Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1925-02-12

part and parcel of life's best? Are
our loyalties to it, and our invest
ments in its behalf, and our toll under
its banner sane and worthy expires
sions Of our proper interest in and
search for that which is best?
To be perfectly frank and honest,
sometimes wonder about this. There
are some churches that never would
churches Jesus would never recognize
so far apart are the ideals of Jesus
on the one hand, and some churches
on the other. But just as | do not
judge an orchard by the scrubs it
sometimes yields, neither do | judge
the Christian enterprise by some
pathetic institutions that are called
churches. | come, at last, after all my
doubts to a penetrating look into the
philosophy of Jesus and the program
of the enterprise that has been built
around his personality. Therein see
some fundamental things that are de
finitely in league with. reality, and
that conform both in content and
scope to the requirements made by
the people who legimately seek for
life's best. For it must be remember
ed that, underlying all that the church
is, is view of life and program for
life, that like the hillside, have their
source in the vital though hidden res
ervoirs of the Eternal God but ffothy
sentiment; it is the durable cloth
spun out of the strong threads of life
by the Master Weaver Himself The
church is the custodian of these
threads of life, offerings that chal-
lenge your honest appraisal as LIES
best things.
And these are some of the threads
of life offered by the Christian Church
First, and perhaps foremost, high
premium on this human life forms.
Human life has made Almighty strug
gle upward, raising it's value thereby
from something less than the price of
dirt to the highest value of all. HUI
mainly has made long march from
slavery to fear and superstition, from
bondage to kings and things to the
position of mastery of it's own life
and destiny, to lordship over kings
and things. Human life has awakened
very slowly and has come only after
the long years to a consciousness Of
its normal right to be lord of life and
friend of God,
The Christian church heralding the
Gospel of it's Master, setting the pre-
MUM our human life has given it a
new sense Of its dignity and speeded
it on its way to the full conquest.
What other Teacher ever put the
emphasis upon the dignity and worth
of life that Jesus put? What other re-
ligion compares with the Christian re-
Iigion in appraising human life? What
other institutions does as much as the
church of Christ for human life?
The worth of life-of your life-of
every life this is the great teaching
of the church
Second, there is the presentation of
our ethics, way of living this human
life, that eclipses any other teaching
that the world has ever known.
The sermon on the Mount is the
highest peak of moral possibility that
humanity has ever been asked to scale
1t is amusing yes, amusing, to hear
some men talk about the sermon on
the Mount-those impossible teach
ings' of Jesus which practical men,
living in practical world are asked
to follow What dreamy fool Jesus
was anyway! Why, even our small
minds understand how utterly impos
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