The evening times. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1906-1914, 1907-01-11

the snap of your finger for mine, un-s.,
less that religion ~ lived.
The expectant children Of men the
world around are grasping the fact
that the religion Of jesus Christ is not
a religion Of words, Of ceremony. Of
platitudes, professions, confessions,
or creeds. but religion of works of
fruits Of demonstration.
y, Need Of Faith.
It may have been heresy yesterday,
but In the brighter today 1t is not, to
say that it will do you good simply to
confess religion, 1t will do you no
good merely to profess religion; you
may repeat your creeds, the creeds
Of men, from now until the very
flashing break Of doom, and it will
do you no good, unless your lives are
SO ordered. that day by day and hour
by hour you may know. and your
neighbors may know as we'll, that you
do indeed believe what you profess to
believe, and know 1t by what you do.
This is the only way given where
by you may know what you think of
eternal things, what your real con-
.cept of the Infinite Father is. by what
you do. and not by what you say. The
great Master laid down the rule long
years ago in his pilgrimage among
men, and 1t must be equally gratifying
to us all, whatever our denominational
name, to know that Jesus never es-
tablished rule for the government of
your conduct and mine that He did not
apply to His own.
Repeatedly He said to His disciples
and when He spoke to them He as
certainly and directly spoke to you
and me-"By their works We shall
know them" And with striking fidel-
ity and picturesque force, Jesus an.
piled this severe test to himself. In
a crucial period of His mission. one
OF His own raised the startling and
impious question as to whether He was
the Christ of a preteder. =
Then your human Judgment and
mine would have said. now, now is
the suspicious moment, when this
Messenger of God, this master of all
learning, all logic, and the master of
all minds of men, too, may easily
make an argument that will satisfy
the learned and unlearned world alike
that He is the Christ, the son of the
living God. It is the moment of all
the centuries. The world stands aghast
with the stupendous issue of its re-
demption hinged upon the answer.
What shall it be? Listen! Men and
women hush the beating of their
hearts to hear 1.-THE mightiest speech
of all the ages, spoken with the sim
plfcfty Of a child, the sublime assur-
ance of God: Go, tell John that
the lame do walk and the blind to
see." That was all it was, not more
brief than conclusive; It touched the
high level of the momentous occasion.
and hushed to silence through all the
march of the years every impious ques-
tioning of the Christ's divinity.
Have you ever thought of it for a
moment that this is the only argument
that Jesus ever made in this world to
establish His divinity? Think of it
now. He said, indeed, He was the
Christ, that He was In the Father and
the Father in Him, but the only ar
gument He ever made to establish the
truth of His declaration is found in
the simple assertion of the patent fact,
The lame do walk and the blind do
see." And that is the argument, the
impregnable argument of Christian
Science to the doubling Johns of the
world today. "The lame do walk and
the blind do see" today, as they did
walk and see nineteen hundred years
ago, and by the virtue of the. same lin
itless power and the same boundless
love that they did walk and see then;
and so long as we can say this in
truth, as in truth we can say it to-
night, just SO long every shaft aimed
at Christian Science, coming from
whatsoever source it may, will fall
harmless to the ground.
From what have said, it is appar-
ent that our contention is that Christ
Ian Science. is a religion pure and
simple, a religion of works, nearer
approach than men have known for
seventeen hundred years to the re-
ligion that Jesus taught in the temple,
that He preached throughout all
Judea, that He so lovingly and tender
ly practiced among all His people;
and if it is all of this. then you want
it, every one in the world wants it:
and if it is less than all of this, we do
not want it, no one in the world wants
1t. Wherefore this contention of ours
is the only debatable question respect
ing Christian Science: Is it the re-
ligion Jesus brought, taught and prac-
ticed?
Inherited Opinions.
In the discussion of this question
we are somewhat embarrassed by in
herited religious opinions; by that
peculiar and almost universal condi-
tion of mind, best known as pride in
ancestral religious belief. It is so
much easier to have some one think
for you than to think for yourself;
to have a religious belief, doctrine
or creed handed down to you as q
garment, decoration, title or jewel
might descend from father to son, in
stead of earning your own garment,
winning your own decoration, deserv-
ing your title. 1t is so very easy and
therefore inviting, to put aside the
whole matter with sweep of flial
pride. my fathers were good and