Year: 1879

The following letter represents, we
doubt not, the attitude of a great
many other young men:


To the Editor of The Independent


WIN you De so good as TO answer the follow
ing questions as briefly and as clearly as posi-
bIe, through your paper or otherwise:


lst. What is the Christian religion?


md. What reasons are there for believing in


have listened to many sermons, but have
been unable to obtain from them satisfactory
answers to these questions.


Denver, Col, Oct. 9TH, 1879.


The demand made upon us is a pret-
ty serious one. It is to teach young
men how to answer these questions
that our theological seminaries give
them three years instruction, and
then often fail of the object. How
can these questions be answered in a
paragraph or two?


And yet simple and ignorant people
can know and tell what Christianity
is and why they believe it. We will
try, praying that the Divine Spirit
Will help US, and help this young man
and others like him to profit by our
answer.


IL you want to know what the
Christian religion is, read carefully
the -Four Gospels Even one of them
will be enough. AS you read it, ard
carefully attend to the teachings of
Jesus Christ, see how you like them.
Do they seem to you good, worthy?
What do you think of that character?
1t is pity to ask us what Christianity
is when you have a Testament in your
satchel, or can get one easier than you
can The Independent. Next Sunday
you need not go to- church. to listen
to sermon, but stay at home, and at
single sitting read Matthew. If you
then do not quite understand what
Christianity is, read John through at
another sitting 1t is no larger than
dime novel. Do not fail to do this.
And, as you read, pass judgment on
the teachings of Jesus. Do they
please you? Do you like that charac-
ter? Do you love the man who thus
lived for others and died for others?


Perhaps you will find out-but do
not take our word for it-that Chris
tianity is something like this. 1t is a
religion which teaches that God sent
his peculiar and special Son Jesus
Christ into the world to teach men
how to be good. and sweet, and loving,
and helpful, and brave; that Jesus
Christ taught the best teaching that
man ever heard; that he performed
miracles of love; that he died a cruel
death and rose again on the third day;
that through him pardon and forgive
ness and Heaven are offered to all that
are sorry for their sins and love him
and try to initiate him in living lives
devoted not to their own selfish aims,
but to the honor of God and the good
of men. You will find, perhaps, that
the life required by the Christian reli-
gion is life in which you will have
to resolve and labor, not in form and
pretense, but really, to make every
body as happy and good as you can
and to keep yourself as true and pure
as was the Son of God


But you want to know what rea-
sons there are for believing it." Very
good That is proper. But, first,
how do you like it? What do you
think Of its requirements on you?
Are they proper and sensible? Is it
not well that you should crush your
own selfshness in the determination
that you will henceforth live for the
world, which is many, and not for
yourself, who are but one? If that
does seem to you something noble,
beautiful, begin with that first; no
matter whether the Christianity that
teaches it to you is true Or not. Be
gin with this, which carries its own
reason and does not need to be argued
to you. An infidel could tell you to
do that.


Now have you done it? Have you
made that fateful resolve? Then we
thank God, and proceed to the next
step.


Is it not something of an evidence
for the truth of Christianity that it
has such noble teaching of self-devo-
ton and duty? Not another religion
on the face of the earth has such
beautiful doctrine of duty, and not
one has begun to have such an infu-
ence to promote goodness as the
Christian religion. It's ministers are
preaching it all the time, even when
they do not practice it. That love
and life of Christ is being held up to
the world as the model of human life,
and its influence is advancing, and
seems likely to advance until it shall
put an end to wars and wrong. Is it
not II presumption in favor of reli-
gion that it is the chief influence
which is promoting this unselfshness
which YOU are adOptiuC?