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- JANUARY Sli 1
The Commoner.
Mr. Watterson on Christianity
News report in Louisville Courier
Journal: Mr. Watterson'a address
wag entitled "Christianity Versus
Theology' He spoke as follows:
"Tho groves were God's . first
temples," the poet reminds us as
he sings his Forest Hymn to the
gentle rhythm made by tho twitter
of birds and the rustle of leaves, "the
groves were God's first temples."
I am not sure that the exaltation
we feel in the completion and conse
cration of this noble edifice is wholly
responsive to the spirit of God that
before all else must envelope and
permeate the religion and the life
we call Christian. There are those
who think that crude simplicity alone
befits a sanctuary. The amplitude
and tho stateliness here may mark
an unconscious dissonance between
our state of being and our confes
sion of faith; between our professed
humility and our love of display; for
they seem somewhat at odds with tho
lowly attributes of tho Nazarene we
adore and the apostles whose light
shines still upon us from the stormy
banks of Jordan and the far away
shores of the Sea of Galilee.
"They didn't know everything
down in Jujdee," another famous but
impious poet tells us; and since
twenty intervening centuries have set
the pace for lordly dome and cathed
ral spire, for the pageantry, the
pomp, pride and circumstances of the
church, l)oth militant and holy, it is
not for a poor layman, like me, to
venture an opinion, or to utter a
discordant note;
In my personal experience of many
lands I have not found that the
grandeur and beauty wrought by the
hand of man have obscured from me
the radiance of the Christ, or the
glory of the neavens. I have not
found that storied. urn, or animated
bust-has ever diverted my attention
from the wondrous tale of the fisher
men, or that piles of marbles and
alabaster encircling the altar, instead
of tho earlier archways of nature
above it, have come between me and
the worship of God. Whatever we
behold around us and about us, that
alone which makes us good men and
women is essential; the grace of
God; of God in everything, but most
of all, of God within ourselves; God
in our eyes, God in our mind, God
in our hearts; and, whether this
comes to us as pealing anthem swells
the note of praise, or is brought by
the chant of tlie choir invisible from
the tree-tops and the skies, aroused
within me the only devil I have eyer
personally known.
My reading of late years has em
braced nota few works which seek,
or which affect, to deal with the
mystery of life and death. In my
mind they leave a mystery still. For
all their learning and research
their positivity and contradiction
none of tho writers know more than
I think I know myself and all that I
think I know myself may be abridged
to the simple rescript, I know noth
ing. The wisest of us reck not
whence we came, or whither we go;
the human mind is unable to con
ceive the eternal In either direction;
the soul of man being InscrUtible
even to himself.
"The night has a thousand eyes,
The day but one,
Yet tho life of the bright world dies,
With the dying sun;
The mind has a thousand eyes,
The heart but one, .
Yet the light of a whole life dies,
When the day is done. '
All that there Js to religion there
fore is faith; all that there s to the
church, the spirit of God shining upon
ui through belief in Christ our Lord.
There i nothing else. They tell us
SrSmroh Is losing ite fold urpn
sulk. I t3iat be tru lfc DecaniW
eithor it gives itself over to theology
the pride of opinion or yields it
self to the celebration of th mam
mon of unrighteousness.
I do not believe that it is the
truth. Never in the history of the
world was Jesus of Nazareth so in
teresting and predominant as at this
moment. Between Buddha, teaching
the blessing of eternal sleep, and
Christ, teaching the blessing of eter
nal life, mankind has been long
diyided, but slowly, surely the in
fluence of the Christ has overtaken
that of the Buddha until that portion
of the world which has advanced
most by process of evolution from
the primal state of man to'the mir
acles of modern discovery and inven
tion, now worships at the shrine of
Christ and Him arisen from tho dead,
not at the sign of Buddha and total
oblivion.
A little while ago, in response to
some remarks of mine touching my
wonder that the Jewish people should
continue to reject tho single immor
tal Jew of tho ages, a good rabbi In
this city sent mo an elaborate pro
test in which he undertook not, in
deed, to revile Jesus of Nazareth,
but to enumerate and emphasize the
crimes of the church we call Chris
tian. His communication was wholly
controversial. It was not delivered,
I thought, with the very best grace.
But I could, not gainsay its indict
ment of Christianity as history
records it, and printed the Hebraic
screed without comment, or reply.
The blessed birthright from God,
the glory of heaven, the teaching and
example of the Prince of Peace, -have
been engulfed beneath oceans of
ignorance and superstition through
two thousand years of embittered
controversy. During the dark ages
coming down even to our own time,
the very light of truth was shut out
from the eyes and hearts and minds
of men. The blood of tho martyrs
we were assured in those early days
was the seed of the church. The
blood of the martyrs was tho blood
of man weak, cruel, fallible man
who, whether he got his inspira
tion from the Tiber, or the Rhine,
from Geneva, from Edinburgh, or
from Rome, did equally the devil's
work in God's name. None of the
vice-regents of ' heaven, as they
claimed to be, knew much or seemed
.to care much about the word of the
gentle one of Bethlehem, whom they
had adopted as their titular divinity,
much as men in commerce adopt a
trade mark. It was knock-down and
drag-out theology the ruthless ma
chinery of organized church ism the
rank materialism of things temporal
not the teaching of Christ and the
spirit of the Christian religion, which
so long filled the world with crime
and tears. I might have made that
answer to my friend the rabbi.
I might have said to him, "What
matters it whether Jesus was of di
vine or human parentage a human
being or an Immortal spirit he was
a Jew; a glorious, unoffending Jew,
done to death by a mob of hoodlums
in Jerusalem; why should not you
and I call Him Master and kneel to
gether In love and pity at his feet?"
"I believe in God, the Father,
Almighty; Maker of heaven and
earth, and Jesus Christ, his only son,
who was conceived by the Holy
Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary, suf
fered under Pontius Pilate, was
crucified, dead and buried; He des
cended into Hell, the third day He
arose again from the dead; He
ascended into Heaven, and sitteth on
the right hand of God, the Father
Almighty; from thence He shall come
to Judge the quick and the dead'
"That la my faith. It Is my re
ligion. It ia my cradle song. It may
not b nay, it is not your cradle I
13
or your faith, nor your re
ligion. What boots it? Can you dis
cover another in word and deed,
In luminous, far-reaching powor of
speech and example, to walk by tho
side of this the anointed one of your
raco and of my belief?"
"As tho Irish priest said to tho
British prolate touching tho doctrino
of purgatory: You may go further
and faro worse, my lord,' so may I
say to you- though tho stars in their
courses lied to tho wise men of tho
desert, tho bloody history of your
Judea, altogether equal In atrocity
to tho bloody history of Christendom,
has yet to fulfill tho promise of a
Messiah and, wore It not well for
those who proclaim themselves God's
people to pause and ask themselves,
'Has Ho not arisen already?' "
Tho world is at this very momont
appalled by what is happening among
the Confucians in China and tlm
Christians and Mohamcdans in
Africa. The crusades forms of col
lective Insanity were not half so
barbarous and relentless. What
shall, what may, the church do?
But what church? In Rome there
is war between the Quirinal and tho
Vatican, the government of Italy and
the papal hierarchy. In France the
government of the republic and tho
church of Rome are at daggers
drawn. England and Germany
each claiming to be ProtcBtant look
on askance, irresolute, not as to
which sido may be right and which
wrong, but on which sido "is my
bread to bo buttered." In America,
where it was said by tho witty
Frenchman wo have fifty religions
and only one soup, there aro people
who think wo should begin to or
ganize to stop the threatened com
ing of the pope, and such like! "Oh,
liberty," cried Madame Roland, "how
many crimes aro committed In thy
name!" Oh, churchlsra, may I not
say, how much nonsense is trolled off
in thy name!
I would think twice before trust
ing the wisest and best of men with
absolute powor; but I would trust
never any body of men rnevor any
sanhedrim, consistory, church con
gress, or party convention with
absolute power. Honest men aro
often led to do, or to assent, In as
sociation, to what they would dis
dain upon their conscience and re
sponsibility as individuals. En masse
extremism always prevails and ex
tremism Is always wrong, it is tho
more wrong and the more dangerous
because it Is rarely wanting for
genial and convincing argument to
plausible sophistries, furnishing con
genial and convincing argument to
the mind of tho unthinking for
whatever it has to propose. It is not
for mo to instruct Dr. Powell
in his duty. It is not for me to
plan a campaign for this ex
ceedingly well-housed religious In
stitution. But, I would never have
ventured to come here If I had not
believed that the wholo force of Its
organization the genius of Its pas
tor, the influence of its wealth and
culture were to be heaven-bent
toward the love of man through
grace of God. If that be wanting
nothing else is much worth while.
Not alone the love of man for wo
man, but the love of woman for wo
man and of man for man; the divine
friendship taught us by the sermon
on the mount; the religion of giv
ing not of getting; of whole-hearted
giving; of Joy in the love and the Joy
of others.
"Who giveth himself with his gift
feeds three,
Himself, his hungering neighbor and
Me."
. I would have Dr. Powell, and all
other ministers of religion, ad free
to discuss the things of this world
as the statesman and the Journalist;
but, with this difference, that the
objective pojnt with them shall be
the regeneration of man through
MAKE
$21.1
NEXT
SATURDAY
Kaaam m f aLaaal
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Kmt Mmmv-WaMI u TfWT.
Bfl KvJok. write today. Hall tfe
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A. W. Brandt Cutlary C., 84 W. BrwaVay, H. Y.
jyr. f-f omeseekcr
Learn about tho fertile farm lands
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Send name and address to J, II. ITall,
State Commissioner of Agriculture,
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WANTED BBS
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M"KmMmMimL MAOE.KarmC
Lawn 6-1 rich Ho? Fenco 1 So. 47 Inch
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coiled spring eznee CO..
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mtmwmgmmm
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Asthma
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Dan't Waar A Truss.
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CATAJaOOVK FREK.
a E. BROOKS, 173 STATE
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L 'ffrSjs 'S
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