Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1909-07-16
RELIGION OF SOCIAL LIVING.


RELIGION OF SOCIAL LIVING.
By Henry F. Cope.
This commandment have we from
him that he who loveth God love his
brother also. ~ John 5:21.
The significance of religion changes
according to the need of the age and
the moral progress of the world. Once
the emphasis was upon philosophical
forms, upon statements as to the De-
lty or as to human destiny; later it
shifted to forms of religious organiza-
lions. In our own day it became NOR
al and ethical, insisting that religion
is valueless unless it produces virtu-
Gus lives, demanding character as the
proof of creed
But now even the ethical emphasis
has a changed significance; it is more
than matter of personal uprightness;
it is one of social rightness. The vir-
tues of the ideal man to-day are of
the past, who could walk his solitary
path of rectitude, whose righteousness
was between his soul and God alone.
Just as psychology knows no indi-
vidual, so does religion. for none of
us liveth to himself. Men come to
social realization of themselves. The
study solitude gives place to the hui
man fellowship the brooding over per-
sonal faults and the lonely struggle
for Individual projections passes and
it's high passion is satisfied in banding
ourselves with our fellows for the sal
walton Of the world.
There is one voice to which every
free soul responds to-day; it is that
lives about US on our own lives, the
sense of common responsibility. All
who live in any large sense, who lift
up the eyes and know the world as it
is, know that they live in a society as
living parts of society.
Such living involves religious obi
cations. 1t means that the higher life
must find expression through these re-
lations to all other lives. Social living
means the death of self1shness, of the
old soul-dWarfing individuality. 1t
takes the I from the old-time throne
and sets the All there.
Faith nowhere finds finer expression
than in the life that forsakes self
seeking in order to serve another, that
thus says, | believe so firmly in the
eternal goodness, in the rightness of
this world l dare cease to think of my
81 70 oo4
prosperity in order to make sure of
the well-being of my fellows.
Piety need never fear that it will
suffer from too great practical mind
edness of this type. The people who
warn us of the danger of the spiritual
life decaying in our interest in social
welfare are usually those who dread
the necessity of making practical
proof of their professions of religion
of expressing their spirituality in any
serviceable manner.
The social interpretations of religion
ticular theory of society; they do
mean living the life that is ours as
children of the infinite in full con-
seriousness of all other lives, in rela-
lions of love and service toward them,
in recognition of all their rights, in
the JOY of living with others and low
ing them.
The creeds of religion may lie be-
yond our comprehension; its forms
may seem meaningless to us and it's
emotional expressions repellent, but
here is a form of religion that all may
understand and practice; here are re-
ligious acts that all may do; they lie
next to us in daily living, simple, usu
ally easy done and yet far-reaching in
their potency. The mystery of the
love of the Most High will solve itself
as a man gives himself to the loving
service of his brother man.
If only for a while we might learn
this way of living, the way shown by
the life that gave itself in services for
all lives; if only we might see life
Just as the chance to love and help,
and religion as the eternal spirit in
us seeking the highest good for all,
the wonder would not be so much in
the good that would come to us as in
the new Joy and fullness in living we
ourselves would find.
sERMoNETTES
Conceit deceives only its owner.
No man ascends above his ideals
EIvorU mans life daDpD1c on the size