Watertown weekly leader. [volume] (Watertown, Jefferson County, Wis.) 1906-1908, 1906-10-26
FEDS AND FAITH.
Py Henry z. Cope.

FADs AND FAITH.
BY Henry z. Cope.
Ye 1.-THE mint and rue and every
herb, and pass over justice and the love
OF God.-Luke II ~.
The Pharisees are not all dead; re
ligion still means to many no more
than a multitude Of repressive reSula-
tions. It's expression is confined to at
titudes and plattudes, to forms and
phrases. 1t thus becomes a choice hid
ing place for petty hypocrites, while
the doing Of trivial or traditional acts
is 50 emphasized that some are led to
think in all honesty that the doing and
enduring Of these things satisfies every
moral requirement.
80 far from the path Of piety being
hndecd about with restrictions and its
people burdencd with meaningless
LOADS. it IS the way Of liberty, the en-
Iargin% life. and the path III which
nea lose their burdens, straighten
their backs, lift their heads, and set
their eyes on truth and freedom. But
minds TOO INDECENT 10 climb, too small
u enter into liberty, have determined
to make religion consist III 10 more
than the wearing OF badges or the bear
ing Of unpleasant ordeals and duties,
Many hold IL sin to have springs
on their wagons, buttons on their coats
or flowers in their hats, while the men
VIII not wear suspcnders. But the
chances are that these same folk often
carry enmity in their hearts, cherish
revenge, jealousies, and bitterness
that the man who will not have springs
on his wagon manages 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, and TO
satisfy the conscience with scrupulosl-
" as to the gnat while exercising lib
crafty and hospitality to the camel.
Bending every effort to keep the law
in the strictest manner many easily be-
come blind to it's spirit and purpose.
The fads of religion are the worst
foes Of true faith 1t does not take
the keen and not always kindly critic
long 10 learn that the man who asserts
his holiness by wearing hat OF a
peculiar shape or a white tie, or even
Il badge in his coat lapel, or text on
his shirt front is the one whom it is
well to watch with just a little extra
caution when you are buying his goods
or doing business with him in any
way.
1t is Il 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 IA 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 life's temptations or to spend
on ordinary square dealing, kindly liv-
ing. or self-sacrifcing service.
Yet the circumscribed hearts that
invent these fads for their own salts
faction are sure to insist on laying
them on others. There would be little
satisfaction In inventing duties If we
had 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 1t is the man
with the weak stomach who is most
with complaisance on a cigar Many
hearing the stern denunciations of
dancing pronounced by people with pet
rfied limbs have determined to choose
the so-called life of sin with its natural
pleasures in preference to the path of
faith with its fads 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 and 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. 1t is
learning to live as a soul, as the Son
of eternity.