The Hood River glacier. (Hood River, Or.) 1889-1933, 1912-08-08
The Patriot in Religion

Sermon by Rev. j. R. Hargreaves,
Pastor of Heights Baptist church,
The intense religionist will always
be a patriot. for real love for God is
always accompanied by love for man
and true patriotism comes only out of
unsel6sh and deep regard for fellow
man. No man seeking self-preferment
can arise to the heights of patriotism.
Napoleon, though a mighty soldier,
was not a patriot Garabaldi was.
Among our own public men those who,
under the rather thin gauze of public
welfare, have been eontending so
strenuously for personal rights, as for
instance. Taft and Roosevelt, cannot
be called patriots. On the other hand,
without any party prejudice, ! think
we must now admit bryan TO that hon
In the field of polihes there is op,
portunity for the degrading effort shut
there is also opportunity for the most
exalted endeavor. 1t lsa mistake to
think that religion and politics should
be separated. They cannot be separ-
ated. We may have Politics without
religion. but we cannot have religion
without the accompanying political
interest. The activities of the great
est religious teachers we have ever
known. the prophets of Israel, were
inspired bv national interests. Those
sublime. those unparalleled orations of
Amos, Hosea and Isaiah were not
given forth because the men wanted to
| talk about God. Their Inspiration was
in the nations need Their sympathies
were so worked upon as to call for an
EXPRESSION of their own personal faltn
in order that the dropping spirits of
their countrymen might be revived.
The professional religionist could never
| have ascended to the dizzy heights OF
the nrophets in the expression OF hope.
little inspiration ever came from the
nriests but the prophets unseliish love
unlocked the very doors OF heaven 70
their vivid imaginatlons. And, with
those lofty colored descriptions pecuilar
to the Oriental, they made the people
live in a glorious future.
The Messianic prophesies were not
utteranees directed towards some one
to come. but simple though intense
confessions of faith in God given forth
IN inspire the discouraged and confused
and to warn the arrogant. A coming
nerson is referred to because in their
experience, deiyerance or trouble mao
always come through some personal
leader. For instance, when at one
time Isaiah with his people felt the
DISGRACE of a weak ruler his sympathy
awakened his faith and overcoming the
natural reserve which accompanies the
deenlv religious feeling he opened t
the ewes of his friends the vision of 1
coming deliverance in the person of ;
new King described in the terms OF. !
contrast. Using present tense for al
emnhatic future he exclaimed, Unit
us a child is born, unto US son i
given; and the government shall b
upon his shoulders, and his name shal
he called Wonderful Counsellor. Might
God. Everlasting Father, Prince .
peace /" The utterance is decided
religious. but it was inspired by patri
otism. Those early glimpses into tn
subject of the life atferldeath, glimpse
out of which finally grew the organize
idea of immortality, were opened to tn
eveseof a faith which wassa awakened b
the call of supreme human sympathy
When the writer OF the book of Jot
irving to solve the problem of huma
suffering. views q condition for whic
there seems to be no relief in time {
according TO conventional usages. h
/ sees the circle of existence extend int
future. Then comes the one SUI
gestion in the entire book of futul
. life. 81 know that my redeemer Ii
, eth and at last be will stand upon ii
earth. and after my skin, even tn
body. is destroyed, then without n
flesh shall see God, whom |, even
shall see on my side, and mine eS,
shall behold not a stranger. In tn
staten ent the writer is not primari
! trying to tell of a coming Christ but
3 uttering the cry Of heart whic
e while burdened for the distressed a
e wrongly accused, viii not think of G
? as unjust, therefore he sees the ne
! of a future or that vindication whi
: time does not afford. Personifyiug
/ the form of a troubled person the 81
! fering nation of Israel, his uttsran
! is the desperate cry Of hope inspired
e a sublime patriotism.
The great panorama of heaven
r discernable to the eye of human sv
, psthy, of hope inspired by true pat
otism. Thus John on Patmos, feel
the hopeless condition of his belo,