The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1896-12-14

Every Day Religion" was the sub
ject at Unity hall yesterday morning.
The male quartette sang an appropri-
ate anthem. THE Temple of Life, with
words specially prepared for the occa-
sion. In the absence of Mr. Brigham,
his place IN the quartette was hiled
with great credit by Lieutenant Jerks
of the Twenty fourth. whose voice and
manner so won the audiences in the
recent representation of the Pirates OF
Penzance."
Rev. Mr.. Hudson took as his text
Micah Vi, s, What doth the Lord re-
qure of thee, but to deal justly. 10
love mercy and TO walk humb'y win
thy God2' This, he said, presented
religion in a nutshell The old Hebrew
prophet saw the real and pracucal sig
nificance of religion centuries before
the Christian era, but he spoke TO
grossly material age, an age which sun
believed in Offering UP sacrlhces OF
bullocks. rams and he-soats as the
highest idea of religious duty. The
first Isaiah. with the courage or IN
tense conviction. had already rebuked
this sort of materialism and had
summed up the lesson Of spiritual re-
ig;on in the words, Wash you, make
you clean: cease to do evil learn to do
Well" Still. when Jesus preached to
his generation he found the minds of
the people possessed with the same
sort of materialism paying minute at
sention To ceremonial forms such as the
iithing of mint, anse and cinnamon,
while they neglected the common
duties of every day life, judgment and
mercy and faith. No prophet had ever
rebuked SO sternly the tendency to
Journalism in religion None had 50
raF
spiritual religion; that religion con-
sisted not in observing form and ritual
but in the conduct of the individual
life. Nevertheless, the great institu-
tional church which stood before the
world as the sole exponent Of Christ
from the fifth century, to the sixteenth
sank into the groSSest sort of material
ism. L taught that Gcd was to be
found only in certain fixed places, at
certain specified times, by the observ-
ance Of certain prescribed forms, and
through the agency of diViDely APP
pointed priests. With strange
fravesty of the teachings of the humble
Nazareue. it pretended to have power
% change bread into the very body Of
Jesus Christ and to give it miraculous
power. The reformation was a protest
against this materialisn in religion and
demand 20 substitute the authority
OF the individual conscience, but the
reforming churches sank back again
into the materialism of form and could
not retreat.
This persistence of mateIialism in re-
ligion is due in a large measure to
TWO causes. First people ave very apt
TO regard everything connected with
The expression OF religion as sacred,
and consequently refuse TO discuss or
even consider the truth or wisdom or
Logic of so-cailed religious observances
10 which they have grown accustomed.
Hence we often find the practical
ethics of people growing ahead of its
religion. The ethical conceptions of the
people II the time of Jesus were above
the character Of The national Jahive.
SO the morals of Athens in the time of
Plato and Aristotle were superior TO
the morals OF Olympus, the mythical
home Of the Greek gods.
In the second place. The natural in
doienCe OF mankind easily leads people
into form and maierialism in religion.
1t is So much easier to go to church at
certain times and go through certain
forms than Il IS to guard ones life
and do the thing that is right every
minute Of The day, that people like TO
indulge the idea thar they can dis
charge their religious duty in this per
functory sort of way.
This explains why outgrown ideas.
forms and customs have endured so
long in connection with religion. in the
very midst of the growing civilization
of the time But the time has come
when religion must come closer to the
needs and lives of the people The
time has come when each individual
may weigh conclusions for himself and
the only religion which can satisfy
human need must be a religion of
every day 1t must be a religion which
enters into the practical living OF each
individual H. short. il must be
spiritual religion. as distinguished from,
material one
One great fault with material forms
of religion is that they present religion
as something apart from life. In order
to make religion vital Il must en;er
into all the interests Of life 1t is ali
s'lrd 20 think shat we can be religious
one day in the week and forget all about
religion during the other six davs. One
might as well lay claim 10 being truth
ful because he tells The truth on sun
Gay. while lying ali The rest OF the
week Religion must be perVasive like
love mother doesn't love her child
deNctedly enc day IN the week. and ex
press her love in ostentatious forms
ana cecelnonie~ and then forget an
about II the balance Of The time. I; is
the experience Gf daily life. the carry
ing Of religion into all We 10 and saw
Which moui1s ana makes the perfe.r
character
Religion should &c something mora
than merely 10 make peupie good II
should make them good for sometime,
The monk is not SO helpful in the wor II
as an honest business man who carries
his religion into his business relations
The golden rule applied in our daily
lives does more 10 uplift humanity than
ali the monaSIeries ia Europe
PeDple are often hoard g., COW .k.
they have no time for religion But
this excuse Is based uDon he false
notion of religion as s0methins sonar
ate and apart from life: while religion
To be vital must be the life itself The
busy lawyer who is true ia the trusts
reposed in him is practicing religion
although he may not observe any of
the outward forms of worshin. The
tired shop girl who has done her work
conscientiously and well and been true
TO herself amid temptation and want is
more truly religious than if she had
shut herself UP in a convcnt. The
blacksmith who makes good horse
shoes is expressing his religion in steel.
and it is as warm and living as the
sparks that fly from his hammer.
Getting religion" is a common
phrase. But religion is not something
TO get II is something to live. 1t is
not something superadded to life. an
ornament convenience. an acduisi-
tion, II is life itself Religion is at its
best when il does not obtrude itself
upon the attention. Physical and
spiritual laws are often similar The
body is most healthy when the organs
do their work unostentatiously and
even u0consciousIv Whom tho dieaeti,,a