Vernon County censor. [volume] (Viroqua, Wis.) 1865-1955, 1904-01-06
now RELIGION ENLARGEs life

OF the finest fruits that hang uHn the
tree of life. "All that man(hath.'
says the Scripture. Twill he ave for
his life" To live. then, is ihe one
supreme prize, beyond all offers
But life has a Kaleidoscope range
of significance. 70 some it has mar
row meaning, to others alarge one.
The life of the savage is Iull and re
stricted as compared witt the life of
the civilized man. with ats expanded
and Frightened aspects. Why do men
strive so strenuously afer wea tn? 1t
is because it gives ney value to life
1t affords them larger scope to test
its possibilities and u get all the good
there Is in it.
What a different meaning life has to
the man of education and taste from
that it has to the ignorant! The latter,
enslaved by the routine of daily toll
and pinched by poverty leads but a
stolld existence little above the brute.
Rather does Burns express his view
Of existence:
o, life, thou art CALLING load,
A long, a rough, q weary road,
10 wretches such as |.
But what exaltations of thought,
what far reaching visions of truth,
what high transports of soul are eX-
perieneed by the person of education,
culture, and refined tastei No wonder,
then. that men prize life. and that they
are ever seeking for larger Iife.
"More of it, a deeper draft If it, let
us taste this cup to the full.' is the
cry on their lips
To this universal human yearni1g
Christianity offers a unique Response.
To the cry of the soul for life 1t al :
swers. Life" st. John tells us: in
him was life, and that life was the
light of men" And this feature diff
ferentiates from all other religions.
Why did the Egyptians embalm
their dead? In a vain attempt TO de-
feat the inevitable corrosion of time,
Yet what a mockery of existence these
sepulchred, mummitied forms! Thepious
Hindoo INDUCES as his highest future
hope th absorption at death into the
nirvana of an impersonal dreamless
sleep. And the noble spirits of the
bodied by the Styx, signing for the
earthly stage they had lost. had but a
feeting shadow of life.
How refreshing, then. like renew
ing breath over the dry bones of the
world of death, these great words of
the Son of Man: Il am come that
they might have life, and that they
might have it more abundantly" That
is, religion is a message of life. This
is its prime feature, its supreme pur-
pose. 1t fulfills this mission in two
ways:
First, by awakening the spiritual
life. The life of man is threefold-an-
imal, intellectual, spiritual. The spir-
itual is that in which exists the divine
image 1t is far the noblest form of
God, of Giscernment of the spiritual
and eternal, of heavenly aims and as
pirations. Yet this uppermost round
of life is just that into which men and
women do not enter until awakened
and lifted up to 1t by religion. And
so marvellous is the change or expert
ence it brings that it can only be de
noted by "a new birth" a being born
again. an opening of the souls vision
to a higher realm of being.
And the second way in which relig-
ion is a message of life is by its revel-
ations of immortality. This new crea-
turen is superior to death The vital
principle, inbreathed by the spirit Of
God, can never die Through the shock
of death it shall he preserved, and
when time shall be no more, and when
at the archangers trump creation shall
he uncreated. undimmed will it shine
on in the armament of eternity.
We see here, then, the great mistake
of many conceptions about religion.
One of the most current of these is
THAI Il letters, narrows, eircumscrlbes
life. People shrink back from religion,
fearing. that it will largely make them
part with life, take its vim, its range,
its felicity from it; whereas precisely
the reverse is true. Christ proclaimed
no fettered, gloomy, aseetse gospel. But
his message was one p qod tidings,
of freedom. of uplifting. I not only
called to life, but to Lara life, to
higher life. TO more exalted -aptures.
Religion denies no rightful pleasure. il
restricts no natural faculty. 1t does
not preach abstinence. but temperance.
1t only adds to he animal and intel
lectual sense of being the spiritual, the
crown and flower of life
A notable illustration of this Morley
gives in his Life of Gladstone" His
religious faith inspired him to high
thought and noble action and gave new
strength and beauty to his fine nature.
There was in the greatest English
scientists of the last century something
lacking. that left them with touch of
and kept them 70 a lower range of
meanness. narrowness, and hardness
and kept them to a lower range Of
manhood than that Of Gladstone"
Religion. then. is 4 message Of life.
and OF larger life. Those who hold
back from it are only debarring them
selves from the noblest actions, the
finest experiences. and the raTest joys.
At the death Of such person, no
matter what may have been his wealth
and mental culture. we may truly say,
He has never lived: be has never be
held the true secret Of life" Religion
but expands the nature OF man. broad
eLs the diameter. and enlarges the