The Penn's Grove record., 1906-03-30
THE PULPIT.
A SCHOLARLY SUNDAY SERMON BY
THE REV. L. L. TAYLOR.
Subject: "square Deal in Religion"

Brooklyn, N. Y.-As the subject OF
his sermon Sunday the Rev. Livingston
L. Taylor, pastor Of the Puritan Con-
gregational Church, spoke on "The
Square Deal in Religion" He took
two texts: Proverbs xii. %: ''They that
deal truly are His delight" and Psalm
XIII: "The righteous Lord loveth right
eousness." Mr.. Taylor said:
The kingdom of heaven is a square
deal on earth. From the night visions
of he shepherds to the day dreams Of
st. John it is peace and good will on
earth, among men, which the hosts of
God are seen bestirring themselves to
promote. And He who came from
heaven lived brother to all men, that
they might ever after dwell as breth-
ten here. But there can be no kingdom
of brotherly men on earth with any
other throne set up than that of a faith
erly God in heaven. The square deal
has its vertical lines as well as its hOri-
ZOntal. The horizon never limited
Christ's vision. He lived for the day
when men would treat God right. In
that day no man will have anything
to fear from any other man. The
thinking world is coming around more
and more to Christ's estimate of relig-
ion as the power that must set things
right among men. But in His day and
in ours the problem of the square deal
involves religion itself. 1t has always
been hard to get a square deal for re-
ligion. 1t has always been hard to
maintain a square deal in presenting
the claims of religion. 1t has always
been hard to keep a square deal at the
heart of religion. These things should
be borne in mind by US all as we enter
upon the special religious activities and
privileges of the Lenten season.
The square deal in religion involves
a square deal for religion. And this in
turn involves two things: first, a fair
minded attitude toward religious phe-
nomena, institutions, doctrines and per-
sons, and second, a determination to
deal fairly with our own religious ma
ture, a determination to give the soul a
square deal.
Men deal more fairly with the fact
of religion than they used to. They
are settling down to the conclusion that
the race is "incorrigibly religious"
They are beginning to understand that
the worlds history could not have been
what it has been if men had no capac-
ity and need for religion. Religion
must be recognized as a legitimate hui
man interest unless we want to throw
out of court the most persistent of all
classes Of facts. Religion must be rec
ognized as n of the great human in
terests if we are to maintain any sort
of proportion in Jul view of human life
as a whole. Religion must be recog-
nized as the supreme human interest if
we would be consistent with any rea-
sonable definition of religion. If relig-
ion is an affair of the soul in its rela-
tons with the infinite nothing short of
this is reasonable or right. We should
expect to see men, as we do, striving
to make religion supreme, not content
with anything short of the religious in
depreciation Of the universe and of hui
man life, determined to have some sort
of religious system, spending and being
spent in the service of religious tnstitu-
lions, their churches, their missions.
We should deal as fairly with these
facts as we do with the facts which
convince us chat it is natural for men
to have music, that it is natural for
men to express themselves and to find
pleasure in the varied forms of art,
that it is natural for men to concern
themselves with the right and wrong
of things and of their w lives.
But fair dealing with the fact of re-
ligion requires that we should recog-
nize the limitations and the inevitable
imperfection of all the forms in which
the religious aspirations Of men find
nvnraCcinn II 60 nOthinR RI fhn dis
credit Of religion If our best efforts to
embody it fall short Of those visions of
its glory with which u souls are
blessed. 1t is nc less a treasure be-
cause we have it in earthen vessels.
Religious systems are confessedly i'm
perfect. Religious persons are full of
faults. : But they exist. They are
facts. And they are as good evidence
Of mans religious nature as they are
of the imperfectiono of all things human.
But how about our own religious ma
ture, yours and mine? Have we been
treating it fairly? In 1876 George Ro-
names, a brilliant young British scien-
fist, came to the conclusion that he
had no right to a soul or a God, and
that it was his "obvious duty to stife
all BELIEF and to discipline his intel
lect with regard to this matter into an
attitude of the purest skepticism." Il
am not ashamed to confess" he wrote
at the time, that with this virtual ne
cation of God the universe to me has
lost its soul of loneliness" And h. was
oppressed by 'the appalling contrast
between the hallowed glory of that
creed which was once mine, and the
lonely mystery of existence as l now
find it." A little less than twenty
years later George Romanes became
convinced that in seeking to deal IN
finchingly with the facts of physical
science he had ignored the most signif-
cant Of all facts, the most directly
known, the most completely attested OF
all facts, the facts of his own religious
nature. He came to recognize that it
is reasonable to be q Christian believ-
err" Before his untimely death he had
returned ito that full, deliberate COM
munion with the church of Jesus Christ
which he had for so many years been
conscientiously compelled to forego."
In the multitude of his thoughts with
in him he had secured a square deal
for his soul.
Our difficulties may not be his, but
we have them. The things which
make it hard for us to secure our souls
their chance may be very different
from the things which made it hard
for him. Scientific men of to-day have
less to make them feel as the seeming
ly triumphant materials of the sew
enties made young Romanes feel about
having a God and a soul. But u diff
culties may be of another class entire
~. Perhaps they are far less credit
able to our intellectual sincerity, less
creditable to our moral purpose, evil
inclinations and the multiplied oppor-
tunities for gratifying them that make
it hard for their souls to get fair hear
ing. 1.-THE lust of the flesh, the lust of
the eye and the pride of life are not of
the Father" John tells Is. But some
thing more is true. They out-Herod
Herod in their conspiracy against what
is ~heaven-born in us. They are not
only mot of the Father" but they are
the deadly foes of all that is of the
Father. Happy are the souls in which
the fight into Egypt comes out as it
does in Matthews Gospel of the In