Los Angeles herald., 1907-04-08
breaches ON ART
OF LIVING RIGHT
Rev. c. c. Pierce of the Memorial
Baptist Church Tells What 1t
Means to Become
Christian

Last night Rev. c. c. Pierce of the
Memorial Baptist church took for his
theme "The Divine Art of Living
Right; or What 1t Means to Become a
Christian" He said in part:
when Paul so enthusiastically
sought to persuade men to espouse
Christ as a leader and savior he pre-
sented to them the claims of the art
of living right. If Christianity Is not
something that every one can have, if
1t is not the highest and best thing for
the individual and the race, and if it
is not something that applies to all life,
then let us know what it is. The worst
thing that ever happened to the Chris
tian religion was when it was made
to mean a set of formulas and creeds
rather than a real life. 1t does not be-
long to the lecture room and to the
cloister, and to the prayer meeting, but
is thing of the mart, the bank, the
factory and the farm. It's real place
Is out in the open. 1t is simply the
great art of living life at it's highest all
the time. AS such it presents it's
claims to us all and we ought to ac-
cept it if we are in earnest.
Man has not reached his ideals,
either in his individual life nor in his
social life. This is one glorious thing
about life. The farther a man advances
the higher is his ideal raised. Chris
tianity ever holds before the race its
loftiest ideals. In the temptations and
trials of life, in it's burdens and prob
lens and discouragementS and dark
ness the companionship of the great
Teacher helps men in the attainment
of their ideals as nothing else does.
IF man has mind he must think;
if he has heart he must feel; and
what is presented by the phenomena
of life must set any man who has a
mind and a heart to both thinking and
feeling that the burdens of life are
great. Nothing can help man to bear
this great burden like the presence of
the spirit of the great Teacher.
Every true soul admits that he
ought to choose the highest things in
life and cast the strength of his life
where it will do the most good. AS a
citizen, as a member of the home, as
business man, everywhere, there is
but on thing that any true soul ought
to desire, and this is to live at his
very best all the time. This is what
the true Christian should do. This
brings us to the heart of the Christian
religion. All sorts of people have all
sorts of silly ideas as to what the God
who is over them demands, but If they
will simply live their best all the time,
if they will be true and helpful and
loving and kind and sympathetic and
try to lift themselves and the race a
little higher, they will find the heart
of the Christian religion.
"And then to be a Christian is to
seek companionship with the great un-
seen power which is over us. Every
man who is no utterly pagan comes
to places where he turns almost in
stinctively to the higher power which
is over him. The highest ideal Of life
is to feel at home with this power and
to come to be led by it and to rely
upon 1t. The man who cannot do this,
or who does not care to do this, or who
has lost the ability to do this, has
lost the main thing in life. He is like
mariner out upon great ocean VINO
has utterly lost his bearings. The true
Christian in seeking to attain the di-
vine art of high living comes more ana
mort to feel the need of the oVerruling
and guiding power of all life. This
brings rest and satisfaction here and
the satisfaction does not end with
DEATH We have long ago got over
the idea that Christianity was some
thing to die by. 1 do not know where
this idea came from, for Christ never
taught 1t. Christianity is the high art
of life. But all life Is continuous. Life
is eternal. The life we shall live when
we go out of this mortal state will be
only a development of the life we have
lived IN tne soul mere Inc pouy VIII
die, but the soul life will continue and
it will go right along the line of prog
ress we have chosen here.
"This is the thing that makes all life
so solemn. The biggest heresy that
ever crept into the church to destrop
the power of the Christian religion is
the idea that assent to formula, to some
dogma, some doctrine, was to eternally
change the condition of human soul.
There is no change for any human
soul save that of character and this
change is to be brought about only by
a life dominated by the spirit of the
great Master"