Arizona republican., 1899-04-08
WHAT IS RELIGION?

His delight is the law of the Lord. :"
Psalms 1:2.
The docNine of total depravity I do
not accept, but it contains an atom of
truth which everybody believes
clothed in a bold and somewhat reck
less statement which nobody believes.
To say that all men are bad is false, if
human experience counts fcr anything.
To say that all men are wholly bad is
simply incredible. We know ourselves
accurately enough to arrive at a very
scious that there Us a foundation of
good in the soul on which to build
noble character if we choose to do so.
That is the verdict of every man who
lives.
When, however, see a man who
does what he knows will injure him,
INDUCES in forbidden pleasures with
out reckoning the consequen ces-
pleasures which are forbidden because
they do result in harm and because the
world Us so made that they cannot re-
suit in any other tway-then 1 feel like
formulating a new docb.ine to be called
understandable perversity.
And when 1 see a man who knows
that a broken law always avenges it
self. but still persists in evil habits
under a curious nallucindtion that,
while everybody else has been over
taken, he will himself escape, then
want to formulate another doctrine, to
be called inordinate seif-conceit
Herein lies q mystery, and only re-
ligion can make it clear; a puzzle, and
only religion, which is another word
for sane and reasonable iCGlt.ock, can
solve it,
A man will not put his hand into the
fire, because the consequence is both
immediate and painful; neither will
he swallow rank poison, nor yet will
he reckless,y jump from a. precipice.
He has too much regard fcr himself,
for his physical integrity, to do any Of
these things. They have no tempta-
ton for him, because he has a whole
some fear. If you push him to drink
the poison or to take the leap he looks
on you as an enemy and treats you
with scorn. He will resent either pro-
posal as an insult to his common sense.
Tell him that he can escape unscathed,
argue the matter with him as efo-
qUentiy as you please, you cannot per-
suade him. He not only refuses, but
does it in such way that you are at
once silenced.
But in spiritual concerns the rule
does not hold good. The man who
would not cut his arm will cash his
character and not give the wound a.
second thought When he does
wrong deed he knows that he has in
jured himself, but he does not believe
it. That is the puzzle. He is a bundle
of contradictions, for he will DELHI
erately make himself a drunkard ruin
his body, bring his family to misery
and poverty, and keenly regret every
downward step he takes. l am sure
that a bad mans life is full of wonder
and grief that he is bad, and full OF
resolutions to reform. Good impulses,
noble elements of nature, lovable quail
titles, are in conjunction with a course
of which he is ashamed, but in which
he perversely persists. He is neither
totally one thing nor wholly another,
for there is an angel in him arm in
arm with a devil.
Such a man may be awake physical
ly. but he is sound asleep spiritually.
He lacks an appreciation of the real
value and the cal relation of things.
He is not so much depraved as he is
ignorant He must be. taught a new
lessen, he must learn some awful facts,
one of which is that an injury doLe to
the soul is a thousand times worse than
if done to the body. He does nos
know that as yet. He is a mature an
imal, with undevelCped spiritual pos
sibilities. This is 4 hard saying, bat
we are all conscious that it is true
Most of us have more of the animal
than of the angel in us.
What is religion? 1t is the one thing
We need. 1t is the science of soul ed
ucation II is the only thing that Will
save us from cur lower selves by tell
ing us how t. rise above ourselves No
man can make any other than a false
start without dt rs sphere Of in
huence begins even before the child is