Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-01-20

acceptance of beliefs. but there is not the
same diversity. 1t is the high decree OF
unanilnity in our views of ,tical
Christianity that makes our org lzatior
possible
We look upon Christianity as pre-emi-
nently a practical religion. based upon
love of God is shown by faithfulness to
the inner light-that is, by earnest eff
fort to find out what is best and to do
the best we know. Upon our love of
man are based the various testimonies
for which the society stands.
We are opposed to war because it is
and because we do not believe the love
of an enemy to be merely the dream of
an idealist. We would not do wrong even
in a good cause, and to take mans life
We do not believe to be right
We are opposed to the prevailing
methods of dealing with criminals, be-
the wrongdoer. Christianity, as Friends
see it, does not mean, however. a weak
submission to the evil-disposed; 1t per-
mits the use of force if actuated by love
and not by fear or resentment. It de-
mands that our aim in restraining the
criminal shall be his own improvement.
10 1ryit1
evil, but with good. Clearly. there is no
room for capital punishment in a penal
code based upon love.
The peculiar doctrine Of the Society
of Friends, that Of the intimate and i'm
mediate relation between God and the
individual and the devotion to simplic-
ity demanded by Christianity as Friends
see it, have made the Quaker meeting
for worship very different from the
church service of other bodies.
To the Friend there is no virtue in the
mere attendance of meeting. The pur-
pose Of assembling for worship is to
gather strength for the work Of right
to one seated by ones self at home; the
duty Of attending meeting arises from
the probability of mutual helpfulness
when several are similarly engaged.
The true Friend, who takes truth for
authority, not authority for truth"-to
use the words so often quoted by Lucretia
OF hat no holt GO
of the witness to 1t that he finds In his
own heart. He knows that with increas-
ing enlightenment it may be necessary to
revise his beliefs. and he welcomes the
help of any agency that may show him
the truth more clearly. To him all re-
ligions are open fields from which he may
his reason and the inner light to distin-
guish them from the weeds of error that
everywhere abound. He is the slave Of no
theologian, he is bound to no dogma-un-
less the belief that every person has the
power of recognizing truth for himself.
and that this power will increase as he is
such. To him science and scholarship are
the allies of Christianity, not it's enemies,
since they aim at the discovery Of truth
He finds in reason ample justification for
his application to daily life of the funda-
mental principles of Christianity.
From religion and from science alike
he learns that the universe is controlled
by an infinite and beneficent power that
makes for righteousness; and his religion
and his reason agree in the conclusion
that the only key to the complex problems
of conduct is love for his brother man.
These two truths-the goodness Of God
and the efficacy of love-and the earnest
endeavor to live by the light Of these
truths as it becomes manifest to each In
dividual, make up the sum and substance
of Christianity as Friends see 1t; a re-
ligion not merely to believe in, but a re-
ligion above all else to live by; re-
ligion that does not take one out of the
world, but a religion that one must take
with him into the world and apply to
every detail of life