The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1903-07-22

gers have toiled lovingly upon them: God
values our dolngs because we are HIS chill
dren. 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 ne
looked upon himself as a servant. The frst
step to*ards recovery was for him to take
himself as a son. The first step out OF the
lostness Of the servant life is to lake 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 transeressed a commandant OF
thine These words are no more accidental
than the others The Master is cutting
c.ose to the essential weaknesses IN the
creed and practice of Pharisaism. The two
weak words here are never" and com
inandment." The elders sons thought OF
service was partly negative, and for tls
rest consisted in keeping commandments.
The pharisee habitually thanked God that
he was not as other men, extortloners,
unjust. adultc-ers, 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 Pharl-
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
iessnesa Of death for the peace that passeth
understanding. Negative piety is often
sheer lifelessness; there is not vitality
strength or spirit enough to make temp
tation possible. How eXasperat!ng it is to
hear a dry. withered soul declaim on the
Iollies of youth, or mind sluggish with
stupidity boast its freedom from doubt!
There is a long-lived heresy to the effect
that the heart of religion is repression.
No longer do this. or that. or the other!
Drive ont the devils, sweep the house, set
the furniture in order, board up the win
dows, lock up the doors and hide the
keys! This as of old. overlooks some
Back they come with others worse than
themselves; or, if they do not come back,
the house stands empty, which is about
as bad: Redemption really means abun-
dant life. The lifeless 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 staid,
lifeless. ploddingness beside which the roll
licking prodigality of the younger brother
lief. too, to find that the elder brother
becomes angry, for anger is sometimes
sign 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 mechanicaness Of Pharisaic
piety; He is showing us the lostness of
living by rule. With the lharisee life
had become round of ceremonial obser-
vances and Pharisaism was lost in the
abundance of its rules. Any man is lost
course. many of the great principles of
the Christian religion can be brought
down to the compendous statement of
rules, but in these the principle is kept
in mind. l am speaking of Pharisaisn
as the system which slavishly learns the
rules and follows them. Such course
leads inevitably to the wilderness. Il we
lose sight of the spirit and principle. We
must have a rule for everything. This
Pharisaism strove fer and was lost in its
own cumbersomeness. If the system is
duet 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, of the
fine arts. Fine art is not mechanical OBJ.
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 stay-at-home still
further appears from his unnatural heart
lessness. "Ihy SON." These words are
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 80. 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 scheme of com
mandments. all the fragrance of>fne feel
ing evaporates. This picture of the elder
brother is the perfect setting forth of the
The heartlessness came not out OF delhi.
crate diabolism, but out of mechanical
legalism. In the end, however, these two
are not far apart.
In this world of ours we are compelled
TO make assumptions, to choose between
views either of which may be correct.
So far as the great mass of things is con-
cerned. there is no way of getting absolute
proof beforehand. We must assume and
see. Now, concerning men and things,
good assumptions and bad assumptions are
possible; but as matter of general atti-
tude of mind and heart toward things only
one way is safe. That is, to put the very
best possible construction on the lives OF
men and the working Of things. This. IN
word, is Christian faith. Christian
faith does not start by proving things.
It assumes the best. If a man is actually
bad it looks hopefully. toward the better
| manhood which is, in almost every case,
a possibility. Jesus called Judas "friend," !"
and accepted his kiss even on the night
Of his betrayal. Christian faith looks out
upon the working of the entire universe
and assumes that they are righteous. In
| that trust is found peace.
Suppose, one were to assume IN dealing
with men that all men are liars; 1t can
not be proved beforehand that all men are
not liars or even that any one man is
absolutely truthful; but how hopelessly
lost in his dealings with men would be
the one who should start with the assump-
tion that all men are liars! The safe
rath in the long run is the assumption
that there is good in all men and that the
good can be reached and made. better.
In particular cases this NAV fail. but 1t IS
in general the only Christian view. He
who. like the elder brother, holds to the
idea that the returning prodigal is hope:
lessly and irretrievab;v lost, s himself
wandering in the wilderness far from
safety.
Lastly, the lostness of the stay-at-home
apnears from his thought of reward.
Thou never gayest me kid" The elder
brother seems to have been serving with
the thought of material pay. He was
doing the work for what he could get out
of it. His thought of reward moves along