Daily capital journal. (Salem, Oregon) 1903-1919, 1905-03-21
RELIGIOUS
THOUGHT
From our ExchanRes.

that this "peaee of Justice, - quick to
avenge insults, which makes a strong
nation at once the judge and jury and
executioner in its own suit, and spends
more on the machinery of military
force than on all measures for which
Christmas day is set to remind us.
Jesus method, his spirit, his teaching,
are. utterly different. The Christmas
peace is the peace of the men of good
will. The method is trust; the spirit is
humanity Good will carries Justice
with it.
1t is important to make this distinc-
tion. Millions of people do not see
how great it is. They still worship
force. They confuse the simple life Of
the Man of Nazareth with external
power and material pomp. They look
back and worship a sort of war-lord,
coming in the skies to punish his enc
mics. They have not yet learned that
good will is the mightiest force in the
universe. They have yet to trust this
new force and to apply it to every kind
of problem. They had better not rev.
erence Jesus at all, if they miss the
kernel of his teaching. Do they imag-
inc that if he were addressing the
American people, he would bid them
build more fighting ships. Charles F.
Done, The Christian Register.
In the effort to attain theological
sanity religious teachers have often
passed in-o the cold real of q barren in
tellectualism. The inference is per
haps natural that liberal theology i'm
plies decay of spiritual passion; but
there is nothing in the nature of things
to make this disaster inevitable. The
whole question is largely one of EN-
phasis. | cannot admit that it is nee
essary to close one s to all the splendid
and reverent work of our greatest Bib
lical critics in order to retain vision
of the cross of Christ. There may be
two Isaiahs or twenty; what has that
to do with me, so long as | have the
profound spiritual message contained
in the book which bears the name OF
Isaiah9 l am Indifferent as to whether
Bacon or Shakespeare wrote Hamlet
so long as | have Hamlet; and who
would insist that a certain critical view
of the authorship of Hamlet is impera,
tive before one could be allowed to ex
pound the teachings of the dramaS Th'
critic does his work, well or i'll as the
case may be; I may accept or rejec
his views, but the message of the bool
is still mine.-Rev. J. w. Dawson, TIL,
Congregationalist.
The greatest object to religious
achievement today is not the deplor
able apathy-that can be overcome by
genuine religious enthusiasm; MOI
higher criticism-that can be correct
ed by the truth of the Bible; nor the
growing spirit of wordliness-the spirit
of the master is more than a match foi
that, but the atrabilious jeremaids anC
the disconcerting lamentations of dole
ful Christians without the heart ol
hope, without faith or force!-E. NJ
Martinson, The Standard.
Is the "Religion Of an Educated
Man" a peculiar brand of salvation
for collegiansl Can the Religion Of
Mature Man" improve upon the
sweet simplicity and childlike faith
taught in the gospelsi Is there a new
edition of the gospel since Jesus said
Except ye-be converted, and become
as little children, We shall not enter in
TO the kingdom of heavenF'-Pacifc
Christian Advocate.
The richest gifts of God are of a
spiritual character, and have come
through Christ, and they draw from us
the highest expression of our gratitude
in the words of our lips, the excellence
of our lives, and the graciousness of
our deeds.-The Waterman.