Democratic messenger. [volume] (Snow Hill, Md.) 1869-1973, 1903-07-11

The stay-at home Twas lost so long as he
BOXED upon himself hs servant. The first
step towards recovety was for him to take
himself as a son. The first step out of the
lostness of the serv;Snt life is 10 take SON
ship for granted and TO act upon the as
, sumption.
Again. the lostnes5 Of the stay-at-home
appears from his Thought OF service. And
| never transgressed a commandment OF
thine" These words are no more accidental
:lose 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 q
service was parity negative. and for tG
:est consisted in keeping commandments.
The Pharisee habitualiy 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 Pharisasm re-
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 pas>eth
understanding. Negative piety is Often.
! sheer lifelessness: there IS not vitality
enough to break forth III sin; there is not
strength or spirit enough to make temp
| tation possible. How cXasperating it Is to
hear a dry. withe.ed soul declalm on the
follies of youth, or mind sluggish with
stupidity boast its freedom from doubt.
There Is Ion -lived hercsy 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
I the furniture in order. board up the win
1 dows, lock up the doors and hide the
KEYS, This. as of old overlookS some
! thing-the skill Of devils as keyfnders.
/ Back they come with others worse than
themselves; or, II they do not come back
the house stands empty. which is about
rs bad: Redemption really means ahan-
dant life. The l:feess 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 iistlessness. but they are better never
theless. One OF the most disagreeabc
! features of this elder brother is limited at
| in this word never" 1t suggests a staid.
liieless. ploddingness beside which the rol-
licking prodigality OF the younger brother
seems almost relief. 1t is almost re-
lief, too, to find that the elder brother
beco,nes angry, for anger is sometimes
! sicsi of awakening life.
/ The more of the merely never" there
! IS in 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 mcchanicalness of Pharisac
/ piety; He Is showing us the lostness of
! living by rule. With the harisee life
I had become round OF ceremonial ohser-
! vanceS and Pharisaism was lost in the
1 abundance OF its rules. Any man is lost
who tries TO be good merely by rule Os
/ course. many OF the great principles OF
/ the Christian religion can be brought
/ down To the compcndious. statement of
| rules. but in these the principle is kept
I in mind. | am speaking nf Pharisaism
as. the system which slavishly learns the
| rules and follows them. Such course
leads inevitably to the wilderness. Ii we
! lose sight OF the spirit and principle. we
must have rule for everything This
! Pharisaism strove for and was lost in It's
own cumbersomeness. Ii the system is
not complete. il there are spheres of con-
duct for which the Pharisee has no r,,lc.
then in those spheres he is apt to feel
free to do his worst.
Living the good lie is the finest of the
| fine arts. Fine art is not Il mechanical oh
servance OF rules-it is an ABSORPTION of
spirit In the religious life it is being
! filled with the spirit: and he who has NOT
the spirit OF life is lost
The lostness of the stcy-at-homc still
! further appears from his unnatural heart.
lessness. Thy SON." These words are
douby hsartless. they repudia:e brother
hood with the returning prodigal and they
reproach the father for not looking upon
such son as his own. Heartlessness al
most inevitably follows mechanicalism.
It Is natural that it should be so. There
! Is no heart in cumbersome set of COM
mandments. Commandments having to deal
simply with doings and not with feelings
| are i'll tie nature of the case wooden and
lifeless. II life be looked upon as some
thing to be fitted into a scheme of com.
mandments. all the fragrance of fine feel
! ing evaporates. This picture Of the elder
brother is the perfect setting forth of the
heartlessness of developed Pharsaism.
The heart.essness came not oat of dciih-
| crate diaboism but ont O. mechanical
legalism. In the end, however, these two
are not far apart.
1t would seem quite the fashion in these
matter of fact days to ridicnle emotion
alism. There is instead kind of emotion
alism that deserves ridicu,e The petv
that consists only in being happy is a poor
! piety. But strike emotionalism ont of re-
ligion and religion is not religion In
! Johns wonderful epistle OF love much is
said about the presence OF God IN the life.
and that presence manifests itself in vari-
Gus forms of feeling. Do YOU love the
the force and power of friendship? 4
part OF the witness OF Gods spirit is to be
found just here, in the Guickening of those
fine feelings of friendship and love which
! seem to come so naturally as we relate
ourselves to one another. Is the feeling
Tor brothers and sisters becoming more
kindly? Is the attitude towards fathers
and mothers and children more affection
ate? is the circle OF loving interest widen
ing? This Is the mark OF the presence OF
God-this and that other feeling like unto
it, the affectionate going forth of the heart
in the cry OF Abba. Father" Remove
smotionalism of this kind and YOU take
the substances out OF life as well as out
Of religion. Life is matter of feeling
All values are realized in feeling. and the
leelingless mortal is an unnatural mon
.trosity. Any system OF religious thought
or practice that makes men feelingiess
S to be condemned. Pharisaism was feel.
ngless; its lostness was set on high be-
lore the gaze OF all the world by its failure
20 feel the greatness of Jesus 1t was as
i the light of the rising sun played upon
lead eyeballs. a feelngless life, These
words seem contradictory. \ feelingless
religion. These words are contradictory
and absurd, as absurd as unseeing seeing
Or unhearing hearing.
Still further. the stay-at-home reveals
his lost condition in his tendency to put
the worst construction possible upon the
life OF his brother. Thy son. which hath
devoured thy living with harlots." The
elder son had no way of knowing this TO
/ Inc true. He Judged that taS must be the
Z truth because it was about the worst thing
/ his brother could do.
! In this word 81 ours we are compelled
to make assumptions. 10 choose between
views either al winch may be correct.
80 far a. the great mass OF things i cor.