Orange County observer., 1903-07-16

Joy, because there is no JOY in. merely
serving God-that is, il we take the work
seriously. Ii we look upon God as a great
taskmaster, great lord over servants, we
are lost IN, misery; for we make so many
mistakes and we leave 50 much undone and
we absolutely fail so many times that we
get but little satisfaction out of the work
itself. If we really look upon God as
taskmaster we must honestly confess that
we can never please Him. With our limit
ed insight and cur laundering faculties we
are lost to the happiness of successful ser
vice. The more we strive the more we
blunder, and the more we blunder the more
lost we feel. AS evening comes on and
the hour draws near when we shall face
the taskmaster, we look back upon all the
pitiful 3 failures Of the day and cry out in
see how quickly and surely all this is
changed! The father is not 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 slavishly we have
| no JOY IN service and are 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
ventions-steam, the telegraph, the mighty
railroads and the steel monsters that
trample down the waves of the sea- II
these are done as works of sons; if they
show the wish Of the sons to struggle up to
the immensity of the Fathers thought. God
must take supreme delight in them They
are creations of His children; they take
value from the fact that the children's fin
gers have toiled lovingly upon them. God
| values our doings because we are His chill
| dren. If 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. The first
| step towards recovery was for him to take
| himself as son. The first step out of the
| lostness of the servant life is to take SON
ship for granted and to act upon the as
sumption,
Again, the lostness Of the stay-at-home
appears from his thought of service. "And
|, never transgressed commandant OF
thine These words are no more accidental
than 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 of
service was partly negative, and for the
rest consisted in keeping commandments.
he was not as other men, extortoners,
unjust, aduiterers, 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 Pharisaism re-
ligion 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.
lessness of death for the peace that passeth
understanding. Negative piety is often
sheer hfelessness; there is not vitality
| 4O IL
strength or, spirit enough to make temp
tatlon possible. How exasperat ting it is te
hear a dry, withered soul declaim on the
follies of youth, or mind sluggish with
stupidity boast its freedom from doubt!
There is a long-hved heresy to the effect
No longer do this. or that, or the other!
Drive out the devils, sweep the house, sci
the furniture in order, board up the win
dows, lock up the doors and hide the
keys! This, as of old, overlooks some
thing-the skill of devils as key-fnders
Back they come with others worse thar
themselves; or, if they do not come back
as bad. Redemption really means abun
dant life. The hfeless 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 istlessness, but they are better never
|
features of this elder brother is limited al
in this word ''never" It suggests a staid
lifeless, pIoddingness beside Which the rol
licking prodigality Of the younger brothe,
seems almost relief. It 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 merely ffnever" there
is IN q mans religion, the more completely
lost the man is.
| And then the other part Of the creed
, the word andment. What The
, Master. had il mind was the Pharisee
living by slle. He is exposing the wood
: enness and mechanicalness OF Pharisai,
: living by rule. With the lharisee liz,
had become a round Of cerem onial obser
vances and Pharisaism was lost in tn,
abundance Of its rules. Any man is los
who tries to be good merely by rule. o
; course; e, many Of the great principles o
; down to the compendious statement o
r2les, bat in these the principle is KEEP
9 in mind. I am speaking of Pharisaisn
as the system which slavishly learns tn
$ rules and follows them. Such a coufs
| leads inevitably to the Wilderness II W
!; lose sight of the spirit and principle W
: must have rule for everything Thi
$ Pharisaism stTcye for and was lost in it
| own cumbersomeness. Il the system
: not complete, if there are spheres of con
r duct for which the Pharisee has no rule
e then in those spheres he is apt to fee
5 free to do his worst
d Living the good life is the finest of tn
G fine arts. Fine art is not mechanical OF
n servance Of ru.es-it is an absorption c
spirit. In the religious life it is bein
n filed with the spirit; and he who has no
V the spirit of life is lost.
- The lostness Of the stay-at-hon1e sti
l. further appears from his unnatural hear
e lessncss. "Thy son" These words ar
# douhiy heartless,, they repudiate brother
: hood with the returning prodigal and the
n reproach the father for not looking upo
e such a son as his own. Heartlessness a
d most Inevitably follows mechanicalisn
l. 1t is natural that it should be so. Their
e is no heart in cumbersome set of cor
e mandments. Commandments having to def
S simply with doings and not with feeling
Il are in the nature Of the case wooden an
/ life]ess: # life he Looked upon as some
d thing to be fitted into a scheme of cor
( mandnents, all the fragrance of fine fee
o ing evaporates. This picture of the eide
: brother is the perfect setting forth of th
7 | boarI7escnesc of Geva!crod Pho rir iSu