Los Angeles herald., 1909-10-15

! worst side she knows something, ana
| yet whose experience has not made her
4 cynical. The girl does not attend
church, and does not know the big
young athlete fresh from college is the
new minister to the Strong Memorial
church. In her ignorance of the true
situation she takes occasion one day
to tell the man her frank opinion OF
the church and of ministers. or the
former she says: Il was not thinking
of that true church composed of the
true disciples of Christ. And that is
Just it, don't you see? This true
church that is so inseparable from the
religion of Christ is so far forgotten
that it never enters into any thought
of the church at all. The sun always
shines, it is true but we do not al
ways have the sunshine. There are
the dark and stormy days and some
times there is an eclipse To me these
are the dark days, so dark that l Won
der sometimes if it is not an eclipse.
= This selfish, wasteful, cruel,
heartless thing that men have built up
around their opinions and Whims and
ambitions has so come between the
people and the Christianity Of the
Christ that they are beginning to ques-
ton if, indeed, there is anywhere sucn
a thing as the true church.
Minister Useless Creature
VI IIle OIIDOlOA anu COlNeIllOlldl
pastor she says To me he is the most
useless creature in all the world. He
is a man set apart from all those who
live lives of service, who do the work
of the world. And then that he should
be distinguished from these world
workers. these servers, by this noblest
of all titles-a minister, is the bibber
est irony that the mind of the race
ever conceived. Man serves God
only by serving men. There can be
no ministry but the ministry of man
to man. The world cannot ac-
cept the minister as man because his
individuality is lost in the church to
which he belongs. Other institutions
employ mans time-the church en-
ploys his life. He has no existence out
side his profession. There is no out
side the church for him. The world
cannot know him as a man, for he is
all preacher"
Needless to say this sort of view is
new to Dan and he does not take his
medicine gracefully 1t is only after
months of service and several bitter
experiences with the church that he
begins to admit he has taken it at its
own valuation and that it is only a
man-made institution after all. When
these views first come to him his con-
science and his fXity of purpose hold
him still and he has a fight with him
self to determine the true situation.
He comes to the conclusion that the
fault lies with him, and at this climax
in his career he comes suddenly to
know that he loves Hope FarWell.
She bids him choose between her and
his work, for she cannot believe in
that, although she loved him. And
then he believes that it is his love
stands hatyvaan him his
calling and he gives up the girl.
She leaves Corinth and gradually the
tentacles of the system he serves get
hold on him and he begins to be dis
illusioned. One after another his
dreams of the greatness, the infalli-
bility of the church, fall like houses
of cards and at last-after repeated
trials and failures-he goes to a great
convention of the church to gain new
inspiration. The malignant spirit of
gossip in the town of Corinth (refer-
red to throughout the story as the
"Ally'D, and the greed and dominance
of Judge Strong have preceded him and
he is repudiated by his church.
Religion in movable Things
Having sacrificed the girl he loves
for his ministry and then been thrust
forth by his church because he would
not De DOuUu 10 IT'S ClGCAAf lllC yOhAlS
man is hopeless. At this juncture his
old friend and doctor comes to him in
his room. From one window the old
man points ont the garden; from the
other the castiron monument to the
statesman. There the significance OF
the two objects are brought out for the
benefit of this strange brave, positive
but misguided young man. In the
monument the old doctor sees the
church. In the garden he sees the true
religion-the world of service.
Pointing to the garden he says to
Dan: Down there 1 see religion
Christianity, what you will, but re-
ligion, living, growing ever changing
through the season ages, lying dormant
sometimes, it may be, but always there
yielding to each season things that
belong to that season; depending for
its strength upon the great source of
all strength and power; depending as
truly upon mans efforts, upon his cul-
tivation and care. There is variety,
harmony, law, freedom. There is God
something for all-potatoes, peas, tur-
nips. cabbage. If you do not care for
lettuce perhaps radishes will satisfy.
And there boy in the midst of his
church, ministering to the needs OF ms
congregation and thus ministering to
man. is my minister-crippled, patient
Denny, who gives his frail strength to
keep the garden growing.
"And look you, boy, at the great rock
in the very center of the field. How
often Denny has wished it out of his
way. 1 caught the poor lad digging one
time to find, if he could, how deep it is
in the earth, and how big. For three
DAYS I watched him; then he gave 1t
up. 1t is beyond his strength and he
wisely turned to devote his energies
TO the productive soil around it. There
is a rock in every garden, Dan. Re
Ugion grows always about the un-
movable. But Denny's ministry has
uought to do with the rock. 1t has
TO do with the growing things about
it. So religion is in the movable
things. not in the unknowable. There
such men as you, lad, must find It.
And the rock, boy, was not put in the
garden by men. 1t belongs to the eartn
itself"
Church a Cast=lron Statue
Dan comprehends a part of the les
son. The old doctor takes him to the
other window and together they look
out on the cast-iron monument Says
the old physician: "Now, come see
what men have done. These people
will tell you that was erected to COM
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