Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1909-10-15


Greeks declared that the free man was
| he who existed for himself and not
| like a slave, for the sake of another.
How sharply this contrasts with the
essential teaching of the worlds great
est religious leader, and they who find
the full and free life must learn to
i've not for themselves, but for 9TH
| erS.
| We have been for centuries burying
| the simple teachings of the prophet OF
| Nazareth under survivals OF ancient
superstitions and masses of philo-
sophical subtlety and speculation. Now
when his real message is spoken it
sounds so strange we call it new re-
l1gion The doctrine that the greatest
need OF the universe is, that men
should love one another and live for
| one another, has been neglected SO long
that 1t appears to be wholly new.
Your historians point to this and
your philosophers to that as the essen
tial article Of Christian faith, but it
is neither in historical records nor in
theological formulas, The one thing
that marks and makes the true man
in religion is that he has learned that
life is just the chance to love and to
give life away. His faith Is right who
Is right with his fellows.
The most important hour in any life
Is that in which 1t becomes conscious
Of the fact of other lives pressing on
it, constituting society about 1t, and
making imperative demands upon 1t.
The hour Of real conversion is when
one turns from living inward to liv-
! ing outward, from selfishness to social
living, when the life begins to take
the law Of love as it's guiding star.
Some lives never go through that
change; they MAINTAIN to death the
selflshness with which they were born,
which is perfectly normal in the child,
the self1shness Of the life unconscious
of the duties it owes 20 all other lives.
They may pass through emotional re-
ligious ecstasies, but their souls, their
| best selves, remain bound in the bond
age of self.
Every man begins a new life when
he becomes conscious of the fact of So
cial living, when he is touched with
feeling of the unity Of all living, when
some measure of a passion Of humani-
ty begins to move him. Life takes on
new signidcances. In that hour the
| poets vision and the youths ambition
glow and burn within
To live for others is to widen the
bounds OF life. Our sympathies make
the measure of our souls. No man Is
any bigger than his heart You are
great, not according to the number Of
servants you have. but according to
the number whom you freely serve in
love-
Your hold on life depends on your
self-inyestment in It. Your roots in So
| ciety, in the universe, strike deep as
you are investing yourself in it. So
many lives have no root because they
are afraid to strike down out of sight,
to lose themselves. Sinking nothing in
sacrifice, they soon dry Up and are
blown away.
Our modern problems of individual
and social suffering, wrong and injus-
tice, are marks Of an age that has not
learned to live by this law of selfgiv-
ing. We still believe, whatever creeds
our lips may utter, that every man
must look out for himself; we reject
the law that reigns universal through
all the rest of nature that only in
sacrifice and service is fullness and
perpetuity of life found.
This is the faith most of all needed
by our faith, faith SO fully to believe
in the law of love, of service, of sacri-
fee, that we will seek first of all the
good of others, bear one another's bur
dens, live to make lives sweeter, hap
pier, to serve rather than to be served,
to find the sweet joy of kindness and
This is the law of an life. All ma
ture Is ever giving, losing, sacrificing.
The worlds ideal life is symbolized by
a cross Of self-sacrifice, loves consum-
nation What higher, wider, deeper
faith do we need than this, just to go
our simple ways, in home, on street,
in store and shop in family and hui
man fellowship, taking life as the
chance to find fullness of living so as
to have the more life, the richer and
more efficient life, with which to serve
one another, giving life in the COM
mon things of living, in the kindly
word, the sympathetic act, the courte-
Gus deed, the Christly spirit?
HUDSON AND FULTON.
By Rev. A. W. Snyder.
Herein is that saying true, One SOW.
eth and another reapeth; other man
labored and We are entered into their
labors. ST. John 4:37, 80.
In thinking of Hudson and Fulton
and of what they did for US we may
well say herein is that saying true,
one soweth and another reapeth; other
men 1abored and We are entered into
their labors."