Lincoln County leader. [volume] (Toledo, Lincoln County, Or.) 1893-1987, 1905-10-13
THE SIGN OF A SAINT.
BY Rev. r. n. HaIIeck.


BY Rev. r. ~. HaIreck.
"By this shall all men know that you
are my disciples if you have love one
to another."-John 13: 35.
1t seems as If 1t would be a good
thing If every man bore some sign or
mark which accurately indicated lis
true character, If the sheep and the
wolves wore their right clothing in this
world as well as In another.
At present attempts to label by but
tons, badges, neckties, or even by IA
cial contortions, must be counted as
unreliable, subject to counterfeiting
Generalizations based on ecclesiastical
classifcations may seem to hold good
on Sunday; but they break down under
the test of commerce and there seems
to be a prospect Of their being entirely
disarranged at the time when their de-
pendents expect most of them.
There is a means of classification
and Identification, however, as simple
as it is reliable and permanent. The
great teacher saw his first followers
looking around for labels; they wanted
gown or hood, button or charm,
password or holy groan. He gave
them a sign that all could obtain, that
none could initiate, and that no one
could steal from them. Living, work
ing love is the label of the Christian.
This is the proof Of better life, the
evidence of a power that makes the
man anew. The moment even the
basest character really begins to love,
1t begins to lift itself toward the best.
You cannot love, in the sense Of sac
rif1cing, helping, serving others without
coming into uplifting relationship with
the most high. Loves deeds prove to
all the presence Of love.
This is the only orthodoxy. Surely
the standard of the master is enough
Somewhere there are penalties re-
served for those who set up other
standards, who insist on shibboleths Of
credal statements, or on intellectual
gymnastics Of doctrinal assent, who
erect barriers to keep from their up
ward way any hearts that are turning
to the good No other test does Jesus
give than this-that men love one an
other.
This is the true worship. Church
meetings are but means Of suggesting
ways of doing this, Of stimulating our
otherwise selfish hearts to their service
Of love. That only is religious ser
vice which leads men to sacrifice, to
serve one another. There is more wor-
ship in giving pure milk to slum babies
than there is in sitting Sunday after
Sunday drinking in, like a sponge, the
sincere milk Of the word, or the honey
Of the choir.
This Is the true work Of the church.
not to love itself, but to love the other
fellows; not to build fine churches and
make soft cushions for its own, but to
make all these things and to make
them nobly for the halt and the sad
and the lonely. Not only to knit red
socks for Hottentots, but so sincerely,
unaffectedly, actually to love your CIV
ilized neighbor on the street or the
alley as to knit him to you by bonds
that cannot be broken.
This is the secret Of every religious,
philanthropic, educative movement
that has accomplished any good, that it
won men because it was not afraid to
spend life and shed blood for them.
No life was builded, no reform accom-
plished. no great work of any kind was
ever done without the shedding Of
great drops Of sweat and blood; and
this, this giving up Of life, whether in
one supreme act or in many little daily
deeds, is the act Of love and the badge
OF Christian.