The Ocala banner. (Ocala, Marion County, Fla.) 1883-194?, 1912-01-05
THE RELIGION OF LOVE

was chosen to wean our ancestors
from the habit of making their annual
offerings to the powers of earth and
! air and sea which had been objects
of worship-the giving in full meas
ure and running over was heather
custom in the beginning and was so
abused that human sacrifices were
not unknown, while mothers some
times gave their children in moments
of devotional frenzy The giving to
the needy need not become spasmod-
ic while even the most profuse gen
crosby at one season cannot deliver
us from that duty of being kind ac-
cording to our means on other days
of the year. Charity has all days for
her own and the inspired text fails
to fix the precise date of the coming
of Christ, though the church may
have done so in a justifiable attempt
to supply the omission.
But love is not a mere emotion-it
is not spineless. To love rightly i'm
plies the obligation of seIf-sacrifice,
and we are called upon to give some
thing more than money or the things
that money can buy. He who had the
purse of Fortumatus might give with
out measure and still deny himself
nothing; not thus can we fulfill the
duty and obey the command to love
others as ourselves. He who loves
rightly will not count the cost of de-
tense, will not hesitate to give what
he may value much above his gold
and silver or his bank account. He
who gives to relieve suffering is not
without reward and is praised of men,
but Christ babe us be careful when
! he heard such plaudits What of him
who defends the weak in these degen-
crate days, who battles for the right
against the powers of evil, who Of
tends the powerful and sets at naught
the enmity of the great when duty
is to be performed? Thousands give
money when called upon for charity
and We rejoice to know that many left
hands are ignorant of what the right
hand has given. But where are the
champions of the oppressed? Who
stands for the weak against the
strong? Who inquiries for the foun-
tain of the wrong while giving to re-
| Iieve the effects of it?
New York gives five million dollars
year in charity and that sum is du-
plicated in the subscriptions offered
that are never placed on the books,
but what can these sums relieve but
the mere symptoms of the disease?
What if some definite sum were pro-
yided annually to support a crusade
against the causes that make for pow
erty, disease and crime? What if this
money were placed in the hands of
careful and competent men commits
stoned to inquire diligently into the
causes and represent these to the
powers appointed to correct and, if
1
began work in Chicago as a lone wo-
man and has accomplished a world of
good, bzut who aids her in the effort
to remove the causes behind the suf-
fering she relieves? When she carries
her evidence before the. legislature
she is heard with courtesy, sometimes
she gets a bill enacted, but when are
such bills enforced?
Philanthropy has founded a school
and laboratory magnifcently endow-
ed to catch the germs of disease, iso-
late them and search for the means to
put them out of action; who is
searching for the more subtle germs
that carry moral poison into the soul
and bring a harvest of crime in con-
/ tempt of the laws passed to repress
action? To hang a man is waste
and may easily be a crime, but what
have we learned in a thousand years
of the means whereby the need of
hanging may be escaped? There is a
robs the victim of industry and pride
and mental strength-love for human
ity has provided the means whereby
this worm is being chased to its orr
gin and may be eXterminated. But
who is searching adequately for the
germs of immortality whose effect is
seen in the disregard of law, the re-
fusal to stand for the right, and the
offering of gifts from the pocket when
service is needed from the hand and
the brain?
Christ did not rest after driving the
money-changers from the temple but
he stood forth to denounce the ny
pocrisy, the selfshnes and greed
which offered the service of one day
as an excuse for the rebellion of six.
Is not the church and the law and
the morality and the philanthropy of
TODAY dealing with SUMMONS NJ dis