Dakota farmers' leader. (Canton, S.D.) 1890-19??, 1906-07-13

always open to the best influences from
God, from nature md from good men.
THE LARGER LIFE OF RELIGION.
By Henry F. Cope.
Il am come hat they might have life
and that they might nave it more album
dantly."-John 10: 10.
Religion is more than restriction,
more than Il weary round of negations,
a heavy load of commandments con-
corning things to be avoided. No won
der the youth turns with dread from
the church which prescribes his doings
by a chalk line drawn by those in whom
the fires have all dice or who may
never have known the glow of youth.
Such a church says to men. Come thou
with US and we will show you how to
empty your life of all the things
you would like to have in it.
Such a church is praying, ooh.
to be nothing, nothing" and is
getting its prayers pretty thoroughly
answered. The religion that has for it's
preceptS only SO many Thou shalt notS,
for duties only so many nus nots, for
privileges only so much giving up and
going without, can end only in death.
A living religion cries out for more
life. not less less life leads at last to
the grave.
1t is no use fighting for a faith out
worn it is no use fighting for any kind
of n faith that can be worn at all. For
faith Is not a garment. So long as we
think of it as such it will be but Il
str0it-jacket. 4 something to crush the
life. Such a religion makes the Sun
day a prison, the church a charnel.
The worth while, the HEAVIER born re-
ligion we may know not by the multi
tude of it's restrictions, not by the bur-
dens it lays on life, not by its prohi-
billions or even its definitions; but by
it's invitations, the blessings it co1fers,
the multitude of its means of enla iging
life. In itself it is ever a life; it leads
| to larger life. Religion means not to
live less; it is not a cramping of the
life within certain rules. but a crowding
out of the life; it is like the growing
tree that pushes up the earth and
breaks up the wall into which it grows.
There will always be upheavals, revolu-
tons in religion, because it is always
growing.
Religion calls for room, more room,
room TO realize the best and hollest
possibilities of life, room to climb up
and look out on life, room to serve our
fellows and lift them to larger living.
room to be made by the sweeping away
Of old limitations, ancient prejudices,
hoary wrongs. And because it Is vital,
not formal, it demands an ever larger
place in our lives.
Do not think, my friend. that you are
pious because you succeed in stripping
your life Of all beauty, in cutting off all
pleasure. Nothing may be more GRIM
inal than thus to shrink your soul, to
crush yourself beneath burdens of mega
lions and prohibitions. Instead Of bind
ing your feet, as some do, you are
binding your heart; o will go lame
in the land where hearts rule. The
Almighty can best be served with the
best life, not with less but with more.
Sin is not so much in doing the things
you ought not to do as it is in missing
the glorious thing you ought to be; it
is missing the mark of Gods glorious
purpose and plan for your life. Holt
ness is not so much in abstinence from
evil as in perfect realization of the
good. The way to keep from sin is not
so much by the study of the dictionary
of don'ts as by entering into the good,
the worthy, letting out your life to
larger, higher things, by entering into
the things that are true. honest, just,
pure, lovely and of good report. Right
e%ousness is positive, not negative.
There is more righteousness in a bad
man than there is in Il tiawiess statue.
The Pharisee's plan was to save the
world by showing it the amending list
of things it must not do; Jesus plan
is to show it all the things it may be.
Their way was by a law, his by Il life.
1t is q good deal easier to be q Pharisee
than &c be q Christ, especially WHEN
the Pharisee makes it his business to
regulate others and not himself. But
It is a good deal happier. healthier,
souls go on wagging their heads over
the catalogue Of don'ts and denials
while you enter into larger soul and
larger service by letting the best things
within lead out your life to yet better
things and the noblest aspirations lead
YOU out to nobier service. The mechan-
ical virtues cannot see the kingdom of
heaven; the vital religion has ii
already.