Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1908-12-25

FAITH AND FORMULA.
By Henry F. Cope.

lit Illdl SOOu Is VI OOh.
III, John, II
One reason that religion means so
little to many is that we have for a
long time been accustomed to think
ing of it from the wrong end; we have
worried ourselves over its forms in
stead of using it's simple facts; we have
substituted it's philosophy for it's prac-
tice; we have acquired the habit Of
thinking of faith as wholly a matter
of creed and opinions.
In those days when the reason feared
to trust itself, when ignorance made
the many slaves of the few who sought
to keep a monopoly of knowledge, men
were willing to accept the authoFita-
tive statements of the religious special
lists that they must give personal I'M
questioning assent to those philosophi-
cal statements prepared by the institu
tons upon which those teachers lived.
Once men gave the same blind allie
glance to the doctrines of religion that
they also gave to feudal overlords; they
knew not at all what the quarrel was
about, but, being told they must defend
the faith or be eternally damned they
defended the faith they paid their dues
and counted that they had performed
their duties for religion.
But opinion is no more religion than
a guide book is a journey. II you had
a million copies of even so practical a
code as the ten commandments there
would be less religion in the whole
pile than in one little kindly deed done
by one for another We seem to think
still that you can make man relig-
ious by getting him to recite phrases of
pious opinion.
There are no meals in a cook book.
Health is not the same thing as doc
tors book. You cannot buy wisdom at
book store. Nourishment, health, wis
dom are all the product of vital pro-
cesses. They come through life. You
describe them in books, but the things
themselves you can neither put into
such forms nor get out of them.
Religion is not the Bible, nor the
creed, nor the church. These are but
it's symbols, it's descriptions and guide
books. 1t takes a good deal more than
faith in Baedeker to take a man to
Italy; it takes something more than
believing the Bible to make man re-
ligious
You can never make a child know
that two and two are four by repeating
hot %o y I,
how in his experience put this two
and that two together. Then addition
becomes simple, delightful because
helpful), practical. The gravest diff
Guilty in helping people to the religious
life is that we are insisting on putting
the formula before the experience
Let the definitions, the descriptions,
the symbols of religion take care of
themselves. Let every man express his
views in his own way. His need is not
some form of expression identical with
all others; his need is to find by the
actual test of living, by practical ex-
perience, that the religious way of life
is the best, the most satisfactory, the
most serviceable.
Do not worry over the forms and
symbols that others use Get the fact,
the great fact, that life has in it high
er values than those of the beast and
the burden bearer, that man is more
than dust, that living for the good of
all is the secret of finding all the good
in life. Steadily reach out for the best
in life and your religion will formulate
itself through experience.
When men are sick they do not need
pathological definitions they need the |
right life. When this world is wrong,
when we find ourselves in conflict with |
the order Of rightness we need the
fresh, invigorating experience of living
for the things that are high and
worthy.
We can all grasp religion in the con-
crete. We all believe in good lives We
have no skepticism as to sincere service
for sacrifice, we all agree on the creed
of character. We can all take hold of |
religion at the end of duty, of high |
living, Of clean citizenship, of social |
service, of everyday goodness, kind
ness and love.
Doing the things that are right, fol-
lowing the light of high ideals, why fret
and quarrel or even give ourselves spe-
cial concern over descriptions, defni- |
lions, creeds? Take the facts of the
right life, enjoy it's experience and let
the logic Of such a life give its own
account of our faith
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