The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1911-11-12
MEN AND RELIGION.

that / amp" "Thou are the Christ,
the son Of the living God" Christ In
dorses the answer, blesses Peter; as
sures him that the confession was a
revelation from the heavenly father.
and adds: '.and upon this rock" tthe
rock of this confession) Il will build
my church, and the gates of hell
(hades) shall not prevail against 1t.
This is the creed of Christ. No 9th
er can be found in the New Tesla
mont. The apostles in their letters,
repeat it in various forms but al
ways in exactly the same meaning. 1t
interprets itself and cannot be mis-
construed. Therefore, no other creed
is required, or can be taken as au-
thoritative. Hence all creeds outside
of this sail creeds written and formu-
lated by men-are not only superflu-
Gus, but harmful. This creed frees
Us entirely from all those mysticisms
all those theological enigmas
which have kept many an honest
man out of the church, and which
have made thousands of skeptics In
the church. No st. Patrick needs to
hold up three-leaf clover plant to
explain the riddle of three Gods in
one. No Calvinistic divine is required
to labor for two hours to convince
us that infant damnation is thorough
ly justifiable in God who, according
to Christ, loves us infinitely better
than we can love our own children
Having found the creed let us look
for the practice, i. g. the religion of
Christ. Master, which is the great
commandment in the law" said u
young Jewish lawyer to Christ Chou
shalt love the Lord thy God with all
thy heart, and with all thy soul, and
with all thy mind. This is the first
and great commandment. And . the
second is like unto it. Thou shalt love
thy neighbor as myself. On these two
commandments hang all he law and
the prophets Such was the answer
as we find it in Matthew. In Luke the
two commandments are put into one:
Thou shalt love the Lord, thy God,
with all thy heart, and with all thy
soul, and with all thy strength. and
with all thy mind, and thy neighbor
as thyself."
In the latter case the young lawyer
has asked what he should do to in
herit eternal life; and Jesus in turn
asks him what is written in the
law" and the lawyer answers by
giving the law as quoted above. To
this Jesus replies, Thou hast heard
right. This do, and thou shalt live;"
that Is the young man should inherit
eternal life by doing this command
nent, not by SIMPLY believing it.
This great commandment, requir-
! sacrificing love of man, is fully am
plified in the sermon on the mount,
as reported by Matthew, chapters 5,
10. I. AS thus amplified it gives us
religion of life-a philanthropy which
! from center to circumference is illum-
ined by the matchless effulgence OF
the golden rule. To plead that it is i'm.
practicable is to give the lie to
American history. We have had
significant instance of it's entire
pacticability. Not long since mayor
of Toledo, o., who went by the APP
propriate name of Golden Rule Jones,
fully and successfully carried out the
great law of Christ in a factory in
which he employed several hundred
men. treating them day by day just
ais he would have had them treat
him, increasing thereby his own pros
perity and theirs. and clearly demon
strating that Christ's purpose was,
and is, to make the religion of the
church the religion of the workshop.
Now, If by any means, the leaders
of the Men and Religion Movement"
can do for the world what Mayor
Jones did for his work shop, their Ia
Dor will not be in vain. But If they
cant do this, they may as well quit
at once. For no undertaking in the
name Of Christ, without the Spirit Of
Christ-without the real the practical,
the everyday, workshop philanthropy
of Christian possibly live long in
this age of hard thinking and hard
work.
| Granger, Mo-, Nov. II.