The Penn's Grove record., 1907-05-24
NUMBER 49,.
Subject: The Religious Life.

me PdStof' the Rev. Ira WemmeIl
henderson, took as his text Deut.
8:3, Man doth notlive by bread only,
but by everything that ~proceedeth
out OF the mouth of the Lord doth
man live" He said:
The one thing most necessary in
the life of the individual and of So
clety is religion. A man may exist
IN the possession of all the temporal
and material aids to comfort and to
the satisfaction of the natural man.
put he never begins really to live
until he is conscious of the divine
personality and recognizes the valid
lty OF the divine control. A nan nav
exist without a thoroughgoing sense
OF the reality and the control of "the
DIVINITY that shapes cur ends" but
ne only is alive when he gains a con-
seriousness of God and of his account
ability and infinite Indebtedness to
Him.
In u day too many men are drift
ing from the religious life, too many
are endeavoring to live without a
controlling sense of the reality of
God, too many are e~ndeayoring to
live as though God were non-exist-
an and as though He we're entitled
to no authority over their lives. Many
good men, confusing ecclesiasticism
with religion, and MISUNDERSTANDING
OF the vast difference that there often
is, though to be sure there should not
be, between church membership and
the Christian life, have turned and
are turning, altogether too commonly
Tor the peace of mind Of the church
OF the living God, away from organ
lzed religious systems primarily and
from any sort of religious observ-
ance at all. Gazing upon the hope
less insincerity of many Christians
and the stupid Indifference of many
churches to the needs of society and
the demands of the times, as con-
trasted with the beauty and the uni
versal interest Of the Goldman and
His Gospel, upon whose character and
truth the Church is founded, men
have m~isjudged Christianity by it's
misrepresenting fruitage, and, in
numbers that annoy US, have turned
from religion entirely. Contemplate
ing the sins of individuals in the
church, they have permitted their
eyes to be withholden from the dis
cernment of the truth that the per-
sonality and the pronunciamentoes of
Jesus Christ as the oracle of God are
the leaVen that most surely could
transform their own lives and effect
a Transformation in the social order
OF which they are a part. Many bad
men, with the determination not to
know or to serve God under any con-
ditions, utterly are neglectful of the
claims Of the religious life upon
their higher natures. They TURF from
religion because they are willfully
DESTROYS to be the followers of the
devil rather than the servants of
God.
Many men have turned from or
ganized religion because of intel
lectual difficulties. Some of these
have gone out of the church to fol-
low the bent of their peculiar and
personal religious conceptions and
convictions; some have turned to
philosophy and have deifed man as
sufficient unto himself; still others
have to their entire satisfaction
eliminated God from the scheme of
things.
In spite Of the attitude of a host of
men, however, a true religious life is
as necessary to the welfare of human
ity as are fresh air and pure food
and the creature comforts that we
desire, need and strive so persistent
ly to secure. No man is we'll round
ed; no man has realized the possibiIi-
ties of manhood; no man is COM
plete; no man is really alive until
he is alive unto God. And no man
has sounded the limits of the capaci-
ties of his own being until he has en-
joyed a knowledge Of the highest rev.
citation of the character of God that is
in the world to-day.
A true religious life ought to ap-
peal to every man first, because it is
reasonable; secondly, because it is
spiritually real; thirdly, because it is
ethically influential.
The true religious life is reason
able. It does 10 damage to our good
sense, and it commends itself to our
judgment. 1t does not shock our
ideas of the fitness of things. 1t sat
isles Il intellects. Man, in the wis
dom of God, is an intelligent being;
he possesses mental qualities that are
fundamental in his makeup. Men
must be convinced of the reasonable
ness of things before they can have
any lasting hold upon them. That
which is Intellectually unsatisfying
or that will not stand the tests ap-
piled by the minds of men, they re-
Ject. Man does not demand that
he shall be able to exhaust
every subject which m under the
province of his intellect, but he does
demand that, whether or no he is
able to explain all the things in
which, as a rational being, he holds
an interest, he shall at least be able
to discern in them the evidences of
reasonableness. Religion appeals to
the mind of Not because he is
able to sound all the depths of relig-
ious philosophy or of religious truth
or to explain all the manifold won
ders of religious experience, but be-
cause there is in religion that which
is intellectually reasonable and salts
Tying. No religious system that is
worthy of attention holds the respect
of humanity for long unless it be first
OF all of no damage to our sense of
the fitness of things. The true relig-
ious life commends itself to our best
Judgment and in the recognition of
its imperatives We find rest and joy.
The true religious life is transcend
antly and delightfully."- real. 1t is not
susceptible, perhaps, to arithmetical
or geometrical demonstration. We
are not able to prove it in its specu-
lative and abstract phases by the ter
minology or the experiences of the
sense altogether, but it is none the
less real. Laying hold as it does
upon the divine, it is simply inexplic-
able in all its outreachings through
the medium of finite speech. AS true
it is that tongue cannot tell of the
glorious realities of the spiritual life
as it is that the tongue has not yet
told the fullness of the giories of
that richer life that is yet to be. But
though the tongue may be unable to
explain it all or to reveal in finite
language the infinite experiences of
the spiritual life it is none the less
real. The spiritual religious life is
the result of experience. 1t is ex-
%perience. 1t is just as exact and
scientific in its way and Just as ex-
perimental, mystical and abstract
though it be, as any other scientific
discipline. 1t cannot, OF course, be
demonstrated by the experiences of
Tho Ihx-csascf o1A@a ~, Ia, 49, -.