Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1907-10-31

| tivity in teaching mems duties to each
other.
Must Give Consideration.
"The church must give more con-
sideration to the neglected hemis-
phere of right relations with man.
in order to help intelligently we
need to sweep aside another funda
mental error, namely, that some ons
reform will right all human relations,
To make men prohibitionists | regard
as very important, but it will not
cure our social i'll, for Turkey, right
on prohibition for centuries, is I'M
speakably wrong on almost every
] thing else,
/ "'rhe aim of the church must be
what the aim of the Whole Bible Is,
not alone to save soul in heaven
but here and now
"Christs single but manifold pre-.
scription for all this is: Thou shalt
love thy neighbor as myself
Let us consider Gods wonderful
Elan for making selfish men love him
and all their fellows have seen
nowhere so clear presentation of
this plan of God as in the circles of
love- with which my wife Is wont to
explain the two great commandments
to her Chautauqua classes of boys
and girls
Here is selfish man who loves
no one much but himself whom God
desires to broaden into whole-souled
lover of his kind. How shall 1t be
done
Love for Woman.
First, he is drawn out of self by
mystic love for woman. 1t Is easy
/ to love this 'neighbor' as himself or
better. All the world loves lover
and true lover will come to love all,
the word. In marriage the child of
loves union again draws his selfish
heart cut of selfishness on the
other side. 1t Is not hard to love his
little neighbor as himself Each Of the
three. the father, the mother and the
child, is drawn out Of self1shness as
the tides are drawn by the sun and
the moon, but love and for the other
two. This is the first of Gods circles
of love, the family circle, that should
make every family a holy family. Here
is the social unity, not the individual
but the household. A man is not COM
plete, but a piece Of his family, as
bow and string and arrow are useless
each without the other There is
danger that a child will be selfish If
all the parental love is fnonopolized
by him, nor are the parents of one
child fully ripened in love, and so in
a normal household there are brothers
and sisters that influence each other
to large heartedness, as planets draw
each other in their appointed orbits.
Love Must Spread Out.
"But one whose love does not 20
Pp hoa ~,
an enlarged and enobled self-loye.
Hardly traverty of many homes is
that reputed prayer:
Bless me and my wife, brother
; John and his wife. Us four and no
more. amen. Amen
But in neighbours house a baby
comes - or goes = and like joys o.
sorrows make it easy to love that
neighbor as ourselves.
Beyond the neighborhood circle
!. lies the next circle of love, the city
4 in devotion to which patriotism be.
: gins and in ancient times often end
ed, for the Athenians; patriotism was
! for Athens, the Spartans for Sparta
!. the Romans for the city, rather than
7 for the empire of Rome. We really do
. not know how much we care for our
:. city and for our fello wcitizens till
! we met one in foreign country.
Mans Patriotism.
, But ones patriotism may be toe
! much centered in his city. when II
4 should reach forth to the larger cir
cles Of state and national patriotism
Even love Of country is not com
9 pleta fulfillment of the command
y ':Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thy
!. self Christs sublime picture Of the
It command was the good Samaritan
e whose love went beyond race tie!
II and counted any man in need as hi
L neighbor. Christ himself we can neve!
2. think Of as a Jew, but he towers rath
e er as an unnatinnal man, the brothei
$ Of us all teaching us to be brother:
! OF us all. God loved the world .
6 that is the outermost heart circle, no
n least but largest, and to be Godlikt
q in the full measure Of our manhood
$ as sons of God, we must learn by low
b ing God and by the broadening circle!
|. Of love to love all the world, not alone
:. for the worlds sake, but also for thu
! sake of making ourselves full-orbec
L men. AS the circles in the lake made
by pebble dc not rest until the,
4 reac hthe uttermost shore, no more
5, should our circles of love-"