Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1915-06-25

An Sort, Of 0pi.i..,
Life Abundant,

III Sorts Of Opisisss
Life Abundant.
REV. H. d. Jenkins. D. D., In Sioux
City Journal
am come that they might have life
and that they might have 1t more
abundantly.-John X, 10. ~
Life Is the most elastic thing we
know. Reduced to its lowest terms It
is scarcely above the clay; raised to
its highest powers 1t is but little below
God. The test Of phisolosphy or
creed is not its logical coherency. but
what It can make Of life. What we
see every day Is not necessarily tho
thing that shall be, because Life 10
capable of continual expansion. The
living hound, faithful to his master,
has come from some lost ancestor. In
this like the barnyard cock whose
genealogy is also unknown. Life y
in state Of flux and reflux. Of devel-
opment or decay; and one circum-
stance increases its powers while an
other withers it in the bud.
All the powers Of life, physical in
tellectual and spiritual, are susceptible
of change, retroversion or advance
ment Man has a better eye today In
civilized communities than he had in
Homeric times. He can discern, dis
tinguish and describe colors and
shades for which the ancients had
neither vision nor name. No longer
ago than in the days Of the Caesars
students Of nature used to debate
whether there were six or seven stars
in the constellation Of the Pleiades.
while today it requires no extraordi-
nary powers Of sight to count from
eleven to thirteen. Life has been
brought out and lifted up. That has
been done for man which man has
done for the flowers in his own con-
servatory. Where our fathers had the
feverfew and sweetbrier we have the
Puritan chrysanthemum and the
American Beauty rose. 1t is false
view of the world which ascribes to
savage races superior qualities and
characteristics From the same brook
the white man will take more trout
than the Indian and in the same for
est shoot more deer. The civilized
races will outmarch, outclimb out
fight the savage every day in the year
and every year in the century, simply
because something has happened to
bring out their natural, living apti-
tudes, capacities and capabilities. In
other words the civilized man has at
tanned not simply life, but Life
abundant"
The pity Is that men have SO sell
dom taken that view of Life which is
presented by Jesus Christ in the word.
Men, even religious men, have too
often looked upon religion as restric-
tive, repressive, vtvisective. They en-
phasize it's denials. It is to them lit
orally cutting off of the right hand;
not as our master taught 1t. the cut
ting off of a diseased member to save
the life. 1t is to such simply pluck
ing out the right eye, not the preser-
walton of sight in the as yet unaffected
optic. The repressions or religion are
for the sake of enlargement, as the
florist pinches off ten buds to make
one perfect flower and the pomologist
cuts off hundred scions and shoots
and suckers to produce an apple ut
for something better than cider. Re-
ligion and religion alone will develop
the man, and its self dentals are not
for the purpose of repression. but that
man may have life abundant. The re-
liglon which was taught by Jesus
Christ makes more Of man In every
respect, pnySlcdlly, IHteiAeStuoAS "''N
spiritually. II that be not Its aim and
result then Jesus did not understand
his own message.
And when we come to study what
men, good men; and women. cody
women, have made Of religion we won
der how disciples could 80 have mis-
understood their teacher. We have re-
ligious orders boasting their poverty.
religious sects arraying themselves IN
absurd costumes and meeting houses
from which art has been banished and
to which ugliness Is brought In. One
would think that the master came into
the world to efface beauty. to weaken
vitality and to immune an enfeebled
existence in kennel.
But IL we are to take these words OF
our Lord as indicative OF the purpose
and effect Of religion, religion Is not in
tended to cut off a mans happiness.
but increase it: not to paralyze, but
to vivify his whole being. Under the
power Of religion life is to be not less,
but more. Religion is not an extin-
Yllr-----------------