The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1905-12-10
"A Sermon for Today
The Essence Of Real Religion =
HENRY F. COPE.

What doth the Lord require Of thee but to do
justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly
with thy God?-Micah vi, s.
~HERE must be some good reason
for the fact that many men feel
II chagrined IL they are charged
with being religious. Often these men
possess the keenest sense of right and
make the strongest insistence on reality.
The truth is that they object to the I'M
reality of that which they have learned
to call religion; often their protests
against spurious types Of religion are
but declarations of the true kind.
Every honest hearted man turns with
loathing from the cant, meanness, and
selfshness that wear the guise. of piety.
Tt has led the world to think that a
religious man is the one who goes to
church, uses certain phrases, and gen
orally cuts the cloth Of his life to the
pattern prescribed by the clergy. Thus
easily the good is made to serve the bad
It is blessing that there always have
been men who repudiated that kind of
piety. But to the true man religion is
simply the effort to find the right life.
He is most religious who lives best.
Faiths must be judged by their: fruits;
a mans religion and his righteousness
by his living. That is the best religion
which best teaches men to live. If any
book beside the Bible can do more for
Jus, If any faith beside Christianity can
give the world a nobler life, let us find
and follow it.
To the question, what is religion? the
Bible gives a surprisingly simple an
swer. Instead of minute rules it gives
broad principles; it lifts aloft noble
ideals and denounces, baseness. It
breathes of righteousness, that is, right
thoughts, words, deeds, relations. It
is the text book on the fine art Of Gv-
ing. All other thoughts and teachings
but serve this and have value only on
| account of their service.
| Every man~is religious in proportion
as he seeks the right. Every act is
holy, an act Of worship, as it serves
the good and the true. You can no more
con6ne religion to church than you
can. imprison knowledge in a school
room. It belongs on the street, in the
home, the office, the shop, wherever men
are seeking to do right and make life
right. Many man is religious who
would. resent the imputation Of piety
Right seeking and right doing II
justice and mercy-these make the life
of righteousness. There never has beer
and there never will be any real diff
ference Of opinion as to these virtues
He who is ashamed Of them has no place
amongst men; he who neither seeks
them nor endeavors to- realize them i
not religious, no matter what his pro
fessions and protestations may be. Ant
the man who seeks them with all hi
heart is religious whatever he or other
may think. &5s
| The time will come when we shall
brand as heretical and impious ever,
mockery in forms and words and pro
scriptions that have so long paraded a
the true and only expression of godli
ness. Then the test Of a man s religion
will be the measure in which his lif
makes for justice, mercy and humility
Then, instead of asking, What doe
$ ecclesiastical etiquet require me to do
we shall inquire, What is right, noblest
best for man in a world Of meng
This makes the religious man, ther
that he seeks the life that deals justly
that walks uprightly, that loves mercy
that does good and serves and blesse
men, that seeks not high things for re
ward but seeks them in character. Thi
makes the religious man whether he b
in sympathy with existing religious il
stitutions or not; these virtues have n
substitutes, neither names, ceremonies
nor creeds can take their place.
But when once the life has entere
on the passionate search for rightnes
when once the love Of justice, mercy an
humility has laid hold on us, there wi
, be little time or energy to give to foo
ish problems of angels or history, the1
; will be no care whether men think W
are religious or not. We shall come t
see that our desire in living is the d,
t sire Of the Lord Of all life, that OF
$ goal is divine and glorious one, an
S nothing will turn us from it. Abov
7 all will be sense Of harmony with til
, Infinite, too deep for words, too sacre
3 for expression.