The Salt Lake herald-Republican. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1909-1918, 1909-12-13
TOOMANY CONF ORM
TO LITTLE WORLD
The Rev. Or. Brown Refers to
COmmerCiaiiSm as an Evil
of the Day.
PUNISHMENT is FEARED
SAYS HUMANITY SEEKS FOR RE-
LIGlON IN WRONG WAY.

Some OF the evils of present day COM
mercialism were touched upon by the
Rev William Thurston Brown in his ser
mon at Unity hail yesterday In part
the Rev. DR.. Brown said:
Friends here is the difference which
divides US. Some of us are proceeding
I'm all our plans and aims as if il was
our chief business to adjust ourselves in
this world Of buying and selling, of &C
quiring property. of eating and drinking,
or material gain and personal profit, as
if that We're the world IN which and 'Or
which We ought TO live. On the other
hand some Of us don't accept that idea
at all. and have no intention of doing so
We don't believe that IL is eight or gOOu
u adjust ourselves to that little world.
IL may be necessary Tor us TO accept
some of the conditions imposed by Ihal
v GRID ia order to keep body and soul
together. But the mere task of keeping
body ana soul together should not mis-
taken for living. Nothing could Ce
graVer indictment of any scheme or or
ganization of things than 10 have to say
that quantities of people must eXpend all
their energies solely TO keep body ana
soul together. But we men and women
have no right to cramp our souls WITHIN
the narrow limits of that little world
History would have no meaning at all,
were il not true that the world II is cur
business to live in and for, is that larger
world in which humanity may be seen
moving tOWsrd higher and nOoler encs.
1t is not surprising that milllOnS OF
men and women during these LOCO years
or more since Christianity ceased to be
for most people the compelling and alb
sOrbing business Of life and became Tere-
" Il theology or a superstition, nave
thought that the end of religion is to
save ones soul from hell and gain en-
trance to q place called heaven. Con-
sidering how inGusTiOusly that false ana
harmful notion Of things has been IN
stilled into the impre ssiOnable minds of
children. one is not surprised that It still
paralyzes the souls of men and women
and clogs the wheels of human progress
1t is not surprising that this has been
mistaken for religion, because so few
have had any chance to know any other
meaning for religion. That has been the
one purpose for which churches have eX-
listed. the one impression they have made.
Seeking Religion.
"Nor should one be surprised that with
the spread of knowledge that notion OF
religion has proved itself morally and
spiritually sterile, and today increasing
thousands of people who have left the
churches and rejected the creeds are find
ing the inspiring secret of religion exact
ly as Jesus did-by casting in their lot
with that lower layer Of society UpOn
whose labor and suffering so much Of cur
social structure is DUllI. EerHdpS, 100
it should not be surprising that a sreat
many people who call themselves liberals
are pursuing the sterile idea of eXtrica-
ton, believing ia the great object Of life
to gain for themselves something which
they make no effort to win for all Others,
utter strangers to this missionary pas
sion to permeate the whole Of society
with the sacred sense of brotherhood and
moral purpose which alone defines IClig-
ion and makes life worth while.
Men and women, who attempt to find
some sort of eXtrication from the mass
of our human kind that seeking to save
your soul or your life or your wealth or
your social standing out Of what seems
the universal scramble, is the opposite
of religion. And IL is not a good thing,
physically or mentally or morally, for
any man or woman. That way lies by
steal degradation, Intellectual shallowness,
moral and spiritual poverty. It is as true
now as IL ever was, as true for --ou and
me as for those to whom Jesus spoke,
that he who would save his life ,oses
it-lOses 1t in that process-and he who is
willing to lose his life, who knows some
thing in behalf of which il were worth
while To lose ones life who sceks-be-
cause he must-the closest possible con-
tact with the mass of his fellow men,
that man alone saves his life, fO- that
very process is life, and the other process
is death. PermeatiOn is life; eXtrication,
isolation, is death"