The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser. (Upper Marlborough, Md.) 1882-1925, 1908-08-28

SSuCS, anu IL Will edCuCl d uOSpSllAhS
content as the wealth and wonder of
the spiritual life are unveiled.
Religion has as its subject matter
not the morbid, erratic and abnormal
things of dreams and nightmares, but
soul. When the soul Is most normal
and when it has most nearly attained
the ideal state, then it's sight is clearest
and it's vision greatest. When Peter,
James and John, on the Mount of
TRANSPORTATION, were heavy with
sleep, they saw nothing and heard
nothing, but when they were fully
awake they saw Christ's glory and the
two men who stood with Him. The
non-religious mind is asleep and dead
to the all-enveloping realities of the
unseen spiritual world. Having ears,
they hear not the upper harmonies,
having eyes they see not the tran
scendent glories. The awakened
mind, on the other hand, has come to
spiritual consciousness. He responds
to spiritual stimuli; he feels the lure
of moral beauty, his faculties have
found sphere of blessed action and
his whole personality is awakened to
spiritual sensitiveness which catches
ravishing glimpses of the divine
glory.
The world of spiritual reality Is all
around us. 1t inspheres us as an at
mosphere. 1t is underneath and i'm
minent in all material forms. I'm
God we live and move and have our
being" Our real selves are unseen
and spiritual, the body being the
earthen vessel of the unseen gift of
life. Our words are visible or audible
signs of spiritual ideas. Our draw
ings of lines and angles and circles
but visible representations Of purely
ideal relations, our books and II.
braries but means Of concreting and
preserving that spiritual thing we
call literature. We are asleep and
dead to all we are ignorant of. II
we are aware of the treasures of lit
erature we are awake and alive to
them. If we are conscious of the I'M
seen and spiritual things we are
awake and alive to them. Because
we do not see these spiritual glories
does not argue their non-eXistence,
but only our dead condition. Those
who see them are the prophets, the
seers, the men of spiritual authority
and leadership. Christ was just as
divine and just as glorious down in
the valley healing the demoniac child
and restoring him into his fathers
arms as He was on Mount Hermon
when the disciples saw His garments
as white as snow. The only differ
ence was that on the mountain they
were fully awake and saw His glory"
The waking of the soul is process.
The true object of education is to
awaken and arouse and develop. the
powers of the personality. The
growth of the bodily powers is largely
by wel-directed activity,
hence calisthenics and gymnastics.
The development of the mental facul-
ties is conditioned by stimulating
thought activity, hence systems of in
and teachers and courses of
study The awakening of the moral
nature is conditioned by doing the
will of God, hence prayer and
churches and rituals and preaching
and religion. The object of religious
instruction is to awaken the sleeping
conscience, the dormant feelings, the
inactive will and enlist them actively
in the spiritual love and labor of
Christ.
The history of religion when
written from the standpoint of pro-
gressive development will be the
story of the awakening of the soul
to spiritual things. Professor Bourne
says: when there is little mental
Or moral development the religious
instinct can cling to stick, or stone
or some low and hideous animal.
But as life unfolds and intellect is
clarified and conscience becomes reg
nant in our religious thinking, it then
that there are certain condi-.
lions that must be met by any religion
that is to command the assent of de-
veloped humanity" All races have
worship and religion. The aweken-
ing of the mind, as evidenced in the
progress of education, has made wor-
worship and religion. The awaken
ing of the sense of the beautiful, as
evidenced by the progress of art and
esthetics, has made worship more
beautiful. The awakening of the
moral nature, as evidenced by ethical
systems and ethical emphasis, has
made worship more ethical. When
men are fully awake they will see the
glory of Christ, for He is the truth for
the mind, love for the heart and
power and guide for the will. No true
of the human personality
will exceed the glory of Christ, nor
go so high that He shall not remain
it's ideal and it's good. We can think
of nothing in the moral and spiritual
scale beyond or better than Jesus
Christ.
Christ is not only the ideal of this
spiritual awakening, but He is the
great cause of it. He is the inspira-
ton Of the modern scientific research
81 truth. His challenge was Come
and see" He exalted the child mind
of inquiry, of openness to the truth,
as the type and by taking that atti-
tude toward nature man has come
into possession of her truth. By
obeying nature man has come to con-
troll her. By getting down humbly
to learn from her, she has exalted
man by her treasures and her secrets.
The nina OF Christ, which obeys,
which is open to the truth, which
investigation, which SUBJ
mits the nailprints to the most doubt
full scrutiny, is the instrument of
progress In knowledge. So also in
the moral realm, Christ is the great
power to quicken the conscience, pro-
duce repentance and win the moral
nature to the highest standards. He
has developed the moral nature to
the place where no man can hope to
be religious beyond the extent that
he is moral, and no corporation repre-
sents Christian things beyond the eX-
tent that it Incorporates the ethics
OF Christian love in all its business.
Christ is Leader in the great intel
lectual and moral awakenings of our
times. He has led us to this mount
1f awakening and we, like the favored
arostles, when we are fully awake
viii see the glory of Jesus Christ.
Christ * the most powerful force
in human life for the awakening of
the intellect in search for truth, or
TIE quickening of the conscience to
:, pentance and faith, and for swing
iog the soul with all its awakened and
aroused powers into service for men,
even TO the point of free and glad self
sacrifice.
As men follow Christ, He has re-
Facilitated their faith in the spiritual.
and broken the Elusive spell cast CVer
them by the materi2', the false Az