The Birmingham age-herald., 1906-06-18
EXCELLENCE THE
 RELIGIOUS TEST Religion of Reasonable Beings
 Must be Reasonable SERMON BY QUINCY EWING Many Popular Religious Traditions, Opinions and Practices Seen In the Best Light of Knowledge,
 Are Out of Place.
SERMON BY QUINCY EWING

The Rev Quincy Ewing preached yes-
 terday at the Church of the Advent on the subject 'iNo Religious Test But Excel
 lence." His text was;
 And this I pray that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and all judgment: that ye may approve
 things that are excellent Philip 1. 9 and Peter 10 V.
 He said:
 Every appeal that can possibly be made | to humanity in the name and behalf of Christianity Is contained essentially in
 this prayer of the great apostle. Every
 reason we can possibly give to any man why he should be religious rather than ir- | religious, or Christian in fadth rather than Mohammedan, Buddist. Confucian, is inn I piled in these words of St. Paul sent to
 the Philippians.
 | For to be religious, to be a Christian,
 means fundamentally what? Why, just
 this: Lovingly to abound more and more
 in knowledge and in all judgment, in
 order to approve what is excellent. We | may define what it Is to be religious in
 other and more words than these, but
 whatever words we employed in our defin- l ition, we should be saying just what was | said by the apostle when he prayed for 1 the Philippians that their love might 1 abound more and more in knowledge and
 all judgment; that they might approve, l might distinguish and give their prefer ence to, things that are excellent" But of course this statement Is true to us only if we look upon religion as reality in human life which must be
 reasonable, in order to commend itself to l reasonable beings It may seem grossly
 untrue, if we think of religion as some
 thing outside reasons domain-of its as- sumptions, it's demands, its obligations as things that need not. and some times 1 do not commend themselves to the req soning mind. In this understanding of it, | religion might make a thousand claims 1 upon us and prescribe a thousand obliga- | tions, that have nothing whatever to do l with abounding in knowledge and judg-
 ment with approving things that are ex-
 cellent I might then be told by some-
 body claiming authority over me as a religious teacher to believe this thing or
 
 I further than that I ought to believe 1t
 because it is religious 1t might seem to i me, if I reasoned about 1t, a very un- necessary thing to believe, perhaps a
 very foolish absurd thing-perhaps an inn moral thing. I might think--df 1 allowed
 myself to think-that, left to myself, with
 out any authoritative religious teacher, 1 I could have worked out something far | more excellent, in much better accord l with sound knowledge and good judg-
 ment, than this belief he tells me to
 hold
 But having consented that 1t is a part
 of my religious duty not to reason about
 religion, I must smother down any i'm | pertinent protest of heart, mind, consci-
 ence; and l must not expect either to | be able to go to my teacher and learn
 from him why l should believe what he | tells me; for he could not undertake to tell me why save in the language of req
 son, and that would not only be setting
 me a bad example but sanctioning a
 principle which might lead to doubt of
 his own authority. If religion is not nec-
 essardly reasonable, then it is certainly dangerous, and possibly sinful to reason
 about it. To be safe. I must paddock my
 brain, and hand up the key to my priest
 or preacher. In his hands, it will not tempt mo to use 1t to my undolng. l l may be told, for instance, by my re- | ligious teachers that all the millions of
 the human race were put under condemn 1 aton to everlasting death by the AL | mighty and the All-loving, because Adam | to whom had not been given the knowl- | edge of good and evil, ate the fruit of a particular tree; or that old-time Jewish | prophets raised the dead, made water 1 heavier than iron and something out | of nothing; or that all the hosts of | heathendom are this moment moving
 straight to inevitable perdition, because l they don't know about the doctrine of l the Atonement and can't avail themselves | of it; or that the great majority of man.
 kind at any rate a very big majority. are born predestned to damnation, so I that as I look into the faces of my fel- l lowmen, on the street, dn the home or the
 church, I must deem 1t probable that some 1 of them, possibly most of them, were
 so boTnl
 Do Not Stand Test. l Now things like these. if I reasoned about them, could hardly stand the test l of excellence; could hardly commend 1 themselves to sound knowledge and wise I Judgment. If I approve them, 1t must be l not because they are excellent, but be- cause they are said by somebody to be religious"
 | So we may be told to do certain things, | or to leave certain others undone; and | we may not be able to make out at all l how the doing of the former, how the not doing of the latter, can be brought into accord with the prayer of the apostle Nevertheless, the lines of conduct marked l out for us must be followed. We must, if | told to. swing incense. or sprinkle with holy water, or bow to altars and i'm | ages, or fondle the relics of saints and l our sins; and we must not eat meat on l Fridays, or attend any theatre. or take l part in any dance Whether these obli- I gatlons imposed are reasonable or not I whether they could be called excellent or | not, we are forbidden to inquire hay ! ing once given assent to the proposition, | that there Is no necessary connection be- tween the reasonable and the religious. I Follow out that proposition consistently, | and there is no conceivable thing too l absurd too wanting in excellence. to be | religious; and the apostolic ideal of 1 abounding more and more in knowledge | and all judgment, in order to approve ex- cellence, is one that we could not at all undertake to realize.
 But reverse the proposition; assume that 1 the sphere of reason and the sphere of religion are not two but one; let religion be what 1t ought to be, the highest, deep est, widest. completest expression of the l.. Al no snd