Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1926-02-21

spiritual inner life they must find it
by cropping out from where they
stand. Personally, l have no inclina-
ton to sneer at the Tennessee noun.
taineer who regards evolution-Which,
as l have said, came to me as a reve
lation-as an impious idea. I do not
think you are going to get this atti
tude out Of him by ridiculing and
lecturing him. / think he Is much
more apt to grow away from it if he is
left free, to believe or not to believe.
After all. true religions does not come
from believing this or that, however
precious, essential. fundamental this
or that may be to you as an indi-
vidual.
1t is not in theologies, creeds. cere-
monies that we find the most vital
and profound expression of religion
it IS in the kind of man the religion
makes. A mans tolerance. sympathy
charity-a mans relation to other
human beings, reflects the depth and
genuineness Of his spiritual COM
munion.
The Christian religion. in spite of
the crimes in human relations which
have been constantly committed in
its name, emphasizes more clearly,
beautifully and satisfactorily than
any other what the relation of the
truly religious should be to his fell
lows. According to the Christian sys-
tenn as it is laid out in the Bible
society should be a brotherhood of
men-not a brotherhood of white
men only, but Of men of all colors.
Moreover. it takes men as they are.
pagan. Christian, idolator. scoffer,
Catholic and Jew, and it lays down
= In - ~ ni,,las yoI
tial for their living together in
just and peaceful society. These pre-
cepts. if they mean anything, mean
mutual understanding ,accommoda-
ton. sacrifice:
Judge not lest We be judged"
"Ye cannot serve God and NAM
mon"
Whatsoever ye would that men
should do to you do ye even so to
them
Love your enemies, bless them
that curse you. do good to them that
hate you. and pray for them that
despitefully use you and prosecute
you"
Test these precepts by the inner
light, the light which communion,
worship gives, and they ring true.
They satisfy the spirit more and more
deeply as ii develops. Moreover, they
produce the only type Of human
being that can work out brotherhood
OF man.
\ few years ago, trying to get
down what I really thought about
the influence that the Bible had e1-
ercised in the world. l said of the
man that it seeks to build up to
work out Christianity's notion Of a
brotherhood of man. that he was
"thn man of the Beatitudes-hun-
gering and thirsting after righteous
ness; merciful. pure in heart, meek
in spirit, a peacemaker. willing even
to be prosecuted and reviled for
righteousness sake. This is the
whole or perfect man in the Bible
sense, and to produce him is its
continuous concern. BY personal his
tories, by parallels, by contrasts of
good and evil conduct. by maXims of
the highest beauty of form and of the
most penetrating moral quality. 1t
warns against those things which
would poison the heart and deform
the conduct it seeks to establish.
Pride. greed, hypocrisy. cruelty, ir-
reverence, cowardliness. are moral
diseases on which the Bible wars as
great physician wars on physical
ailments which. uncorrected, would
destroy the body's tissue
This conception of men in their
relations to one another is not the
fruit of doctrinal struggle, church
organizations, of theologies however
sound and essential. but rather of the
travail of the spirit. 1t comes from
the striving in solitude and silence
to enter into fuller understanding
of the divine.
Copyright. 1920