Honolulu star-bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1912-2010, 1913-10-11


Honolulu Young Mems Christian AZ.
ISOLATION, will contribute TO the church
pace of the Star-BulIetin. These ar.
tIcIes will be published weekly, each
dealing with some important phase Of
the work both in these islands and
elsewhere. @
Mems religious convictions have al.
ways expressed themselves in at least
two ways first, in the building OF
buildings, and second, in the doing
of deeds. Take the matter of build.
fngs and consider the Greek religious
ideal. The gods were no better than
the men; they had the same base
passions and they gave them the same
expression. With a religious ideal
that was low and earthly, the archi.
lecture in which 1t embodied Itself
was low and earthly. The Greek
temple was broad and squat, beauti.
ful enough, symmetrical and harmoni'
Gus. but OF the earth, earthly.
Now skip a few centuries and look
at the religious ideal Of the Middle
Ages. The people of the day wor-
shipped "a God that was away up in
the heavens; He was b pure and
holy God and their conception of Him
was lofty II. the extreme. And how
did this conception of God affect
architecture? It expressed itself in
the lofty, aspiring towers of Gothic
architecture. It's material equivalent
were the steeples, spires, flying but
tresses and lofty nayes, elearstories
and arches of the cathedrals Of the
Middle Ages. 3
And what about today? Today we
worship a God no less lofty and noble
than q God of the Middle Ages, but
one who is very much here on earth
and intensely interested in men, and
the architectural expression of this
ideal-this ideal Of God among men
and interested in their welfare lie
seen in the buildings we are building:
namely. the institutional church. the
Y. M. G. A., the social settlements
and the welfare house That is. the
modern expression Of religious ideals
is intensively practical, and the
name we give this practical expires.
sion Is Social Service.
= Now Jet - start alonk another
path and see where we arrive. The
first energies of the Christian reli.
gion were expounded in the formula.
ton of creeds an intellectual ex,
preston characterized by the divi.
sion of forms of worship and ritual
and emotional expression Now we
all know that the human mind func;
tons along these lines. It has its in.
tellectuaf emotions and volitional &C.
tivities, and It is therefore to be ex.
pected that religious fervor, having
devoted itself to the formulation OF
creeds and the Development of ritu.
al, should now seek its volitional .ex.
preston. and such we find to be the
case. The religious man Of today,
the characteristic man of the period
is much more interested in practical
forms Of service. Then, he is either
creeds or ritual Following this line
of thought, we come to the same
place that our previous path directed
us the fact that the characteristic re.
ligious expression Of oday is social
service.
Right here it is necessary to say
that we have reference only to the
characteristic or dominant note in re,
ligion. There are men today whose
religion Is chiefly intellectual, and
there are others to whom religion is
largely matter of feeling. Like
wise, in all the parts of the church
there have been men filed with high
ideals of science But this is true
The motive that moves men to the
greatest extent in the religious &C.
tivities of 1913 have a bearing on
practical things, and social service
is the name we give these activities.
of course, men still formulate
creeds; the thinking mind naturally
tends TO put its thoughts In system
etic form. And men develop ritual
and follow forms because the emo
tional side of our nature is still
strong and will continue so. But we
are, living in an eyolutional age, and
the man who does things" is our
nero
Perhaps 10 years ago heard the
famous Mayor Beardsley of Kansas
City say these words: No mans
lie mas duOuulSu To very HauCu I'LL
til he has united to some great
cause In politics this does not
mean the mere thinking out of plat.
form; in religion it does not mean
the mere aequiescence in creed. The
religious equivalent of this is that
salvation depends whole lot more
on deeds than on creeds and that if a
man is damned it will be more be.
cause of what he didn't do than be,
cause of what he didn't believe. This
does not mean that / underestimate
belief. 1t does mean, though, that
we have wasted a whole lot of ener.
gy trying to prop up some things
not worth propping up, and that this
energy might be better expended in
tearing down tenement houses, Civ
ing babies clean milk, getting the
working man a fair share of what he
earns, and seeing, as DR.. Bosworth
once said, that every man has an
equal cnance at the good things OF