The county record. [volume] (Kingstree, S.C.) 1885-1975, 1903-07-09

see now quickly anu suEeiy dh, tHs 10
changed! The father is not a taskmaster,
but a father. He takes the will for the
deed; He looks upon all our doings as the
expression OF a fiIial spirit and is satisfied.
But if the work be done slavlshly We have
no Joy in service and are a dead loss to
God: for. looked upon merely as servants,
after we have done all we are Improbable.
True, We look upon some things we have
accomplished and We pronounce them
great. We talk about our bringing in the
material kingdom of God-about our In
yent;ons-steam, the telegraph, the mighty
railroads and the steel monsters thai
trampie down the waves OF the sea. IL
these are done as works OF sons; If they
show the wish of the sons 20 struggle up to
the immensely OF the Fathers thought, God
must take supreme delight in them. They
are creations Of His childrcu; they. take
value from the fact that the Children's I'm
gers have toiled lovingly upon them. God
values our doings because we are HIS chill
Gren. II we come, however. claiming to be
servants and pointing to the great things
that we have done. the only response IS
that we are Improbable servants.
The stay-at-home was lost so long as he
looked upon himself as a servant. Inc frst
| step towards recovery was for him to take
himself as a son. The first step out OF the
~lostaess of the servant life is to take SON.
ship for granted and to act upon the as
sumption.
Again, the l~ostness OF the stay-at-home
appears from his thought of service: And
never transgresSed a eommanaa9s Oh
thine" These words are no more accidental
tnan the Others. The Master is cutting
close TO the essential weaknesses in the
creed and practice of Pharisaism. The two
weak words here are never and com.
mandment." The elders sons thought Ct
service was partly negative, and for tia
rest consisted in keeping commandments.
The Pharisee habitually thanked God that
he was not as other men, extortIoners,
unjust, adulterers, or even as the publican,
| but tasted twice in the week and gave
tithes of all that he possessed"
First. the negative aspect of the Phari.
sale creed. According to Pharlsaism re-
iigion consists largely in not doing.
Never" is the blessed word. Adherence
to the never. creed causes the inert and
passionless worshiper to mistake the list
l~essness Of death for the peace that passeth
understanding. Negative piety is often
sheer lifelessness; there Is not vitality
enough to break forth in sin; there Is not
strength or spirit enough to make temp
tation possible. How exasperating it is to
follies of youth, or a mind sluggish with
stupidity boast its freedom from doubt!
There is a long-!ived heresy to the effect
that the heart Of religion Is repression:
No longer do this, or that, or the other!
Drive out the devils, sweep the house, set
the furniture in order, board up the win
dows, lock up the doors and hide the
keysi This, as Of Old. over!ooks some
~thing-the skill Of devils as key-fnders.
Back they come with others worse than
themselves; or. if they do not come back.
| H. l4,.a .No-l, a,,-t, (which 70 ohnttt
as bad. Redemption really means abun-
-dant life. The ~life;ess and inert seriously
starting toward redemption may possibly
make more mistakes in the first six months
of activity than in all the previous years
of listlessness, but they are better never
theless. One of the most disagreeable
features of this elder brother is limited at
in this word never" 1t suggests a staid,
l~ife,ess, pioddingness beside which the rol-
licking prodigality of the younger brother
seems almost 4 relief. 1t is almost a re-
lief. too, to find that the elder brother
becomes angry. for anger is sometimes
a sign Of awakening life.
The more of the mercy never" there
j. in a mans religion, the more completely
lost the man is.
And then the other part Of the creed
the word commandment" What the
Master had in mind was the Pharisee's
living by rule. He is exposing the wood
enness and mechanicainess OF Pharisaic
piety; He is showing us the !ostneSs oS
living by rule. With the Ikarisee life
had become a round o. ceremonial ooser-
vances and Pharisaism was lost in the
abundance of its rules. Any man is lost
who tries to be good merely by rule. OF
the Christian religion can be brought
down to the compendious statement of
rules. but in these the principle is kept
in mind. | am speaking OF Pharisaism
"a the system which s!avishiy learns the
rules and follows them. Such n course
leads inevitably to the wilderness. II W
lose sight of the spirit and principle; we
must have a rule for everything. This
Pharisaism strove for and was lost in its
not complete. If there are spheres of con-
duct for which the Pharisee has no rule.
then in those spheres he is apt to feel
free to do his worst.
Living the good life is the finest {. the
fine arts. Fine art is not a mechanical OBJ
servance of ru,es-it is an absorption OF
spirit. In the religious life it is being
filed with the spirit; and he who has not
the spirit of life is lost.
The ~lostness of the stay-at-home still
further appears from his unnatural heart
l~essness. '"Thy SOM" These words are
douh,y heartless, they repudiate brother
hood with the returning prodigal and they
reproach the father for not looking upon
such a son as his own. Heartlessness al
most inevitably follows mechanicalsm.
1t is natural that it should be so. There
is no heart in a cumbersome set of com.
mandments. Commandments having to deal
simply with doings and not with feelings
are in the nature OF the case wooden and
~lifeless. If life be looked upon as some
thing to be fitted into a scheme of COM
m~andments. all the fragrance of fine feel
ing evaporates. This picture Of the elder
brother is the perfect setting forth of the
heartlessness of developed Pharisaism.
The heartiessness came not out Of DELHI
crate diabolism. but out Of mechanical
legalism. In the end. however, these two
are not far apart.
1t would seem quite the fashion in these
matter of fsct days to ridicule emotion
aiism. There is instead kind-of emotion.
alism that deserves ridicule. The piety
that consists only in being happy is a poor
piety. But strike emotionalism out Of re.
iision and religion is not religion. In
Johns wonderful epistle of love much is
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