The Penn's Grove record., 1915-12-03
TAUGHT LOVE ONLY
Jesus Was Ever a Stranger to
Hate, as Should Be His
Followers.

Can religion subsist upon the husks
of hate after the grain of love has
been threshed out upon the floor of
class and racial prejudice? This is
the great, looming question that is
showing its full proportions in these
days of rancor and of rage. The
litany of love runs through the New
Testament and finds it's compelling
objectifcation in the cross-burdened
Stranger to hate, as he travels the
way of devotion and of sacrifice. In
h supreme fact of the Christian re-
ligion, the fact of Calvary, stands out
the answer to the great question of
today. 1t is not an optimistic answer.
for it sets forth as the principal fact
of human history that hate unceas-
ingly challenges love. 1t parts the
garments of purity and of hope and
of holiness and of faith, and reduces
them to the tattered spoil of a GAM
bler's throw of the dice. Hate is the
hellish thing that sits at the loom of
the worker, that dribbles it's malice
at the wheels and spindles of enter
prise. 1t is the devilish device by
which the wheels of society are run.
For love is ever under the crushing
heels of hate. 1t is never killed. 1t
ever arises anew. But the strength
of love as a motive force in society is
its startling revival in forms that
compel the admiration and that Sc
cure the devotion of great bodies of
mankind, and that even transform the
face of society itself.
christ's Teaching Plain.
Love is now in the Gethsemane
garden. Even many Of it's disciples,
those who stand in the pulpits, are
preaching the doctrine of class hatred.
They picture the woes of the worker
until they forget the One who bore
the burden of privation until he was
deprived Of the holes of the fox and
the nests of the birds, and had no.
where to lay his head. They forgot
that he entered upon the arena of hu.
mar living through a cattle stall. They
overlook the fact that he never en-
~tertained a social grievance. They
neglect the great positive of his life,
lever to pass by an opportunity to
do service. In the world We shall have
tribulations, says he, and adds, Be of
good cheer, for I have overcome the
world. He has no patent of suprem-
acy owe the ills of life. He displayed
the source of the ~rejuvenating waters
of love that flow hard by the throne
of God. He pictured the state of
brotherhood that should not be Sc
cured by striving and by crying aloud.
He pictured the ideals of life in the
light of a love-wrought soul. He de-
picted the only way of true peace, and
even as he pictured it there fell
athwart that way the shadow of his
own cross, leading him to excIaim:
And if l be lifted up l shall draw all
men unto myself.
One Only to Be Looked To.
There may be some other person
atty more potent than that of Jesus
Christ, some other teachings more
satisfying, some other life more in
wrought with the persuasives of love.
But until such has been revealed the
n supreme exponent of the teach
ings of love must be looked to as the
security of the toilers from those who
would exploit them in terms of exag-
gerated suffering and discomfort.
Material panaceas for the ills Of
life there are many. There is but
n spiritual corollary to the condi-
tons of human distress, and this is
God. Jesus Christ has the function
of illustrating by life and teachings
the possibilities of human reconstruc-
ton and blessedness when the indi-
vidual is brought into conformity
with the spiritual life of the Almighty.
Unfortunately, the war abroad is SOW
ing myriad harvests Of hate, and at it's
close the workers Of those devastated
countries will be readily ranged in the
class of those who pour contempt
upon religion. Love is passing
through the valley Of the shadow Of
death, but the rod and staff of the
Almighty will sustain it. There can
be nc religion to which love is lost,
and those pulpits that placard the
catchwords of schism and hate, of
classes and crusades, are ~perverters
of the pure doctrines of humanity and
enemies of the law of love. If a man
love not his. brother. whom he hath
seen, how car he love God, whom he
hath not seen? This is a motto for
the so-styled .c~apitalistic classes and
as positively for the so-styled working
classes.