Orange County observer. [volume] (Hillsborough, N.C.) 1880-1918, 1906-04-05
p. c. COLLINS. Cashier.

AN UPRIGHT Walk
OUR REGULAR SUNDAY SERMON
An Upright Walk and Cody Conver-
sation Should Mark the Christian
Life at All Times.
Brooklyn, n. Y.-As the subject OF
his sermon Sunday the Rev. Livingston
l.. Taylor, pastor of the Puritan Con-
ygregational Church, spoke ON 'sThe
I. Square Deal in Religion He took
I two texts: Proverbs xii. %: ssThey that
deal truly are His delight and Psalm
| XIII: :"The righteous Lord !oveth right
eousness." Mr.. Taylor said:
| The kingdom of heaven is square
deal on earth. From the night visions
of the 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-
| rem here. But there can be no kingdom
| of brotlerly men on earth with any
other throne set up than that of faith
erly God i'll heaven. The square deal
has its vertical lines as we'll as it's 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 square deal for re-
| ligion. 1t has always been hard to
maintain square deal in presenting
the claims Of religion. It has always
been hard to keep 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, determination to
deal fairly with our own religious ma
ture, 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 legitimate hui
man interest unless we want to throw
out of court the most persistent of ali
classes of facts. Religion must be rec
ogniZed as one of the great human in,
terests if we are to maintain any sor!
of proportion in our view of human life
as whole. Religion must be recog-
; nized as the supreme human interest if
we would be consistent with any rea-
senabie 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 hu-
ma. life. determined to have some sort
of religious system, spending and being
spent in the service of religious institu-
tons, their churches, their missions.
We should deal as fairly with these
facts as we do with the facts which
convince us that it is natural for men
! to have music, that 1t 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 own 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
J the religious aspirations Of men find
. expression. It is nothing to the dis
credit of religion if our best efforts to
II embody it fall short of those visions of
i it's glory with which our souls are
blessed. It is no less 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 imperfection 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, brilliant young British scien-
tist. came to the conclusion that he
had no right to a soul or God, and
that it was his "obvious duty to stife
all BELIEF and to discipline his intel
tlect with regard to this matter into an
attitude of the purest skeptlclsm
; am not ashamed to confess" he wrote
at the time, .sthat with this virtual ne
] CATION Of God the universe to me mas
. lost its soul Of loveliness." And b" was
oppressed by 'sthe appalling contrast
between the hallowed glory OF that
creed which was once mine, and the
lonely mystery Of existence as now
find IT., A little less than twenty
years later George Romanes became
, convinced that in seeking to deal un.
flinchingly with the facts OF physical
science he had ignored the most signih-
cant Of all facts. the most directlv