The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1897-01-09

danger of exalting worship, doctrine
and ecclesiasticism over deeds of
loving kindness. We are willing to
build costly churches, and rent seats
to those who care for them, and open
the doors to all who choose to come
in; but we do not like to be asked to
go out and visit the afflicted, to con-
tribute to the necessities of the poor,
to call upon the non churchgoer in
behalf of spiritual interests, or to put
ourselves to the trouble of trying to
constrain the wanderers to come in,
that our houses may be full. We
protest our belief in the universal
brotherhood of mankind, but we
hate the sight of collection basket
for the sake of foreign missions.
Thus we are prone to make our
Christianity matter of Sundays and
sanctuaries, whereas Jesus would
have us make it chiefly matter of
daily kindness, doing good unto all
men as we have opportunity.
Now love is the only thing that can
bring us to this. 1t is the only eff
fectual antidote to selfishness; and it
is such an antidote. AS contempt
rary writer Clan MacLaren) says: mo
one can be euvious, avaricious, hard
hearted; no one can be gross, sens
ual, unclean, if he loves. Love is the
death of all bitter and unholy moods
of the soul, because love lifts the man
out of himself and teaches him to
live in another" Or, to use the more
striking and beautiful language of
Tennyson,
'Love took up the harp of life and smote
on all it's chords with might
Smote the chord of self that, trembling,
passed in music out of sight,
we may catch true glimpse of the
power and blessedness of this divine
factor in human life. Thus we may
see what the spirit of holy love, i'm
planted in our hearts, may do-must
do when really planted therefor
our religion; it must make us ready
and glad to go on errands of mercy
and loving kindness to any needy
soul; to give of our substance to help
our suffering fellowmen; to spend
and be spent, like our Master, in the
work of "doing good" Does any
body doubt that life so lived would
be true Christian life? or that Gods
love established in the heart would
impel to the living of just such life?
All, there is no other way; and per-
haps there is no other failure more
| fire quent, more common, more serious
than our SHINING against love.
''False to love, we cannot be
Followers, dear Lord, of thee
But Love Not All.
In saying all this | would not be
understood as contending that love
is the whole of life or of religion. |
remember that there are other inter
ests, other principles, other forms of
divine power working in our souls. l
do not forget that truth and right
eousness are equally vital and practi
cal claims; and would not seem to
undervalue these in my appreciation
of love. And yet l wonder, after all,
whether, if we knew more than we
do, or were more free from the limi-
tations which language puts upon
our thought, We might not find that
all these-truth, righteousness, love
are really one and the selfsame
thing. Perhaps truth" is merely
the convenient term that denotes the
intellectual aspect of the Divine
Order, righteousness" the ethical,
and 'love" the emotional. Certain
am that these three words-'truth,"
righteousness" and "love"-are the
three great words of the New Tesla
ment; and equally certain am | that
their meaning, whether threefold or
single at bottom, must be wrought
into our individual lives and into our
social order if there is ever to be any
Kingdom of Heaven on earth. And
the most hopeful sign in our world
today is the fact that the Church of
Jesus Christ is seeking to build these
three great words into the fabric of
modern civilization more symmetri-
cally than ever before.
Love Works the Miracle of Renovated
Society.
This good work must go on, and
may it not slacken! We must search
for the truth and teach it; we must
insist upon righteousness and exemp-
lily it; but we must fill all our
efforts = our schools, our churches,
our houses, our philanthropies, our
laws, our business that spirit
of holy love which Jesus Christ in
culcated, or they will all prove abor-
tive. All, how little it needs to make