Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1910-10-10
The TOPICS Of Pulpit Orators.

try's leading newspapers, is of course
vastly interesting and highly instruc-
tive. But for real variety. from spice
to drama, careful reading Of the re-
ports of the words of some of the
leading pulpit orators take the prize.
All sorts of topics under the sun are
taken up and treated from every pos
sible angle for the entertainment of
his audience by the average up-to-date
and broadly educated preacher. In the
sermons reported last Sunday at some
OF the great tabernacles, the jump
from the sublime to the ridiculous is
almost startling.
With all due respect to the cloth,
and 10 the tastes and sentiments of the
people in certain sections, it strikes
us that some of the subjects treated
in the pulpit in these days would be
discredited on the stage in some of
our theatres. Thus, a distinguished
rabbi has aroused much discussion by
his utterances on the divorce ques-
ton. He names the marriage sequence
as first divorce, then trial marriage,
then marriage He goes on with his
formula for conjugal happiness, some
thing as follows.
Il think people ought to be divorced
before they are married. | am speak
ing tiguratively, of course. Divorce,
marriage, engagement-that is the Or
der in which the union between man
and woman ought to occur. People
must learn how to live apart before
they try to live together There ought
to be a law and education and public
opinion to prevent such conditions as
now exist. People before being mar
ried should be obliged to prove con-
clusively that they are fitted to mate.
A revolution is upon us.
and greater changes than have been
dreamed of are to alter the relation
ships between man and woman and
child. The child has the right to
choose it's parents. Hitherto we have
given the parents the right to choose
their children. The day is near at
hand when this rule will be reversed.
Marriage is the one great impos-
sibility of life. Divorce, trial mar
riage, marriage-this done and then
perhaps the pair may enter upon an
everlasting honeymoon.
Il have said that marriage is the
one great impossibility of life. ! have
known many people in every walk of
life, and a true marriage, an ideal mar
rage. is so rare thing that I should
call it almost NONRESIDENT
Without going farther than to sug-
gest that the rabbi is soaring in realms
above the heads of his average nearer,
we would offer in wholesome contrast
the words of Rev. Harry Gaze, in the
New Thought Temple at Cincinnati on
Sunday One of his most direct shots
at a tendency of the times was: THE
religion that tries to scare sinners in
to heaven with pictures of hot hell
is immoral, because it distills fear in
to the heart of man and tends to make
this life the hell it seeks to avoid in
the next Religion must emphasize
the present, for only by making the
present golden can man approach a
radiant future life"
1t is needless for us to attempt to
draw conclusions between the two, but
how much more welcome is the builder
than the one who comes to tear down;
the one who would take things as he
finds them and constructs hope and
creates an enthusiasm for something
better to come, and the one who comes
to destroy what we have and offers
nothing more tangible in it's place ?
We believe, with the Rev. Mr. Gaze,
pushes, today; results are the single
test in religion, as in every day life;
otherwise one religion or theory of
life must be just as good as another,
and what justification could we find in
gong to foreign lands to persuade the
natives to take what are to them our
heather gods''? We agree with the
Rev. Mr.. Gaze that if religion creates
fear. it dsturbs mental and physica!
poise.
The most practical religion. it seems
to u.s. should be to make the best of this
life. rather than to despise it and to
concentrate all our energies on a life
only to be reached by death The doc
trine of hell and personal devil In
spires fear rather than reverence: ana
reverence is educated by the innate
love of the things which God has given
us. and which it should be one of the
duties of life to interpret and under
stand. The man who goes into the woods
and instead of feeling the marvel of
the unseen power which stands re-
vealcd before him devotes himself to
lodging an imaginary devil and peer
ing into the corners for the unexpected
development of hell, will miss much
of the heaven which God has given
him to interpret for himself here on
earth. Preparation for life in the dis
tant future. we believe is only valu-
q hlo in CO far aS If beal1tifieS and ey-