Atlanta Georgian. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1912-1939, 1912-11-02

Of all the animals that live and feel ana
suffer upon this earth, man alone looks upward.
The eagle flying in the daytime and the owl fly
ing at night, look always downward for some
thing to kill and to eat-they have the power to
Hy, but NO power to send their thoughts = the
glorious inspiring sum- or to the stars that shine
above them.
Man alone through the ages, gradually
standing erect, has at last fixed his gaze upward,
and for a few thousand years in the tens of
thousands that he has lived on this earth, his
chief interest has been RELIGIOUS.
Religion has freed men, during the evola-
ton of religious thought from brutalities,
superstitions, hatred and cruelty
Religion freed the slaves abolished infanti-
eide. and gave to the serf the right to own the
land on which he worked.
And the power of religion has only begun
it's work.
In days to come mans true religious feel
ing and conviction will free children from the
torture of poverty, of hard work, and all misery,
Just as the early Christians saved the children
from the curse of infanticide by holding the
mothers responsible and declaring that no child
could go to Heaven that had not been baptized
Religion in time will give to women their
rights, full protection, including the protection
from oppressive labor and realize the teachings
of Jesus, who was the first and the greatest Of
all advocates of the rights and the equality of
women.
Religious feeling is as varied in its expires.
sion as the races and the individuals that inhabt
The earth. And every religious feeling has its
value whether it be the dull mental cropping of
some negro kneeling before an idol, the vague
feeling of Napoleon on the ship that carried him
to ST. Helena, pointing toward the stars and
saying to his companions and his iailers "All
that means something or the feeling of such
man as John Brown, actually taking seriously
the words of Christ, Zone is your Master, and
all We are brethren"
There has been no progress on this earth,
except progress born of religious feeling
using the word religion as expressing mans
duty to his fellows, and especially to the weak
andthe poor.
Religious feeling and enthusiasm lend
power to the brain and develop all of it's facul-
ties. Religion is the highest expression of the
imagination of man, and imagination is mans
greatest force in all the work of life.
When nations and individuals become in
different to the highest things, fix their minds
exclusively on this earth, its selfish interests
and pleasures, they go down and soon are for
gotten.
The man living upon this planet, able to
look up at the stars and the clouds, whose chief
interest is not in the power, the justice and the
law that rule throughout the universe, is as
much to be pitied, and as low in the intellectual
scale as some dog that never looks upward
unless to bark at a cat, or a squirrel in a tree.
Bible classes, organized for young men, are
of especial value 1t is pity that they are not
more numerous more largely attended.
man may begin the study of the Bible in
his childhood and read it to the last day of his
ife always finding new inspiration, new thought
and new meaning.
The most beautiful and powerful writing
that has ever been done is in Isaiah
No man can pretend that he has studied his
own language unless he is familiar with the
Bible, both the Old and the New Testament.
To those that are unfortunate, the Bible
offers consolation that never fails. Millions of
mothers condemned to see their children die in