Palisadian. [volume] (Cliffside Park, N.J.) 1906-current, 1909-06-01

the divine origin of the len commandments
that he did not believe God ever turned stone
mason and chiseed out those laws. Therefore
we are to infer that they not divine IN
functions, But why not divine' Moses, as we
know, a great poet and a great law-glver:
He knew what kind of laws the people OF
Israel needed and he went up into the noun
tain alone to mediate upon these laws and
with the help of God, the inspiration of God,
he wrought out those COMMANDMENTS and
they are, therefore, divine in the same sense
that any great inspiration is divine. There IS
divinity in Millions Paradise Lost" there is
divinity in Keats "Endymion,' in kipling
"Recessional' in Markman's Man with the
Hoe"
No, the reception of the Commandments
by Moses does not bother me. | do not care
how he received them, but he did receive
them. Better and greater men than these lat
ter-day college carpers have believed in the
divine origin of certain things, and greater
men than found i'll our colleges have be
heyed IN miracles, ph MlTaeIes cries Car
Is not that a miracle?" If Christ had sent
wireless message to St. Luke it would have
been as great miracle as any He is credited
with.
Now, Mr. Thomas knows these things, and
he will know more. We shall all know more,
and, by knowing more, shall doubtless wit
in lifetime a return to the
race of of its lost spirituality. These
times of greed and of rush and blind battlings
cannot last much longer. Men will come
TO realize-they must realize-that there are
greater things in life than the dollar And
Mr.. Thomas, rely upon you and your fell
low clergymen to help out of this sad
dition into which have fallen-a condition
in which there is little spirituality, little
poetry and little true progress of any Sort
but vast mire of materialism in which
feet are caught and held. Little is be-
ing done to improve our social and political
condition y few years ago the magazines be
gan a righteous war upon corruption, but they
promptly dubbed ''muck-rakers, and
strange, it may seem, but it is neverthe
less true, this odious term killed off the only
hope had of Improvement of public
morals. But while because of the strange and
blind perversity of the American public, the
muck-raker became unpopular-killed by con
temptuous term-the matchmaker kept right
along in his old game, and he is still making
muck, while all the people cry Amen.
We need bold editors, we need bold writer's
and lecturers to help out of the mire with
which the muck-makers have encountered us.
Mr.. Thomas what help expect from
the pulpit? Cannot the preachers of day
follow, in way at least, the Christ they
worship-cannot they help to drive the
money-changers out of the temple? Cannot
they go, Christ did, into the highways and
the byways and lift up men? AS a rule, Christ
did not call men to him into a church
his greatest sermon spoken upon noun
tain, He went to men, and you preachers
should go out TO them, and doubtless YOU will,
for you are growing broader everyday, you
ministers, and YOU know that it is not church
ianity that will save mankind, but Christian
ity, which, believe me- is a very different
thing. Not form, not cant, not loudly sing
ing ehoirs. not stained windows, will reach
the hard hearts of men in these days. but
the word-the living word of Christ. Follow
me-" said Christ. He did not say follow
cant. follow dogma, but follow Me- 1t Is
Of little avail to set the cross upon the
highest pinnacle of the temple if it be not
set up in the heart of the worshper. and
though it i'll becomes me to preach to
preacher, l know that of your breadth
of views Mr.. Thomas. will not take it i'll
if / say that it is from you and from the
gody men like YOU that look to see a
broader and more humane religion religion
that men grasp and accept as they can
no longer grasp and accept the crumbling idols
of that strange paganism which grew ont OF
perverse understanding of Jesus Christ and
IS now itself outgrown Possibly it is
fact. as declared by historian. that man
kind has had in every age the kind of re
ligion that it needed. If this be So are we OF
the age of electricity TO have the same religion
those OF the age of the rushlight and the
taper? No and l believe that new religion
is eventually 10 be established the re
ligiOn of Christ He was and Is. not as
blind prejudice and superstition have made
Him. Give us the true Christ. the socialistic
Christ the Christ who preached the brother:
hood of the divine being who taught