Lincoln County leader. [volume] (Toledo, Lincoln County, Or.) 1893-1987, 1906-01-19

same pattern; they expect all heavens
heroes to be as much alike as two
church angels. They have standards
of the ideal religious man by which
they measure all men. Being created
by precisionists their ideals are of the
emasculated, milksop type, possessed
only of negative virtues, the product
of a process that robs man of all
his individuality and leaves him with
as much stamina and character as
pint of boiled water.
The Creator never builds with
bricks, nor ever makes two pieces OF
rock precisely alike. Uniformity is
a human foible. True religion Is not
quarry where the rough rocks are
hewn to one size and shape, still less
Is 1t a brickyard where men are made
pliable as clay before being baked
into rectangular prisms. The ideal
religious man does not lose his per-
sonality. temper, or passions; the
things that mark and distinguish him
are not taken out; they are brought
into holier service. They are not treat
ed as faults to be eradicated. but as
forces to be developed and ennobled.
II some men had had the making of
Elijah they would have shipped and
curried him down until he was as in
nocent Of individuality as a newly
hedged theological student. They
would have trimmed his whiskers and
put white tie on him. They would
have taught him to subdue his voice
and to suppress his vigorous action.
Instead of running before the kings
chariot he would have learned to walk
softly, like an old family cat. And,
by that time, Elijah would have learn
ed better than to throw himself down
under tree In anger To do so would
muss his clothes. Instead, he would
be able to put his hands together, roll
his eyes upward, and quote poems on
resignation.
The mechanical gaugers of religious
character are inexpressibly shocked to
find man who persists In maintain
ing any Of the rugged excrescences Of
his old nature. They cannot under
stand the cowboy who wants I'd whoop
when he feels religious, nor the miner
who can go to meeting In flannel shirt.
nor the doctor who is too busy rellev-
Ing pain to go to church, nor any Of
the men who express their religion so
thoroughly in doing good that they
have no inclination to spend one day
in expressing it by feeling good.
Piety is not process Of robbing
men of personality; it is a power that
takes and develops a man according
to what he naturally is. 1t does not
conventionalize; it converts; it simply
swings all the great forces of the life
into new directions. The forces per-
sist. Whatever was strongest for evil
in the man will now be strongest for
good. So that no two live men are
alike. even religiously.
Religion does not make models: II
makes men. No model ever did any
thing toward making this world. There
are no model men in the Bible they
are all rugged individuals, each going
his own way. The greatest Of them
all was far, indeed, from a model in
the eyes of the standardizers of his
day. Let a man be himself and he
is most likely to please his God; let
him with all his peculiar powers seek
to serve his God and help his fellows.
If he is an Elijah let him not try to
be pretty parlor picture. Better be
faulty man than a flawless model.