The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1906-05-21
THE RELIGION We NEED.

Continued from First Page,)
be sufficient We may adjust and 81
/ lenee them for & brief time by mutual
concessions, but such arrangement will
not, nor can they, endure. Neither will
man be satisfied with the Judgment of
the law. although here also may Zoe
found power to be accepted as tenn
| porary arbitrator. No; upon matters
of ultimate Importance the souls OF
men require the light of ultimate truth.
! Because there are in human nature
! spiritual depths which only spiritual
| truth can fill. The desire Of the world
to-day is for religion. The only author
| ity which can finally convince men is
an appeal to their spiritual sense, and
| so the question most persistently press
ing for an answer now is that raised
by st. James, What is religion pure
| and undefiled?
SO = y **%
First What is it in the world where
it has worked in human life until our
time? Let us see if we can gain some
definition of it there, then let us ASK
what it is to ourselves and what place
have we given 1t in our lives. The
only definition of religion which can
satisfy us must come from Him Who
is the source Of our religious knowl-
edge. Whatever partial meaning re-
ligion may have for the Buddhist or
Mohammedan, religion for the Chris
tan must he found in Jesus Christ.
Yes, we may go yet farther and say
that however the Christian religion
may heve chrystalized at one period
into legal systems or at another evap-
Grated into emotion, however men may
have identified it with dogma, or,
again, with ritual, we must look for
its essence back of law and sentiment,
back of doctrine and liturgy, to find
its perfect form in life, a human life
fulfilled in God.
Now, it certainly is fair TO say that
religion must express itself in laws and
! formulate. 1t is also true that religion
requires the practice of some mode of
| worship, and adherence to some creed,
but these do not constitute religion as
Christians hold religion. In Christs
thought religion is the whole of life.
That was His name for It. He did not
use the word religion" He referred
to 1t invariably as life eternal, life rid
! if it's limitations and detractions and
that life was to be had in the relation
! of the soul with God, This is life
eternal" said He, in that prayer to His
| Father, Ito know Thee, the only true
God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast
sent And this is life eternal, he de-
clares to those who ask him, to work
the works of Him that sent me. This
chen is religion as religion is summed
up in Christianity-the knowledge OF
God by the knowledge and service Of
Christ
Now this conception of religion has
fulfilled itself through Christian his
| tory in widely different ways. In the
first two centuries it resulted in an en-
thuslasm for humanity which fairly
swept the world with missionary
movement never equalled until the
| present age. Then in the fourth cen
fury, and in many later age Of the
ology the search for God was pursued
differently, more intellectually, in the
| study of doctrine and the making Of
| creeds. Again the same religious spirit
has blossomed forth in Christian art,
| in architecture, filling the church at one
| time with beauty as the earth puts
forth her leaf and flower in the spring.
For their are seasons in the course Of
| religion as in nature.
| We cannot find in any one of these
manifestations the content of Christi
anity; neither the Apostles nor the Nj
Gene Greed makes religion; neither does
! the work of missions nor of Christian
art. These are but outgrowths and ex-
pressions of the essential fact as the
branches, leaves and blossoms are the
outward sign of the trees life.
1t is impossible for the Christian
church to preserve its religious spirit
pure and undetiled 10y conforming to
the theological ideas of the fourth
century, or the ideas of art in the fir-
teenth. If We have fallen from those
standards it is no fault of our ortho-
doxy or our taste. The reason must be
found in our lack of healthy spiritual
! life. The thought and art which those
creative ages Of the past have HANDED
down to us, issued from = burning love
Of God which filled the hearts of a.
| whole people, While we lack this. we
may succeed in keeping error from the
church by our pitiful trials for heresy;
/ we may enforce our ancient laws and
| preserve the forms of ancient institu-
| lions, and in the end we shall have
| saved the church as we might save a
ship from sinking, by hauling it up
safe, and high, and dry upon the shore
"a noble relic of the past! Better that
the church should suffer shipwreck
! with its sails set and it's bow turned
out to the great ocean of undiscovered
| truth than that it should seek safety
in protection from danger or from
| chance of error. A community-a
church-a nation, may be trusted to
have right thoughts about God if their
hearts are open to Gods spirit, and
| their lives permeated with religion
| pure and undefled.
1 have stood among the hills of the
Bavarian and Austrian Tyrol, where as
| nowhere else / believe peoples faith
bears fruit in pure religion breathing
household joys" and / have watched
the pilgrimage of many a family,
marching three generations, and chant
ing as they walked from one village to
| rr~bara no tfva nffari,aoc xt,arn