Dakota farmers' leader. (Canton, S.D.) 1890-19??, 1906-10-26
\VEs:sNf 7
FADS AND FAITH.

Ye 1.-THE mint and rue and every
herb, and pass over justice and the love
of God.-Luke IL ~.
The Pharisees are not all dead; re-
ligion still means to many no more
than a multitude of represSiVe reSula-
lions. Its expression is confined to at
titudes and platitudes, to forms and
phrases. It huS becomes n choice hid
ing place for petty hypocrites, while
the doing of trivial or traditional acts
is so emphasized that some are led to
think in all honesty that the doing and
enduring Of these things satisfies every
moral requirement
SO far from the path of piety being
hedged about with restrictions and It's
people burdened with meaningless
loads, it is the way of liberty, the en-
larging life, and the path in which
men lose their burdens, stralghten
their backs, lift their heads, and set
their eyes on truth and freedom. But
minds too indolent to climb, too small
to enter into liberty, have determined
to make religion consist in no more
than the wearing of badges or the bear
Ing of unpleasant ordeals and duties.
Many old it n sin to have springs
on their wagons, buttons on their coats,
or flowers in their hats, while the men
will not wear SuSpenderS. but the
chances are that these same folk often
carry enmity in their hearts, cherlsh
revenge iealouSies, and bitterness;
that the man who will not have springs
on bi- v,a q ppS To shake the
small apples into the bottom of the
barrel just the same.
All such regulations represent the
perennial attempt to substitute rules
for principles, badges for being, ana TO
satisfy the conscience with scrupulosl-
ty as to the gnat while exercising lib
crafty and hospitality to the camel.
Bending every effort to keep he law
in the strictest manner many easily be-
come blind to its spirit and purpose.
The fads of religion are the worst
foes Of true faith. 1t does not tax
the keen and not always kindly critic
long to learn that the man who asserts
his holiness by wearing a hat of a
peculiar shape or a white tie, or even
a badge in his coat lapel, or a text on
his shirt front IS the one whom 1t is
we'll to watch with just a little extra
caution when you are buying his goods
or doing business with him in any
, way.
1t is a poor kind of piety, utterly
insufficient for working purposes, that
can find all the exercise it needs In dis
cussions and jealous guardings Of Gus
toms, in tithing with a microscope, in
decisions on buttons, or even in texts
and phrases of teaching. When that
stunted soul has served these ends it
has no energy left to meet the emer-
gencies Of hfe's temptations or to spend
on ordinary square dealing, kindly liv-
ing, or self-sacritlcing service.
Yet the circumscribed hearts that
invent these fads for their OWL salts
faction are sure to insist on laying
them on others. There would be little
satisfaction In %inventing duties If we
lat to do them ourselves. They tell
US we are traitors to the faith If we
refuse to wear their badges or if we
dare to do the things in which they
find no pleasure. We ourselves need
to beware lest we take our own fads
or appetites and set them up as stand
ards for other souls.
You will notice that it Is the man
with the weak stomach who is most
ready to prove it a sin even to look
with complaisance on a cigar. Many
hearing the stern d%enunciations of
dancing pronounced by people with pet
rified limbs have determined to choose
the so-calied life of sin with its natural
pleasures in preference to the path of
faith with its fad and funereal as
pect.
But faith Goes not consist in fads,
restrictions, denials. Religion is the
souls search after the best, the sub
lection of the lesser to the larger, the
realization of INT the entering upon
relationships with the life spiritual,
with things infinite, eternal and glori-
Gus. 1t is the finding in life a mean
ing deeper than mammon. nobler and
more enduring than all things. It Is
learning to live as a soul, as the Son
of eternity.
COMMENDS WISDOM OF WORLD.
. By Rev. Frank C. Bruner.
Business methods are the only hope
in the management of church affairs.
The old idea to trust God in the relig-
ious world and let the business end
lake care of itself has never succeed
ed. 1t is this thing that has brought
the preacher and church into disre-
pute. The utterance or the Christ that
the children of this world are wiser In
their generation than the children of
light is a truism for all time.
Take many men recently in sacred
things who have been practical, colse-
Grated business men. some of them
Immediately lost their energy and wis
dom when they came into the church
to be good. It is to be deplored that
church management is run IN a loose
scale. Instead of taking the genius
and wisdom found In the world bust
ness man and applying it to the inter
ests Of the church 1t has been the re-
verse.
"Take the closing season of baseball.
These men Of the diamond. played the
greatest ball the world has ever known.
the interest waxing to such an extent
that business is neglected to watch the
struggle. Why Is it these men play
such wonderful ball? 1t Is because the
conservation of all their energies to