Wauwatosa news. [volume] (Wauwatosa, Wis.) 1900-1948, 1907-07-20
AN ACCEPTABLE SACRIFICE.
BY Rev. Henry z. O.
-. -

ny ReV. aenry Il. Cope.
If | We're. hungry l would not tell
thee; for the world is mine and the
fullness thereof. Offer INTO
God thanksgiving, and pay thy VOWS
to the Most High.-Psalms :12-14.
Men are not drawn together by a
collection box. To make this the
/ standard emblem of the church is but
/ to emphasize the difference between
/ the institution and the one who said,
! Come unto me all ye that labor and
! are heavy laden and | will give you
rest" 1t little helps the need of a
/ hungry world to stand ever before it
! begging it to give, to bring in its offer
/ ings.
/ TO the plain man there will always
seem some aDsurdity in the request that
/ he, human and finite, should sacrifice
his own lamb or his few hard earned
pennies to being who is almighty. to
whom the whole creation belongs. He
/ cannot understand a Father who does
nothing but sit by his altar and watch
the tithes brought in.
4
we can make of the spirit of worship
to give up material things to a spiritual
| being? Whence this change of concep-
/ ton, from the servants of the Man of
Nazareth, who were sent out to heal
and help and do good to an institution
going out to collect everything that is
good for itself?
Surely nothing could be farther from
the old seer's and singers thought of
| the wOndrous one, from whom all
things came, the source of all being.
| all beauty, all worth and wealth. He
as they clothed his glory in terms of
mankind, was the great giver instead
| of getter. TO him the hungry looked
and were fed, the naked were clothed.
the sad cheered; to all he gave their
meat in due season
The emphasis was not on Gods need
of man and his possessions, but on
| mans need of the Most High The life
and spirit, the eternal power that
moves through all our lives, needs not
our bare pittance wrung with anguish
from field or loom, but the opening of
our hearts, the lifting up of ourselves
into touch with things sublime and
spiritual. Heaven needs our hearts.
Who is to be pitied more than he
| to whom religion is the dropping of
pennies through the slot of a collec-
ton box and seeing the world through
its narrow crack. Rather is ii the
learning to see the eternal goodness.
the unremitting giyer in all this world.
In every event, until the whole being
goes out in grateful praise, Offering the
sacrifice of thanksgiving.
True, there is no religion without
sacrifice. But there is none In the
sacrifice of gifts to the Almighty as
though he were hard up nor in gifts
regarded as payments on paradise mort
cages or as means OF modifying an
| offended judge. The sacrifice whose
aroma rises sweet to heaven is the
service of love, the self-deniaI born of
gratitude or affection, the gifts to men
| because they are the children of the
good Father
The broken heart, the contrite sigh.
| the sympathy that seryes-these are
the sacrifices on which the welfare of
the whole universe waits. We honor
the divine less by lofty steepe or peal
Ing organ than by entering into the
beauty and enjoying the riches of the
! great temple Of nature and making its
wealth known, available and apprecia-
| bic by all men everywhere.
/ The winning of the world waits for
/ the revelation of the wealth of the
Lord of all being. Men need not tarrv
/ till they have taxes for him: with
/ empty hand, with hungry hearts. with
| needy spirits, they are invited to come
to the Father Of spirits and the feast
of his love as men came, the sick, the
weary, the sad, long ago to one in
whom they found the wealth of in
/ finite love.