The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1901-07-25

swallowing little pieces OF bread and
so on, and so on, so that, after all,
nothing remains of the teaching itself.
And then when a man tries to remind
people that Christ's teaching consists
not in this sorcery, masses, tapers,
holy images, but in men loving one an
other, never returning evil for evil,
. never condemning others, never STAY
ing one another, then those to whose
interest it is to deceive raise an indig-
nant clamor. With unintelligible inso-
lence they talk loudly in churches,
print in books, newspapers, catechisms
that Christ never interdicted the TAX
ing of oaths, numbering executions and
wars), that the doctrine of non-resist-
ance to evil has been invented with
fiendish craftiness by the enemies OF
Christ.
states His own Creed.
Here is what l do believe: 1 believe
in God, Whom l understand as Spirit,
as Love and as the source of every
thing. I believe that He is in me and
1 in Him. l believe that the will of
God has been expressed in the clearest
and most Ineligible way in the teach
ing of the man Christ, to conceive of
Whom as God and to pray to Him 1
consider the greatest sacrilege. l be-
lieVe that the real happiness of man
consists in the fulfillment of Cod
will, while the will of God consists in
men loving one another, and therefore
acting toward others as they wish that
others should act toward them, as 1t
is said in the Gospel that in this con-
sists all the law of the prophets. I
believe that the meaning of every
mans life thus consists in increasing
love within himself; that that increase
of love leads the individual man to
greater and greater happiness in this
life, and will give after death the
greater happiness the more love there
is in the man. At the same time 1t
helps on more than anything else the
establishment in the world of the king
dom of God, that is such structure of
life that discord, deceit and violence
which now reing will be replaced by
free consent, truth and fraternal love
among meh. 1 believe that there is
only one means for the progress of
love-prayer, not that public prayer in
temples which was directly forbidden
by Christ (Matt. vi, 5-13), but the
prayer the example of which was
given us by Christ; prayer in solitude,
consisting in the renovation and
strengthening in our consciousness of
the meaning of our lives, as also of
our dependence on Gods will alone.
''Whether THESE my DelleIS OIlSlut
grieve or are a cause OF stumbling,
whether they are in the way of any
thing or anyone, or displease anyone,
can change them as little as / can
my flesh. l have to live by myself and
by myself must die. (and very soon),
and therefore l cannot believe in any
other way than as l do believe while
preparing to return to that God from
Whom l came.
IT do not say that my religion is
the only one true for all times, but l
do not see any other one simpler, clear
er, more responding to the requirements
OF my intellect and my heart. If ever
I should learn of such one l should
Immediately adopt it, because truth is
the only thing God desires.
but 1 cannot return to what | have
emerged from with such sufferings, as
a winged bird cannot return to the
shell Of the egg out of which 1t has
come. lie who begins by loving Chris
tianity better than truth, very soon
proceeds to love his own church or sect
better than Christianity and ends in
loving himself better than all, said
coleridge. l went the opposite way. l
began by loving my orthodox faith bet
ter than my own peace, then / began
to love Christianity more than my
church, now l love truth more than
anything else in the world. So far this
truth comedies for me with Christian
ity as | understand it, and l profess
that Christianity, and in the measure
| in which ! profess it l live peacefully
and rejoicing, and as peacefully and
rejoicing am nearing death"