Show DISCARDS TWAINS PITRE PICTURE OF LIFE Rev William Thurston Brown Says It I Is Not So in Religion FOR WHAT DO YOU LIVE LVE MINISTER DELIVERS THOUGHT STIRRING STIRRING SERMON What Are Ar You Living For or An A Adequate and Rational Purpose for tor Life Lie was wa the subject of a sermon seron by toy byte bythe the te Rev William Thurston Brown Brwn at Unity hall hail hal Sunday Sunda He Ha said in part No man of ot modem modern times has better beter described the sort of ot existence which falls fals to the lot of at unnumbered millions llon in this thie world than Mark Twain Twan in the following words A myriad of ot men are ar born bor they la Ia labor bor and sweat seat and struggle for bread bred they squabble and scold and fight tight they scramble for little mean men advantages over each other age creeps over them infirmities follow shames and humiliations humi bring down their pride and their vanities those they tey love are ar taken ten from them and the te joy of at life is turned tur d to aching grief giet The burden of ot pain care care misery heavier at miser grows year yer by year length lengh ambition is dead pride is dead vanity is il dead ded longing for release is in inthir their thir place It I comes at last the only gift gUt earth erth ever had for them and nd they vanish from a world where they tey were of no consequence where they achieved nothing where they were were a mistake and a failure and a foolish foolishness foolishness ness where they have llave left no sign that tat they have existed a world that will wi la lament lament laa ment meat them for a day and forget foret them a forever I Then another myriad takes take their place and copies all al they did and goes the same profitless road and vanishes as they vanished to make room rom for another and another and a million oth tr H r myriads to follow the same game arid ard I path through the same desert and ac accomplish accomplish what the first myriad and all al the myriads that came after ater it accomplished nothing It I is needless to say that tat what Mark ark Twain here hEre describes is not a religious Is I not a world patterned on any plan to which the term ter religious can by bythe bythe bythe the wildest widest stretch of the imagination be called caled religious The religious problem problem problem lem Is la not how you ou can in your little home or among the circle cirle of your con congenial congenial congenial genial friends have religious conscious consciousness ness believe beleve in a a God and worship him That cannot be the religious problem today toda because tho the inevitable tendency of all al our human thinking and all l our complex life Ufe is 15 to Identify God not n t with wih some inscrutable In force torce with two or three individuals but with wih the whole race of men menThe menThe menThe The time has ha gone by when thinking people could have havo a God or unthinking people care cam car for a n God outside of hu human human man life le itself What Is it that supremely tates the human race from the tho insect from every ever low lov lower r order of at animal Not accumulation Not ingenuity Not ef efficiency eff f enc Not the power of reproduction tion ton fatherhood and motherhood All Al these Insects No it is the Insets possess i pos possibility of ot Improvement morally morly spiritually The ant hill bill hI of today toda does do not differ from that which Moses Mos or may Have we seen h of otto to today today day how no structural Improvement over that which bees be made before man existed on the tho earth Merely Merey to emu emulate emulate late the te gifts gift of these thes dumb relatives of ours our does not make and you rou me religious beings b Suppose you could address s to a score or more of ot tho the representative people of this city this vial of religion for today toda What are you ou living for What does the world seem to you What makes you do the thing thins you QU are arc doing Mere Hero are in this city cl as in every ever city ci of its is size representatives of ofa R a great get many pursuits pursuit Here HerE are mer merchants merchants chants hants lawyers saloonkeepers Here are aro ar teachers preaches Here are arc bankers banker and gam gamblers gamblers gm bier editors edior and agents of the white slave BlavA traffic dressmakers rg and ad women woman of the street and so on to the end of the list of business pursuits What would they gay edy in reply to your ques question ues tion ton The merchant would say sa I 1 am in business for the profit it i affords I Iwas Iwas was born bor Into a world which provides for merchants in which they seem to be bea bei bea a i necessity I am meeting a plain de demand demand mand of the social order That is ex exactly atly acty what the keeper of ot a saloon the preacher the brothel keeper the bank banker er tr the gambler the lawyer and all aU the rest would say sy They hey might with wih per perfect perfect feet Justice say sy I am a saloonkeeper because b ause it is a a profitable business I Iam Iam Iam am a gambler because gambling is a respectable fascinating popular and sometimes very ver profitable pursuit I 1 Iam Iam am a banker because the system calls cals for bankers I 1 am a lawyer for the same reason I am a dealer deler in prostitutes prost of one kind because there Is a demand for them I am a n woman of the th street stet because beuse the ages are much higher than I can cn get in any other oc occupation upton open to me I am a minister because religion is a recognized indus industry industry try tl and answers answer a widespread demand These Thee answers are all aU practically alike aUke In one respect they denote that all al these occupations relate solely to a certain ertain economic system All Al these people accept the world as they find It I and adapt themselves to that world But that Is not religion Religion means mens adapting ones one self to a a very ver different world to a world of ot moral morl purpose a world of higher values I am not saying that some of ot these tese occupations are not all aU right as far fa as a they go But I do want to say and this ought to be said and will wi some sometime sometime time be said to every ever boy bo and girl irl in inthe 11 Inthe the public schools those who by call can themselves educators that not one of these occupations ought to be considered by anyone as an end In itself Isel as if i It I could satisfy the need or of the human soul The time la is 11 coming when hen every ever human being that comes Into the world in the confines of ot civili civill civilization wi will be made to understand that the real rel vocation of a man or woman Is not accumulation nor political or economic power over others that It is 1 rather the te creation creaton of an ever more beautiful ever holier holer com corn completer completer pleter nobler human world To know such a vocation as that Is to be re We Ve men and women live at atall ataU atall all aU only as we link our lives with wih that divine spirit of progress of at improve improvement ment meat of ot evolution toward higher and better beter things thing which alone is God |