Heart was SO great
that even in the desert the Saracen moth
ers hushed their children by saying:
''Be quiet, or King Richard will get
you" The Lion Heart has laid aside his
armor, but in this the nineteenth CEN
tnry, we are in more fear of an enemy
than ever the Saracens were of Richard.
We fear the man who is ready to charge
us with Pharisaism. He is commonly
person who has read the Bible just
enough to misunderstood it, and who
has not entered deeply enough into the
life OF Christ to comprehend His word.
And yet the truth of the charge should
be the only thing to give the words a
sting. If we know that it is not true
the words themselves need not trouble
US. We need have no better description
OF Pharisaism than that of Christ him.
self. A Pharisee is one who is separated
from his fellow men. Who has no feeling
of sympathy for them. Who uses them
II at all as horrid example of what men
may become, and who thanks God that
he is not like them.
But we must not misunderstood the
vivid words of Christ. The Pharisee Of
whom He spoke was probably all that he
represented himself to BIZ. You and I
know that we are better than some
Others. That we are leading cleaner
lives. The sin of the Pharisee was not
that he thanked God for his own spirit
ual blessing, but that he was content to
remain in state Of cold separation from
others less fortunate. That ne saw bis
Deighbor in distress and did not try to
lift him out of his state of sin and
| misery.
ss..In what respect does the Pharisaism of
the new differ from that of the old time?
| 1t is not Pharisaism for man 10 be
| better than others. Tom Brown is
member of bicycle club, and the club
has got in the habit Of making century
on the Sabbath. He doesn't approve Of
| it, and SO is absent. Perhaps he, says
nothing about it, but his absence is
noticed and some one says "Tom is get
ting to be too much of Pharisee. He
thinks he is better than others. We must
take him down bit.' Mrs. Jones is a
member of a whist club, good thing in
itself. but they get to playing for prizes,
perhaps for IN oney, not at all a good
thing, and she drops out By the bye
there is the same whisper of PharisaisD,.
MT. Smith, is in business, and he does
not approve of some of the sharp CONNER
cial practices, and does not adopt them.
He says, nothing, but simply acts. as a
high minded man should, but the whis.
per is heard, 'Smith thinks he's better
than his neighbors. In my opinion he's
good deal of a Pharisee."
| And yet there was nothing of the
| Pha risee in either case. 1t is not Phari-
saical for man or woman to live the
best and the cleaneAu life they can. And
it is not at all Pharisaica1 for q man to
know that he is better than others, or
else Christ would have been the greatest
Pharisee Of all the ages. But we may
say that Christ was so lifted up that
words that would be simply Pharisaical
on other lips were not SO when spoken
by Him, but to His disciples he said
eye are the light of the world" and to
the people of his day he said that they
were better than the Gentle nations, and
He said SO to those who knew the truth
of His words. #s
No man can do any real work in lifting
upward the life of the world, unless he
feels that be is himself occupying an All
yanced position. The sin comes when
knowing that we have reached that posi-
ton we look out on the world with no
feeling that we owe to, others duty we
must perform. There is too much still
of the feeling the noble had for the serf,
the ancient Greek for the slave, the
white man Of the south for the black
man. There is too much of this feeling
now. The rich man thinks Of those who
are in his factories as so many hands,
the saddest word we use today.
The old theological beliefs and creeds
lead to this spirit of Pharisaism. Other
wise why are the bars kept up between
the Y. NJ. @. A. and the Universalist
church? Or why is the society of Christian
Endeavor made to go along such narrow
lines. Here is the great Roman Catho-
lie church, and its imitator the Ep1soo-
pal church, making the relations of God
with the soul not..a personal matter but
simply part OF an institution. ain
not talking OF something that occurred
in bye gone ages, for before left Port
land there was a clergyman here, and he
was not Of the Catholic church, who
WAS preaching and teaching that there
was no salvation outside of the church.