The Ogden standard. [volume] (Ogden City, Utah) 1902-1910, 1909-01-18

mark the character OF mems speccI
at those times and notice also b,
whom such speech was thought intem
perate and dangerous. Begin. If yol
please. with one of the most radica
revolutions the world has known; tn,
beginning OF Christianity. No mattel
what a world STEPPED In superstition
| has attempted to do with the per
| son of Jesus: no matter il later times
| have deified him and by that process
| removed far from any vital contact
| with our life his teaching and his
! deeds. The fact remains that he
lspoke to his contemporaries as man
| and he lived among them as q man
| Only SO could he be anything or dc
anything for them. And 1t was alb
solutely necessary that they should
know and Judge him as man. Il
| wasn't as a god that people listened
to him or judged him. Peo
pie had to hear him and think OF
him as a man, and that is precisely
what they did do. 1t was therefore
as man. and not as God, that Jesus
said to the very pillars of church and
state In the land where ne was born
and lived "Woe unto you, scribes
and Pharisees hypocrites! for ye
1.-THE mint and anise and cummin
and have left undone the weightier
matters Of the law. judgment. mercy
and faith. Woe unto you. sct'ibes
and Pharisces hypocrites! for ye
devour widows houses even while for
a pretence yc make long prayers. Woe
unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hy-
pocrites! for ye build the sepulchers
Of the prophets and garnish the tombs
of the righteous, and say, III we had
been in the days Of our fathers. we
should not have been partakers with
them In the blood of the prophets.
Wherefore We witness to yourselves
that We are the sons of them that
slew the prophets. Ye serpents, ye
offspring of vipers, how shall ye es-
cape the Judgment of hell?"
1t would be impossible anywhere In
the records of the worlds religious
reformers to find palmer language
than this or language which can pos
sibly seem more Incorporate from the
point of view Of the ordinary relig-
ionist of today. Indeed; there isn't
one man out of a thousand in the
ranks of the Christian ministry, a
ministry which finds It's authority and
justification In Jesus as nowhere else
mo one man in a thousand wac ever
finds it necessary to use language -e-
motely resembling this of Jesus. And
why? Because the ministers Of to-
day set before themselves no such
purpose or end as Jesus did. Because
they have accepted the customs and
institutions of their age without pro-
test, because they haven't the slight
est intention Of effecting any change
in these customs or institutions.
That language Of Jesus was address
sed to the men of his time who oc-
cupied the highest places In society
and In the church Where is there a
minister today who feels the pres
sure of any social necessity to an
tagonize the pillars of his church?
In nine cases out of ten. the religious
institutions of today, occupying pre-
cisely the same relative position to-
ward the world that the religious In
stitutions of the time of Jesus did,
cwn its preachers, body and soul,
and they do not see or feel the things
which Jesus saw and felt. Indeed
the only reason why the mass of
today find no particular
fault with these terrible arraignments
which Jesus brought against the
churcn OF his day is because they do
not understand that they are exactly
as applicable to the church of our
day and because by making Jesus
God he has been as effectively re-
moved from any relation to the affairs
Of this worlu as If he was a resident
Of Mars.
But the beginning of Christianity
was not the only revolution in hum
an history, nor was Jesus the only In
temperate revolutionist The begin
nings of this republic were marked
by that same spirit. We men and
of today for the most part have
no adequate idea of the state of
things existing in this country prior
10 and during the time of the revolu-
tionary war. 1t is very easy for us
TO imagine, and I think the vast ma
jority of us do imagine, that the men
who made this republic the men TO
whom we owe the establishment of
it, were exactly of the same type
as the men who now fill our public
offices or the men who now constitute
our nation. Nothing could be farther
iorm the truth Without any excep-
ions, the men of the thirteen colonies
who were instrumental in securing
our independence of Great Britain
who resisted the expressions OF the
mother country, who defied the con-
'tituted authorities, who led rebel
ion against those who then constltut-
I'd the government-all those men
we're called by the wealthy and influ-
entail fellow citizens "demogogues"
That was exactly the word whica was
almost universally applied by the sub
'tantial citizens of this country to men
like Samuel Adams, James OTIS, Thom-
is Jefferson. Patrick Henry. and the |
est. There Is no difference of opin~ |
on among historians as to the fact |
hat the revolutionary struggle In this |
a hundred and thirty years |
ago was led and carried on not at |
Ill by the wealthy and respectable |
IF our communities, but by exactly |
ne class of men who are the revolu-
ionists of every country today. The |
wealthy and respectable and cultured |
we're very largely tories. sympathiz-
ers with Great Britain, never max
ng the smallest protest against the
authorities And these
orles lent no aid or support to what
hey regarded the demagogic and un-
attempt to stir up strife
With tne mother country You can
lot read the utterances of any of the |
nen whose names we revere today |
Without seeing that they laid them.
selves open to the charge of using
language = intemperate