Vernon County censor. [volume] (Viroqua, Wis.) 1865-1955, 1903-09-16
THE goLY NAME.
Bp ReY. ~. EYereff Johnson.

Inc LOfu prayer Is NOALne Vi
doctrine and ethics. basic and far
reaching. This first petition is the
corner stone of the whole structure ana
sets forth the same radical concept
that ST. Paul does in his treatise on
charity. 1t creates the viewpoint of
the religion of Jesus Christ To make
something holy is to develop the high
est attitude of our nature, the result OF
the union of the mind and the heart.
There is holiness that belongs to
certain things aside from what we or
dinariIy call religion The thing that
has become holy to you may have little
or no other value. An old book that
your mother often read that would not
bring cents in the market, is treas
ured as a holy thing by you. and per-
haps by you alone; the old homestead
is hol. place; little half worn shoe
is a holy thing to saddeaed mothers
heart. All because these things have
been linked with the affections.
The giant locomotive has become a
holy thing to the man that sits in the
cab, the realization of the dream of
years the shrine of worshipsng labor;
there is no need to bid him to give it
his best energies; they belong to 1T. A
drop Of stagnant water is holy thing
to the man of science who has devoted
his mind TO a study OF its revelations,
and through his microscope he enters
il with such reverence as worsmper
does temple. No need to BID him to
prayer, for such it is; he kneels day
after day waiting for the revelation of
God
The devoted SOD the loving mother,
the mechanic who gives honor to his
work, and the student whose every
thought is prayer, are examples of
the be st things in this life of ours and
the nearest to our loving Father, ere
ating and working in his Infinite wis
dom, but as With all the noblest things
in life they ire the most dangerous
The son, the llother, the engineer, the
student may become idolaters, and that
which was holy degenerate into a sell
fish superstition, that which ought to
be motive to a broad and wealthy
life become a positive hindraRce to
true growth.
Here, then, the far reaching Opening
words of our Lords great prayer, May
our Fathers name be made holy? And
what is our Fathers name? Surely
not only what we sound when we pro-
nognce the words; surely not the
name. as you or l have name by
which we are known among men,
which pronounced gives no revelation
of what we are.
Our Lord is doing more than bid us
abstain, from profanity and pronounce
his Fathers name with reverence in
our speech. And what is the name of
God? That by which he has revealed
himself. thai by which he is known.
Not n name like Brown or Smith
which tells naught of what he who
bears it is, but name spoken in our
ears in all our daily toll and hours at
home, as varied as our lives, but ever
revealing him; row his love, now his
wisdom, now his mercy. now his JUS
tice.
1t means for us to give to him our
devotion that the seeming little things
in life become as the treasured book
of a mothers life or things rejected
by men, as the little, worn out SHOE
ever declaring the gracious blessing of
q life not now seen.
1t means that our daily work is with
holy things treated with loving care
such as the engineer gives to his great
instrument of modern life. 1t means
that the most despised and scorned of
things on earth may become wealth
of revelation, of divine wisdom, as
does that dirty drop of water to the
students eager eye.
1t means that all around so speaks
of our Fathers love and wisdom that
the earth becomes a temple and our
duties and our cares that by which
we offer praise and worship to him
who built it.
"Hallowed be thy name;" so teach
me, Lord, to find in everything that
greets my ear n name for thee, In
everything that greets my eye thy au-
tograph, that l may live in a holy
place and offer continually the incense
of my devotion.
Here, then, the viewpoint of our re-
ligion as taught by him who gave IT:
Reverence toward all his created work,
and, above all, for every human life,
all cleansed, nothing unclean. no life
so low, so forsaken, that it shall not
recall that hottest moment of his work
when he, too, cried: My God, my
God. why hast thou forsal,en me?"
The utter darkness of the holy of
holes in which he placed the light
by which we might see the holiness of
our God when the veil was rent in
twain.
st. Paul calls this same great virtue
charity. but whether charity or rever
ence. it is that spirit that never scorns,
never despiseth never pulled up,
seeketh not her own, thinketh no evil,
hopeth all things. and without which
we may give all our goods to the poor
and our bodies to be burned and yet
are but as sounding brass or tinkling
cymbal.
We can learn the holiness Of God
only by making holy all that he hath
given us; we can have faith only as
we make holy the name of our GCd.
PLEADS FOR TIE SABBATH.
BY Rev. Frank Dewitt TainaRe.
While others may be talking upon