The evening Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1918-1920, 1919-01-30

seled and puerile. It goes to prove
the contention that the East is East
and West is West and the habits,
one the exact anthithesis of the other.
That common meeting-place is the
customs, ethics, trends of thought o.
meeting-place of religion.
It seems strange to say it.
We of the western world may be
unable to comprehend it. In failing
to understand and appreciate we may
scof or lose interest.
There is {. great No-Man's Land of
ePace which both of US can traverse
and join hands and live thereafter in
harmony and good-fellowship and I'M
derstanding in a world big enough to
hold all of us.
It is Religion.
Religion to us American folks in
hobby.
We do business six days in the
week, deaGly-erious business. We
make money and gain the wherewith-
al to buy our wives linousenes and
send our daughters to Vassar. The
seventh day we ride our hobby. That
| is, if we mix up with Religion as we
have it in the main in this country at
al. Old Jonathan Smith owns mill.
Sixth days does he labor and multi
grab around in orders and invoices
land bills OF exchange and bank-bal-
ances and receive delegations from
the pper1nakers's union and vote the
Republican ticket straight because
he believes in high protective tariff.
But the seventh is the Lord his Gods
In it he does no work, he nor his OK
nor his ass nor his man-se1vant nor
his mald-servant or the stranger that
is within his gates. He goes to church
on the Sabbath. He acts as head
usher. He sings the hymns in wierd
bass that sounds like a broken bel
lows on the loft organ. He meets
the Board of Trustees after service
and discusses ways and means Of
making up the pastors salary or
mending the roof over the bck par
sonage porch or raising the annual
contribution to be sent to the heath
en-. His daughter leads the choir
and sings a weekly solo that gets her
name in the little local paper. His
wife leds the Ladies' Aid Society. His
superintendent teaches class in the
Sunday school. His, office boy comes
to Junior League In order to walk
HON afterward whit he little Jones
girl who lives down by the water
works and his workmen use the
church chiefly as something to be alb
sent from, in order to go fishing or
monkey with the bowels of the Tin
Lizzie. None of them are hypocrites
; Each carries the precepts of the Ser
mon on the Mount into his daily acts
) and his daily qualifications in great
vague, senai-altruistic, typically-Am-
erlcn way. Disassociated with the
daily routine, a we disassociate Re
llglon, it can be termed a hobby.
: But IN the Orient it is very, very
different. Religion enters into every.
thing. It comes first. It is the cor.
nerstone of society-flial relations
the family, the government, business
Which is something the Anglo
l Saxon cannot understand because hi
has never taken his religion tina
: way in continuous two-hour doses.
All the same, we can meet on thu
common ground Of religion.
1t is the one thing which all hu
mankind takes seriously.
t 1t is the Great Fundamental.
: In the heart of all two-legget
humankind, from superman to Hot
:, tentot, is the great yearning for sat
osfaction in the vast mysteries O.
= life, birth, death, occult manifesto
ttion, the reason for occurances in thu
g world of nature, the Infinite Powe
T which men call God. Government
Il may rise and fall, empires may flour
: ish and pass away, kings may stru
across Iife's stage, great cities ma,
al erect their Babel towers and tomor
row the sands of time lie heavif
upon them. But the wonder afte
God and the possibility of life afte
death where the soul-heart of suffer
It ing mankind may get the justic
|, which even Nature denies him in thi
+ life, goes on and on. This yearnin
d after the Infinite is the heritage of a
e mankind. Understand mans rel
@ gion and usually he is your friend 70
e you know him for what he is. It
l. the golden chain that binds US all to
;e gether in caste above the brutes.
y We can seep our habits, customs