The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1900-09-30
which strike like sledxe hammers Here

The Judge and Rewarrier has not in Church o.
state, OF anywhere save in conscience and tht
common, cosmic law, set up his court.
And here is another,
Materialism is the raw material of religion.
And another:
To say that the sovereignty is in the people il
the same as to say that the Kingdom of God i
WITHIN you-which is the creed of the religion
of democracy.
1t will be seen by this and other para
graphs scattered through the book ,tha
the author by no means leaves the New
Testament and the founder of the Chris
tan religion out of account. He takes
rather, an individual, though not wholly
novel, view of both. He says of Christ that
ne was the man of the modern spirit, re-
tusing to rule the people, but willing to
dle that the people might learn to rule
themselves. His teaching in no way con-
tradicts the essential spirit of the New
Testament, though 1t emphatically does
slash at the tissue of creeds which have
been woven around that book. According
to his theory, Christ did come to bring to
the world new and revolutionary mes
sage, and it was SO opposed to the per-
verted tendencies of religious organizations
that 1t has taken eighteen centuries for II
to conquer these ard come to the time OF
fruitiop. 1t was the mission of Christ, as
that Of every great prophet, to recall men
TO the realities, to disclose to them the i'm
mutable laws of the soul-world, and awak-
en- in them responsiveness to its ideals
and influences. 1t has been generally rec
ognized, in spite of all perversions, that
the teachings of Christ involve true democ-
racy, but this could not possibly be realized
TIL political and social movements had
brought about something like the right
conditions. That is why, as the present
author thinks, the perfection of democracy,
religion and all, is to be looked for in this
country, where there is at least a glim-
mering of perception of its ideals.
Just here there is a shrewd paragraph
on mob rule, which is worth some atten-
ton at this time:
The mission OF democracy is to put down the
rule OF the mob In moEarchies and aristocraeies
il is the mob that rules. 1t is puerile to suppose
that kingdoms are made by kings The king
would do nothing ii the mob did not throw up its
cap when the king rides by The king is con-
| sented to by the mob because of t;lat in him
which is mobilize. When the crowd gets ready to
demand beauty and justice, it becomes democ-
| racy ana has cone with kings. Iris, by the way,
| is an explanation of the fact that some features
| of constitutional monarchy really DEM
| ocratlc than anything else and that most kings
have less actual power than our President When
we give the President absolute command we have
mob rule in this country, and no longer a de-
mocracy.
There is freshening and inspiring at
! mosphere in such words as these. sIoken
| just before the beginning of new cen
| fury. at a time when mems ideals are
breaking up and their convictions are all
| at sea:
| The exaltation of the modern spirit is in the
assurance that there is always better world 1T
hand. The axioms of yesterday are not the
: axioms of today. At last it becomes possible to
behefe IN the utter efaeenent Of an evil and the
forgiveness Of sin. The bsrnacled institutions OF
society break loose from tb, ir mornings and
committed to the very steam of change We
shut the book of states, and attend only to the
dynamic laws, the princI-l' OF an Ilimitahe
orderiiness and beautifan4Ss and the demands OF
progressive justice that rscthes to the utte5most
love. II anybody says, LET US stop here this is
the final right of the matter, Re becomes to-
morrow an obstacle and a clog. ;. is perceived
that every truth, the propagation of which is en-
dowed and established, is folly its face, and
necessarily false Pay you go, is the principle
= health and If the preaching will not pig its
keep, and if nobody stands ready 10 give money
and life for it, then let il rest; it is not true to-
day. This years fruit must be nourished from
this year sap. The charter CT every association
that shall be other thsl-s hindIance and a dis
couragement must be worded in the future tense
and the getting together Of good people as such
Is degrading and public nuisance.
1t is not too much to say that great
many thoughtful men and women of today
are In condition as regards their Ie.igi-
Gus belief not dissimilar to that OF the
people swept away by the Galveston flood
The -oyerturning of established forms OF
thought within the last half-century has
been nothing less than cataclysmic
1t has extended into social and
intellectual as well as religious
life, and affected every influence
which tends to form the human char
acter. Its effect has been most notable in
this country because of the new conditions
The American. as an American, is still very
young When his forefathers came to this
new land they brought their ancestral be-
lfefs with them. and held to them tena-
ciously, while clearing land and building
cities. Material things occupied their
minds so fully that there was at first little
room for theological speculation. When
that form OF thought did begin to grow, It
took on new forms, fostered by the eli
matte and social conditions OF the thinkers
Democracy influenced it; so did prosperity;
so did isolation. man like Edwin Mark
ham, spending his boyhood on lonesome
ranch, in company with a few great books.
is bound TO evolve theory of life some
what different from that of poet brought
up in a city So new ideas grew and
ffourished; then culture crept in-the cul-
ture of the Old World, full of traditions
and now the people are waking up to the
fact that they have not the religion OF
their fathers, and wondering whether they
have any at all. 1t is often charged that
without the old faiths there can be no
idealism, no heroic self-sacrifce but the
author of THE Religion of Democracy
does not blink that point either When
one comes to re-read the book II is sur
prising to discover that in his apparently |
discursiye reflections he has covered about |
all the problems which are vexing the |
minds and hearts of the people who are
~ f,s.r
stition. His answer to the cayil that demo- |
cratic religion is unheroic is this:
In 4 world in which the phenomenal life Of |
men Is held by so slight a tenure. and is con- |
stantly exposed TO mishaps and the assaults of |
enemies ii is impossible for man to be min |
lister of justice if he is afraid to die The w4fld
is managed at last by the most fearless, by the !
people that are most deely rooted In the sub |
stratum of things, and least afraid of accidents.
civilization OF exquisite refinement, with all the
appliances OF wealth and culture, Lies at the |
mercy Of the baTbarians across the border if the |
citizens are more afraid Of death than the bar |
barans are. And luxurious and skeptical sris- |
tocracy is easily brought to confusion by the up
rising OF people that believe in God The final !
test as to which of two things shall remain |
standing and which shall fall is which can offer |
the martyrs-for which do men in greater
numbers stand ready to give their lives?
In other words. there is no use in wor-
rying over the establishment of reIig-
ion which does net depend on heroism |
and great deeds, because it cannot be es-
tablished, and that is all that there is
about IL.
The religion preached in this book is
not theoretical or speculative. 1t is prac-
teal to the last degree, ard in this it is
al one with the teaching Of Christ. Some |
clergymen of the present day have got
ten so far astray from their proper work
that they admit that Christ's rules for the
government of humanity were pretty, but