The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1907-09-30

Just one thing-the vision of a great need
and great task.
THE atheism which has cursed the
world and curses it still is that which
fails to see and know that any man to-
day can have the religion of Jesus only
as he somehow gains the vision of his
own world which Jesus had of his only
as he becomes for the now and here what
Jesus became for the then and there.
There can be no more harmful superstition
than that of thinking that we of today
can rightly or justly or Adequately see
our world or know its meaning by look
ing through the eyes Of any man or race
that ever lived.
Every forward step that has been ia
ken in science or art or invention or ed
ucation has been a step away from au-
thority. Our men of science, of phil
osophy, of the arts, and so on have made
use or all the results of other days, but
never as an anchorage, rather as a point
OF departure. In these spheres of thinking
and doing we refuse to be limited. Every
man has to be a discoverer-he is of use
only as he becomes a discoverer. And ali
our progress has resulted from that fact
we have been conscious of task TO per
form, and in response to the demands OF
that task the world has been transformed.
What is the meaning, then, of religion?
l answer, it is the joy, the courage, the
hope, the enthusiasm, the devotion. the
self-sacrifice, the reverence, the freedom
which glOrify a life that has discovered
something adequate to live for and to
make that life a cOntagion of hope and
courage and faith and cheer for all the
world. That is what religion is, ard
there is nothing that can take its place.
DeIusion Is Widespread.
Does that sort of religion cut a man
off from the vital things of the past?
Does IL make the heroic men and the
splendid deeds of the past of no avail
Quite the contrary. The men and deeds
of the past that were potent and divine,
Instead Of being an authority to such a
man, hardening his life by the pressure
Of fixed mold. limiting the scope of his
life within set boundaries, becomes to
such man mighty and joyous inspir-
alton.
1T would be infinitely ridiculous, were
IL not so infinitely sad-this widespread
deluS.On that we can beQueath religion,
that God himself can hand down reli-
giOn through the medium of an infallible
book. Would you give your son or daugh-
ter the priceless treasure of religion?
Would you have the young men and the
young women of city and country, of
street and alley, of mine and counting
house, of saloon and brothel, would you
have these human lives unfold into the
blossom and fruitage of religion? Would
you see them Christian in the only mean
ing of that word that is worth a moment s
thought? You can do that in one way
and only one. You cannot do it by Civ
ing them Bibles. You cannot do it by
ology, old or new. You cannot do it by
getting them to sing hymns or say pray
ers or perform any set of rites however
ancient. You can do il only by putting
them in the way of seeing something ade-
quate to live for, some great and needed
task to be perfOTmed-by making them
feel the pressure on their souls of some
sacred cause of human freedom or right.
Once let a man gain a vision of a great
task, and Immediately all the moral re-
sources of past and present become avail
able for MIN. Once set a human life in
pursuit of an end so great, so imperative,
so beneficent, that he is literally thrown
back upon divine resources for its &C
complishment, and God will become a
reality to that man and he will enter and
become a part of the fellowship of the
prophets and Christs of every age. Bet
ter still, he will become for his own time
and place a moral dynamo, a living and
convincing witness to the reality of re-
ligion."