The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1911-12-24
"A HUMAN RELIGION
fax Marx EieId.l

(1y Mark Fieid.)
What We mean by q human religion
is not religion of human manufac
ture, but religion for human beings
Anterior to the Christian era there
was no religion we'll fitted TO an ex
allied human life. The nearest ap
proach to it was found in Judaism
which being pure monotheism, was
far more in accordance with philo
sophie thought than any OF its eastern
contemporaries, But while it chal
lenged the admiration Of the philoso
pher. 1t did not crafty the longings
OF the crowd, who craved something
more obvious and palpable to adore
than deity uncreated, invisible and
incomprehensible. Hence the long
continued struggle, among the Jews
themselves, between Jehovah and the
| idols that were frequently set up on
the high places for popular worship
by the hayward kings of the chosen
PEOPLE. Hence. also, as We may fair.
! ly presume, originated the prophetic
conception Of the Messiah -sugg ested,
no doubt by inspiration-to meet the
wants of the multitude; for the
masses of the Jews, as those OF
every other nation, were, in their the
istic notions, governed more by the
imagination than by pure reason, and
therefore required visible image of
the Deity. This image, so perfectly
delineated by Isaiah and so unmistak-
ably foretold. as to time and circum-
stances. by Daniel. appeared at the
period definitely fixed by the latter
seer at the end of his seventy
weeks,
But the image came forth as a human
babe. 1t was born in manger of a
human mother. 1t grew, to all APP
pearance, Just as any other babe
would grow. During its childhood
and youth it learned the carpenters
trade, and labored in that vocation
till it was fully matured Then it APP
peared on the banks of the Jordan,
and requested baptism at the hands
of John. Immediately after this 1t
went into the wilderness, and showed
mankind how to successfully resist
temptation
Now in all these items the coming
of the Messiah and utterly antagonis-
tic to the expectations of the Jewish
hierarchy. To be sure they We're then
looking for an occupant of Dayid's
throne; but they expected him to
burst upon them a full-panoplied king
and conqueror, who would at once
crush the Roman power, and establish
the imperial supremacy of the chill
dren of Abraham. Jesus of Nazareth
was not thus introduced into Judea.
His baptism and his battle with
Satan were followed promptly
by his entrance upon his ministry.
At once he went forth an incompara-
Bile conqueror, but not as a demigod,
clothed with celestial armor, to awe
and terrify men into submission. 1t
was in the character Of the well be-
loved son" that he went every where
doing good feeding the hungry, heal
ing the afflicted, comforting the be-
100 w, aiAthiAes up Zig
teaching humility by a matchless ex-
ample of humility, demonstrating the
invincible power of love by the only
exhibition of infinite love that has
ever been seen in this world.
In all this he claimed the power OF
God, but every where appeared
as man, and called himself
.'the son Of man" among men. His
sympathies, though unparalleled in
scope and tenderness. We're human.
His susceptibilities, as shown in the
fact that he could be tempted, were
certainly human. His exquisite sensi-
bilities, as exhibited in the Garden of
Gethsemane, were painfully human.
Surely, then, we may be pardoned
for taking him, at present, as man,
but as a man who spiritually person
flied God. We will, for this purpose,
look at him, as he appears in the
most extraordinary of all the pictures