Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-10-11

That a clean heart Is the chief essen
tial of life. a guarantee Of personal hap
piness and the effective source OF all re-
form was the message OF a sermon by
Rev. Ulysses G. B. Pierce, pastor of All
Souls Church, to the members Of his
congregation last Sunday morning.
The text was: Cleanse first the inside
of the cup and Of the platter, that the
outside thereof may become clean Also
Matthew. xxiii:26.
He said, in part:
Upon mature reflection does 1t not
sometimes seem to one that our insistence
upon the inner reality of religion Is in
danger of making religion a subjective
feeling rather than an outward life? Does
1t not sometimes seem as If we were
theorizing when we commit ourselves to the
thesis that man is to be reformed from
the inside out. and not from the outside
in? Do we not seem to be violating the
mechanics Of thought when we say that
a man is to be elevated, not from below.
but from above? Recognizing religion as
an inner appreciation Of values. is there
not subtle danger that our religion shall
become morbid; that the motive for the
active life shall become paralyzed. and
our deligion become a dream instead of a
| reality?
There have always been people who
SO feared. The Sadducees and PhariSees
evidently so surmised. but the wise teach
er sees that whatever danger there may
be on this side, 1t contains also all the
hope that there is. If We follow Jesus
and His teaching, we see how little He
satisfies the soul who Graves for specific
injunction; how little He has to say to
the man who demands a program of re-
ligion. He goes back of programs to
that which makes all programs. AS we
see Him ministering to those In need.
and teaching the ignorant, we are i'm
pressed with the fact that the one class
of people which seem to discourage Him
most of all, or, literally, most nearly of
all. are not the men and women who had
missed their way, not the great sinners.
No, 1t was the Pharisees whose external
life had all the semblance Of purity, who
felt that they had kept the letter Of the
law; who were self-complacent, unteach-
able, hypocritical-in other words, actors
They were men who could lay down tt
law for their brethren, but yet with thei-
lit1e finger would not tighten the load.
That represents the class OF people that
the Master finds 1t hardest to he'D-the
man who insists that inner feelings are
to be evoked only by outward manifesto
tons: that a man has to do tie right
first with the bare hope that sometime he
will learn to love the right.
"And precisely this applies to the indi-
vidual. If man Is an epitome of the world
process we should expect to find this
same thing going on in a small scale
| within the mind of the man. And this is
precisely what we do find The success
full business man will say to you that
the great enterprise which seems to you
to have grown up in a night Is the fruition
Of long matured hopes. He has spent
agonizing nights on it and problematical
days. so that the things which now ap-
pear are the results and the evolution OF
things which were at first invisible. The
man who has fallen into temptation viii
tell you frankly that in the last analysis,
1t was not because the temptation was
too strong, but because the resistance
was too weak. He will tell you that pride
"a mental state-had thrown things out