Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1906-07-13

o+io codIte VI safety WAS MS UdIIy COL
| sideration of the commands of God
| Those commands charged him to be
! upright, to be pure, to do his duty
| faithfully even to heather master,
to use his life in the service Of others.
All sorts Of sights pass before our
windows; society, pleasure, business,
study, tol--but little that is of God
Life seems to open in every direction
except toward the Holy City Few of
us probably open our windows as regu-
larry as did Daniel to the influence of
God. If we did we should find that
like sunshine, peace and strength and
aspiration and courage would flow in
upon our souls.
| Let us keep our hearts and minds
always open to the best influences from
God, from nature and from good men.
THE LARGER LIFE OF RELIGION.
By Henry F. Cope.
Il am come that they might have life
and that they might have it more abuD-
dainty. John 10: 10.
Religion is more than restriction,
more than a weary round of negations,
a heavy load of commandments con
corning things to be avoided. No won,
der the youth turns with dread from
the church which prescribes his doings
| by q chalk line drawn by those in whom
the fires have all died or who may
never have known the glow of youth.
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with us and we will show you how to
empty your life of all the things
you would like to have in it,
Such church is praying, "Oh,
| to be nothing, nothing" and is
getting its prayers pretty thoroughly
answered. The religion that has for its
precepts only so many Thou shalt nots,
for duties only so many Must nots for
| privileges only SO much giving up and
going without, can end only i'll death.
A living religion cries out for more
| life, not less; less life leads at last to
| the grave.
| 1t is no use fighting for faith out,
worn; it is no use fighting for any kind
of faith that can be worn at all. For
| faith is not garment. So long as We
| think of it as such ii will be but a
rait-jacket, something to crush the
| life. Such a religion makes the Sum-
day prison, the church charnel.
The worth while, the heaven born re-
ligion we may know not by the multi
tude of it's restrictions, not by the bur-
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| billions or even it's definitions but by
| it's invitations. the blessings II confers.
| the multitude of it's means of enlargins
| life In itself it is ever a life; it leads
| to larger life. Religion means not to
| live less: it is not a cramping of the
! life within certain rules, but crowding
out of the life; it is like the growing
| tree that pushes up the earth and
breaks up the wall into which it grows
There will always be upheavals revolU-
tons in religion, because it is always
growing.
Religion calls for room, more room,
| room to realize the best and hottest
possibilities of life, room to climb ur
and look out on life, room to serve our
fellows and lift them to larger living
room to be made by the sweeping away
of old limitations, ancient preiudices,
hoary wrongs. And because it is vital
not formal, it demands an ever larger
place in our lives.
Do not think, my friend, that you are
pious because you succeed in stripping
your life Of all beauty, in cutting off ALI
pleasure. Nothing may be more Grim
inal than thus to shrink your soul, te
crush yourself beneath burdens Of mega
tons and prohibitions. Instead of bind
ing your feet, as some do, you are
binding your heart; you will go lame
in the land where hearts rule The
Almighty can best be served with the
best life, not with less but with more
Sin is not so much in doing the things
you ought not to do as it is in missing
the gloriou7 thing you ought to be; II
is missing the mark of Gods glorious
purpose and plan for your life. Holt
ness is not so much in abstinence from
evil as in perfect realization of the
good The way to keep from sin is moi
so much by the study of the dictionary
of don'ts as by entering into the good
the worthy letting out your life tc
larger, higher things, by entering into
the things that are true, honest, just
pure, lovely and of good report. Right
eousness is positive not negative
There is more righteousness in bad
man than there is in a f1awless statue
The Pharisee's plan was to save the
world by showing it the unending list
of things it must not do; Jesus plan
is to show it all the things it may be
Their way was by law, his by life
It is a good deal easier to be Pharisee
than to be a Christ, especially when
the Pharisee makes 1t his business tC
regulate others and not himself. But
it is a good deal happier, healthier.
boiler if you will let the little petrified
souls go on wagging their heads over
the catalogue of don'ts and denials
while you enter into larger soul and