The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1918-04-05

etiquette and minor usages and incl
dental trimmings of church lie. III
I'll is purgiEg experience religion pc
comes stifled to reality Seen by the
glar. of the star-shells on the battle
fields of France, denominational dis
tinctions seem strangely petty; Wh1le
essential religion looms ever so great
Some persons will find it hard to give
up the incidental ceremonies OF rell-
giou5 practice; for always as in the
case OF the old Jews, religion tends
to petrfy into forms and ceremonals'
ever. WHERE the substance has become
non-existeEt.
The dirtiest spot on earth known to
me is the present town of T1berlas
on the shore of the Lake OF GaI1Iee-
It's filth is memorable even after ex-
pericnce with hundreds of oriental
communities. Two sects of ultra
orthodox Spanish Jews make IL
berias their headquarters, maintain
| ing schools of the rabbis there The
curls hanging in front of the ears
and the distir ctive raiment of the
ira misunderstanding Jew are more
marked in Tibcrias than anywhere
else in the whole land. Here the
Jealous wait for the Nj ssiah to rise
| from the waters of the lake, accord
ing to their tradition, and to choose
his disciples from their midst, pro-
ceeding to Safed on yonder hill to set
up his earthly kingdom. Now all
| this religious zeal and orthodoxy and
solicitrfde for ceremonial has no rela-
ton whatever to real cleanliness. This
| divorce between traditional "holi-
ress'' and common decency seems to
! characterize many sacred places
Thus BenG.reS, the holy city OF the
Hindus, is so sacred that even if an
infide. dies on it's soil he has hopes
of paradise. Yet Benares, the city, is
| fairly nauseous. Mecca, toward which
every Moslem turns when he prays,
and whittier two hundred thousand
| pilgrims go every year, is the greatest
breeding place for cholera known to
medical science. They all represent,
| like the fastidiousness of the Phari
sees, the religion of ceremonialism.
| Rites and obServances are exalted to
first place. The old Jews of the time
] of Christ had overlaid the law of
Moses with their tradition until reli-
gion had become a burden too heavy
| to he borne The exactioDs of the
abbis ran down into every depart
ment of human interest and into every
hour of the life of the faithful.
i The Reformer Dissents.
Clearly and fearlessly Jesus took is
sue with all this. He knew that the
/ tendency of all religion is to deterior-
| ate into a set of fOrmar observances.
The heather faiths that environed
| Israel even as the heather faiths to-
| day. prescribed practices and ritual in
stead of spiritual faith. So the brave
Teacher from Nazareth did not hest
tate to indict the experts in religious
| ceremonialism as blind guides. With
high disdain He dismissed the Phari-
sees and their claims as teachers. In
this, as always, the principles He laid
down hold for all time.
One wonders and wonders just how
much of our present detailed religious
teaching-the capitalization of the
| traditions of the elders-and how
much of the machinery of religion will
! have to give way before the new clear
| spirit of Jesus speaking to our time
in the thunders of battle? Already
the magazines are raising fundament-
al questions as to the adequacy of our
pulpit teaching for the times. All of
us are ready to drop non-essentials:
but there is no thoughtful person,
whatever his creed, who is. not eager
to know the mind of God for man
kind.
The platform of the Reforner upon
which all the race will one day come
to 81, nd, is God is a spirit, and they
that would worship Him must swor-
ship Him in spirit and in truth Lip
religion is not life religion. Seeming
right is less important than being
right. The fundamental consideration
for every life is that the heart shall
be right with God This is not effect
ed by religious derneanor and pre-
scribed practices; on the contrary, out
of the heart flow the fruits of true
religion.
Clean Hands or Clean Lives.
The debate which is set forth in this
present Sunday school lesson arose
from the fact that the disciples of Je-
suS did not observe all the strict pnar-
isaical rituals. In truth, nowhere in
the world do the busy, out-of-door
folks, the plain people, follow all the
. minutiae of the ritual of their reli-
g1ous teachers. The peasant women
=, in Moslem lands go about unveiled
The ordinary Arab does not saw his
; five prayers daily nor perform the
! prescribed ADDITIONS; the Chinese
peasant neglects his god-shelf, and the
japanese farmer is delinquent in daily
! offerings before the shrines. These
peasant fishermen who followed .JesI1.
were neglectful of the etiquette of the
conventional religious leaders.
= The enthusiastically correct wer,
very careful to keep their hands ant
their lips, but what they needed wa;
: to keep their heart with all dill
! gence," for out of it were the issue
OF llfe Jesus came preaching the new
? and radical gospel of a heart religion
? 1t mattered not what a man ate 6,
much as what he said. His clear
hands were not atonement for a hear
: full of unrighteousness. If religion
: does not make over a mans heart i
u does not do anything of value to him
, Conformity to creed or system o
= | government or ecclesia Stical usag
u means nothing unless the heart itsel
! has been made new. Jesus is differ
= entiated from all the other teacher
= of religion in that His gospel is base,
u upon the principle of the new heart
. Religion Out of Bounds
: A deep-rooted sense of our owl
" crowd, and an instructive tendency t
s turn our backs upon the outsider
d especially if he seems an inferior, is
o fundamental fact in human nature
No matter how much we talk abou
=. brotherhood, it is difficult for even TIL
most tolerant of us to realize that ev
d cry man is a brother and possib
n equal That is why democracy is tn
n highest attainment of humanity. TIL
: exclusive attitude in politics and SO
Lie at1nr