Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-08-19
RELIGIOUS NOTES
AND COMMENT

Rev. d. n. Symonds Anglican, of Mon
treal, Canada. in a sermon published re-
Gently In the Homfletic Review, has this
to say about the future Of religion, which
he thinks is moving toward spirituality:
The religion Of the future, because 1t
Will be the religion Of the spirit, will
seek more earnestly and more thoroughly
than has ever been done before to embody
itself in act and deed. They that worship
God must worship him in spirit and in
reality; must translate spirit into visible
good, Just as you translate thought into
spoken or written word. Neither the re-
ligion of cultus nor the religion of dogma
Is Of necessity moral. Morality may be,
and. we may most thankfully admit, has
been, superadded to them, but morality
Is not of their essence. But morality, be-
ing conformity to the laws of mans re-
lationship to God, his fellow-man and
himself. must be of the very essence Of
the religion of the spirit.
The religion of the spirit will seek
most earnestly to establish right rela-
tons between men. 1t will not rest salts
fled with merely negative morality. Thou
shalt not steal Thou shalt not lie,'
Thou shalt not commit adultery. But 1t
will seek after positive Justice, positive
mercy. 1t will be altruistic. 1t will refuse
to be happy while any part Of the social
organism is compelled to live In insanl-
tary conditions, is condemned to a life of
CSdSeleSS SiiHuInS toIl, mas no NOCdllOHS
that are wholesome and elevating.
THE prime virtue of the religion OF
cultus is conformity.
The prime virtue of the religion of
dogma is assent
But the prime virtue of the religion Of
the spirit is love.
I'VE shall call no man atheist who loves
his fellow-man. But no matter what he
processes to be, we shall regard him as
atheist who does not love his fellow
For he that loveth not his brother man
whom he hath seen. how can he love God
whom he hath not SEEM The religion of
the spirit will greatly prefer Charles
Darwin to Charles II.
The religion of the spirit will bring to
and theology. Theology will frankly adj
NIT that science has earnestly and purely
sought after truth and endeavored to
translate truth into action But all truth
is of God. Science in it's reverence for
law, in it's faith that this is an Ineligible
universe. is truly and deeply religious. 1t
is the ally, not the enemy, of the religion
of spirit and truth.
THE religion of the spirit will bring to
an end divisions of Christendom. We shall
see that variety of worship and of thought
is consistent with the unity of the spirit
Truly 1t will perceive that all variety that
springs out of an honest and sincere
mind and heart enrches religion. adds to
it's strength and it's beauty. just as the
one energy of the universe unfolds and
manifests itself in endless forms OF
trancing beauty.
Two principles will underlie this new
unity, this transformed catholic church.
The principle of liberty. which will give
variety, richness and beauty-the CEN
trifugal force of the spiritual world; and
the spirit of love. which will bind togeth-
into one communion and Fellowship all
the varieties of worshipers and believers.
Love is the centripetal force of the spirit
ual world.
And in this religion OF the spirit, what
is to be the place of worship and doc
trine?
worship! What is it? Is it the grovel-
ing of man before deity who longs for
flattery? Is it the attempt to bride
deity with forms and ceremonies? The
prophets Isaiah and Micah answered that
question long since.
Shall we not say that 1t is the going
out of the infinite part of ourselves in
alteration and love to the infinite source
of all things? Shall we not seek by wor-
ship to be purified from low thinking. and
to be inspired to high thinking? Shall we
not hope to gain from it an infinite desire
to be holy desires and longings which
shall be translated into deeds on every
day of the week? Perchance to those
worshiping thus in spirit there shall be
revealed as once many hundreds of years
ago there was revealed to a youth, stu
dent, the Lord, high and mighty, sitting
upon his throne. and they shall hear, as
he heard. the seraphim crying, Holy. holy.
holy is the Lord of hosts, the fulness Of
the whole earth is the glory of Jehovah!
And out of that vision may there come, as
there came to Isaiah, the call to live for
infinite ends-to do the will of God among
men on earth. Worship is no worship that
does not lead to action.
and doctrine? Doctrine will continue
just as worship will continue; only 1t will
not be dogma, opinions to which men are
compelled to assent, whether they under
stand them or not. Doctrine is the pre-
sentation Of what the thinker, the stu
dent, the teacher, believes to be true; and
believing It to be true and beautiful, will
yet only ask men to accept so far as they
themselves perceive 1t to be true and
beautiful We shall no more seek to COM
pei men to be orthodox than we now COM
pei them to worship in this or that way.
or than we seek to compel man to love
his nelghbor as himself
christianity may have long to live in
human society before 1t attains to Its
ideal; but we are not therefore to de-
spair. This religion of spirit and of truth,
which l have SO inadequately sought to
set forth, Is already in the world. There
Is no reason why we should be despond-
ent or pessimistic. Optimism is to some
extent no doubt a matter Of tempera-
ment. Yet I think the optimist can give
good reason for the hope and faith that
are in him-the faith that we are living
In a truth-loving and liberty-loving age.
And truth and liberty are Of the essence
of that God who Is spirit. Looking back
twenty-five years it is not difficult to de-
tect growing reverence for the re-
ligious side of human experience, so that
the beautiful aspiration of one Of the poet
prophets OF the 10th century is even now
being fulfilled:
Let knowledge grow from more to more,
But more of reverence in us dwell,
That mind and heart. according well,
May make one music as before
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