Orange County observer. [volume] (Hillsborough, N.C.) 1880-1918, 1904-03-03

that we are here TO enlarge. md that we
are eniarging, that section OF knowledge.
l have said that whatever religious ex-
clusiveness is found it is accompanied by
some kind of authority purporting to guar
antee the permanency and integrity of it's
faith. The creed has been changed from
It's original meaning-s'credo, / believe
to an imperative thou shalt believe"
From being simple statement Of an indi-
vidual faith it has become a formal state
who would be saved must subscribe. No
latitude is allowed for individual inter-
pretations or for the growth of religious
and Theological conceptions The aim is
simply to lay down body of dogma that
embodies final truth, and confession to
which the whole world must subscribe re-
gardless of Individual reason and unaf-
tected by the growth of knowledge and
moral consciousness. The attempt has al
ways failed. There is no creed that holds
the same meaning for us to-day which it
held for mankind a century ago. If it 10
not now actually changed in form, as in
| the case of notable number, it is changed
in content to the minds of its adherents.
Ii we are but willing to open our eyes we
shall find that there are hundreds of means
of salvation, and each method breeds a
| sect But what does the method signify
beside the tremendous ultimate fact that
all the world is looking for salvation
Here is the universal and permanent thing.
| In some way the truth has percolated
| through every mind that we are put into
| this world in order to grow. We are not
universally interested in speculations about
Nlrvana, or about atonements, or about
! the survival of the fttest," nor in the
| discussion as to the proper aim, whether
for happiness or virtue. Perhaps every
| one is interested in one or another of
these means to the end, but we are all in
| terested In the outcome-salvation for the
| human race. 1t is a universal longing. It
| is one Of the permanent things of religion.
Then mankind has been universally in
terested in another thing-the incarnation
| Ever since man became man and learned
| to which he was bound, he has thought of
this power as in some way entering into
and becoming the guiding power of some
| object of the visible world. At first it
was a mere stick or stone, a tree or river
or wild beast that was the chosen dwelling
place Of deity. Then in good time the feel
ing grew. that none but man, would make a
suitable habitation for the Creator: SO we
hear of the Greek heroes. descendants of
the gods," Of Druidic and Delphic oracles
and Of prophets in all lands whose speech
| was controlled in an especial way by Deity.
! We hear of perfect incarnation of Deity
| in Buddha, born of virgin, with his di-
rious kinds, and teaching that there are
many incarnations similar to his own;
| that whenever the. world has advanced to
a condition in which its needs are different
from the old, God incarnates Himself in a
mortal who thereupon becomes a great
leader and prophet Our minds, of course,
now revert to another incarnation, that of
God in Jesus, who also taught that there
are many incarnations; who prayed that
His disciples might be one with God as He
Himself was one with Him. And again we
see the tendency of men to obscure the
l. l~~&
truth which has most obviously appealed
| to men is the incarnation of God in a sin
gle man, or, formerly, in class of men,
as prophets or priests. The truth of that
endures, and that has been pointed out
by Jesus and all the greatest leaders Of
men is that of perpetual and universal in
carnation. God has breathed the breath Of
life and has lit the spark of divinity in
mankind, for we are His children, made in
His moral image, inheritors of His divinity
because we are natural sons and heirs.
This is the tremendous fact toward which
the world is cropping. It explains the now
proven fact that mankind's trend is up
ward rather than downward. It gives us
the courage for going on, for keeping up
the struggle when to our restricted view
the obstacles seem insuperable. It COM
pels lis to believe that this world is found
ed upon good, that the good is fastening
destruction. If Gods in His heaven"
Gods in His world as well, the guarantor
OF its fundamental integrity, the inspirer
of every good thing in the heart of man.
Do you not see how intimately connected
are the two ideas, the incarnation of God
and the divinity of man? Both ideas are
everywhere recurrent in the theologes Of
the world, though their particular express
sion in one faith is utterly different from
that in another, and it is the difference in
the isolated expressions of the truth that
keeps men apart. The permanent thing,
the larger truth must wait upon our fur
before it can bring us together. We are
learning, it is true. The existence of an
unwonted spirit of liberation and unity in
religion, the modern armation Of the
universally of spirit shows that we are
catching some glimpses of the larger truth
that lies behind our incarnations and
atonements, our theophanies and oracles,
our Buddhas and Jesus of past time. II
we had heard the real message of Jesus and
the prophets and poets we should long ago
have discovered this truth. To be a man
is to be descendant of God, to be a de-
; incarnation, the inheritor of His divinity; !;
this is the larger permanent truth, one
which is prepared for by every religion
) that the world has ever known.
. After having agreed that to do right is
the end OF conduct, can we not take each
| JULIET Dy%tuc uduO III C1C fellowship Oh C0dC
profession, even though we may differ as
to the adoption of means to that end? II
5 we all recognize the fact that the salvation
; of humanity is the permanent object of all
| religious effort, then our various methods
of attaining salvation will soon take their
J proper places as subordinate elements of
: faith and variable according as the needs
OF men vary. The creed then will be not
a Shibboleth by which to save one and to
, exclude another, but a covenant of kindred
1 minds bent upon common object and
drawn together by the natural sympathy
OF similar beliefs. Religion will be ne
longer made up of religions-some false,
some true-but will be recognized as fun
damentally a unit wherever man has lifted
l up his head and called on the power that
: is above him. Welsh see that the essen.
tial elements of religion are not the differ
ences that divide, they are the permanent
| and fundamental things upon which all
forms of religion are founded, and which
if we but let them, will unite r1en in the
t sympathy of common aspirations and III
/ spirations.
The Alloy of Self.
Achievement fused with self is too brittle
: to stand the test of time. The secret OF
: the success of one who had accomplished
: much in many fields was well expressed
!. when it was said that he had learned to