The Morris County chronicle. [volume] (Morristown, N.J.) 1877-1915, 1908-10-13
RELIGIOUS
DEPARTMENT
WHAT IS RELIGION :

4NAA4S4SSOes
In the South Street Presbyterian
church last Sunday evening Rev. Alex.
ander MacColl preached the first of a
series Of Brief Sermons on Big Cues
tiOns.' He said in opening that his
thought was to answer some of the
questions which are most important in
the shaping of mans thought and
his life.
The question on Sunday evening was
s. What is Religion?" The text was
James / 81. "It may be well" said
she preacher, first Of all to make
clear what it is not. I"
Religion is not simply theory of the
universe, study in origins and issues,
interesting to the man who likes that
sort of thing, of little account to
others. Theology, which is thought
about God and man and this wonder
full universe concerns itself with these
questions. Theology is thinking, or
should be; religion is living.
Religion is not simply series of
forms, rites, obserYances, designed to
please or appease a divine power. So
the ancients conceived religion. The
reason the great moralists of the first
and second centuries gave but pass
ing glance to the rise of Christianity
was that it was a religion what, they
said, has religion to do with moral
life. The priests and augurs of Rome
and Greece thought it none of their
business. TO exhort man to purer
life. Religion is still too often identi-
fed with forms. Forms are t h e
crutches of the religious life, very
needful and helpful, but never to be
identified with the thing itself. A
man may 90 to church, and be utterly
irreligious; he may say his prayers,
and never pray; he may sit at the
Lords table, but come without hunger
and go unfed.
Religion is not thing that retardS
life, a check upon its normal impulses,
an everlasting "Thou shalt not" 1t
is more accurately thought of as the
art of living life at its very best. BE
ware - a French writer has well said
ga religion that substitutes itself for
everything that makes monks; seek
religion which penetrateS everything
that makes Christians" And so re-
ligion IS not concerned with part of
mans life, but with the whole. Dis
functions between the sacred and the
secular, as though part of a life were
cOnSecrated to God, part to self or
home or work, are always perilous.
- All true work." said Carlyle, " is re-
ligiOl. A man cannot make pair of
shoes rightly unless he do 1t in de-
vout manner" What holy of holes is
hOlier Than a mothers knee? Even
recreation should be part of a mans
religion, the care and development of
his body that through it he may do his
fullest work.
One of the best definitions of religion
is that of John Newton "Religion is |
habitual recollection of God, and in
tention to serve Him. There are
three words, said the preacher, which
seem to me to express that which is
essential to genuine religion.
ID Dependence. Deeply console US
Of the mystery and uncertainty of life,
of his weakness and failure and self
deceit, the religious man leans upon a
Strength and Wisdom far beyond his
0WAs oAC AOliHAOh oAQ
before God" says James. The reli-
gious man lives before God, in his pres
ence, by his grace.
(2.) Responsibility. The religious
man recognizes an obligation to the
Power upon Whom he is dependent.
He has something to do; something to
be. He is responsible for his own soul,
he must keep himself unspotted from
the world, he must use to the full the
powers given him. he is responsible
for the life around him, he must
t'visit the fatherless and widows in
their affection, that is to say his life
must be helpful, sympathetic, above
all it must be constructive, building
with God his great kingdom of right
and truth and love.
49, Trust. "Pure religion before
God and the Father" The religious
man feels that the Power on whom he
depends, to whom he is responsible, is
good, wise, just. In proportion as his
religion is strong and real, he trusts in
dark days as in bright.
Next Sunday evening, Mr.. MacColl
will speak upon the question, Why
do we need Religion 2" On October
Is the question will be How do we
know that Christianity is the true
Religion"