Wauwatosa news. [volume] (Wauwatosa, Wis.) 1900-1948, 1908-05-22

conclusions when judging the erect Of
religion on personal characte< as test
Ell by daily business and living. One
Is in danger of judging from excep-
lions. We may remember as relig-
ious person the man who makes the
loudest protestations of his piety and
fail to recognize the religious sources
of strength in the quieter one of whose
sterling qualities we need no persua-
sion.
When religion has little root it often
springs up with a rapid self-assertive
growth; but 1t withers even more
quickly under the scorching sun of tue
market and business affairs. 1t alAp
would be the height of folly to con-
clude that religion contributed nothing
to mans moral worth, because the
morally worthless seek to hide their
nakedness by wearing it as a cloak
If we stop to think of the strong
men and women we know, of those
whose integrity is undoubted, whose
character wealth constitutes the real
reserve and bulwark of our business
stability, we shall find that they are
controlled by religious ideals and prin-
ciples that the strength and beauty
which we admire In them in itself is
religion.
They may have or may not have ec-
1in Of
incidental. They do have religion.
Somehow we feel that their actions rise
not from superficial wells of policy or
custom but from deep springs that go
back into the roots and rock Of things.
They look out on life with eyes that
see beyond questions Of immediate and
passing advantage, they see visions and
ideals; they are drawn on by lofty as
pirations.
The recognition which we accord to
real worth, to high, and noble, and
strong manhood and womanhood, with
the scorn we have for the canting weak
ling, is but part Of our discrimination
between a living, deep religion ex-
pressed in conduct and a mask or pre-
tense adopted for profit or convenience.
Still there are many good people, sin
cere In their religious professions, who
practically are no good at all when they
come to some strain on conscience or
some real test in life. Is it not because
in their minds religion never has been
related to conduct? They are ground
ed on the eschatology of Christianity
but not on its ethics.
1t is possible to go through full
course of religious instruction in the
regularly appointed agencies of many
churches and TO come out with clear
cut conceptions of heaven and angels,
but with the most misty and even mis-
leading conceptions Of right relations
among men, Of honesty, and justice, and
truth.
The schools teach us about the stars
and the earth, about men dead and
beasts living; the church teaches us of
saints and seraphs, and about an an
cient literature; but who shall teach
us and our children the art of living,
the laws of human duties? OF what
value is all our knowledge unless we
get the wisdom of right living?
No man is saved until he is made
strong, sane, useful, and reliable. The
most irreligious thing in this world
is religion that makes people think
that an imputed or technical salvation
absolves them from the necessity of
practical salvation, the working out OF
the best and noblest in their lives. Re-
llgion without morality is a mockery.
Real religion is the secret and source
of the highest, strongest, cleanest char
acter. 1t furnishes the life with mo-
tives mightier than any considerations
of advantage or profit; it ties the soul
up to eternal and spiritual verities; IL
\ refreshes the heart as with living
waters when life seems all desert; II
gets the heart in step with the Infinite
| One who marches ON through the ages.