Arizona republican., 1922-05-14

his wife to Sarah, was symbolic of
a covenant and Of a religious reform
under which Abraham and his peo-
pie were to walk before God and to
be made perfect. After a period that
tradition makes longer than our
Christian era the greatest of all
Jewish reforms took place-that by
which Moses, after God had spoken
to him on Sinai proclaimed the Ten
Commandments and the divers laws
and ordinances known as the Mosaic
Code Passing over many instances
Of corruption and reform, we remem-
ber the new covenant of which Jere-
miah speaks-the substitution OF
personal religion for external cere-
mony-the change signalized by the
promise: Il will put my law in their
inward parts, and in their hearts will
| write it," But men are human
and they were no more able TO keep
this faith incorruptible than the
older one. II Abraham or Moses or
jeremiah had been able to speak
for the average man, and their COW
enants had been kept it would still
have meant only that a relatively
pure and eleyating religion would
have been perpetuated; not that the
highest or best truths of which man
kind was to learn had been unfolded.
Christ's Sermon on the Mount sets
forth the relation between the law
and the prophets and their fulfill
ment in that kind of righteousness
which the new religion demands. 1t
asks not less but more than the old
covenants. 1t demands Abraham's
faith, the cleanliness and discipline
or Moses, and the courage of Jere-
miah in throwing aside teachings
no longer true or applicable.
The new gospel glorifies the COM
mandment of love. 1t was not en-
tirely new but il takes a new and
commanding place in religion. 1t is
the fulfillment OF the covenant. OF
the law. and of the prophecy. 1t is
not a gospel of the deCadent and
seryile. as has of late been falsely
taught, but for rich ard poor. super
men and ordinary men. 1t gives
fulfIllment of personality in volun-
tary service. 1t makes free. il de-
mands creative power at its best
and gives scope for originality for
divers gifts. Thus, the origin of
Christianity answers our question as
to wise methods OF reform. 1t con-
serves what men Of faith and love
and Righteousness had learned in all
the ages Of Jewish and non Jewish
history. 1t breaches the same duties
that the prophets demanded. but it
makes their performance easier be-
cause 1t rests upon a transformed
nature, on an inward desire 1t de-
mands charity to the widow, the
fatherless, and the stranger; but il
puts this obligation as a privilege, s
an act Of common courtesy to a
member Of our own family. The ma
ture of the fatherhood Of God and
the brotherhood of man are made
clear TO us by the manner Of life
which Jesus led. the parallels he told,
the sick he cured. the hungry he fed,
the rascals whom he drove out of the
Tesnple.
Wise reforms are those which are
as radical and as conservative as the
Mosaic Code, as the new covenant of
jeremiah, as the birth and spread Of
Christianity. We cannot limit re-
forms arbitrarily to trivial details
Gradual changes are better than
cataclysms but sometimes the con-
ditions are ripe for such a sweep
ing and dramatic reform that il can
hardly be called gradual. Wise re-
forms demand constructive states
manship and genuine desire to pre-
serve what is good in the social
heritage. But they do not demand
tAlAiIhiAS VI a DlAuu CllD2lllS 10 NndI
is old merely because il is familiar.
To distinguish idolatry from religion.
superstition from faith, corruptions
from beneficent institutions, the new
that is a birth or a rebirth from the
new which is degeneration. we have
need Of much spiritual snsight and
much practical wisdom. Reform and
reconstruction are the watchwords of
true progress. Revolution and reac-
ton are the extreme dangers, on the
left hand and on the right, which the
progressive reformer has to avoid.
1t may indeed be necessary to plunge
into the gutter Of revolution on the
left if the highway ahead is abso-
lutely blocked, or into the gutter of
black reaction on the right when
the red revolution of the left becomes
destructive; but wisdom is on neither
side--only desperate necessity or in |
sane folly Wisdom lies on the road |
way of which the goal is known and |
freely chosen. On this roadway we
may proceed with confidence. Its
pavement is built of experience; our |
companions are brothers: our equip |
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