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Show Rev. W. T. Brown on "Illusion or Reality in Religion and Life" "Illusion or .Reality in Religion and Ijifo?" was the subject of an interesting interest-ing sermon by (.ho .Rev. William Thurston Thurs-ton Brown of the Unitarian church Sunday morning. The'liev. ALr. Brown look for his text, "As a Man Thinketh in lTis Heart, .So Is He." Jn pnrt, he said: "Where did the notion of the divine richl of kings with Its cycles of tyranny and slavery and moral degradation come from? From Hit: ignorant Idealism of humanity's childhood. And the first stop Inward escape from that tyranny and degradation was taken when some men began to sec and lo say that ihe king Is only a man liko other men. that he has no rights which all oilier men are nol equally entitled to. Il was only when men shook off their illusions and faced reality, ceased being idealistic and became realist.", that they gained their freedom. 13ut whence came the notion of some divine risbl residing in an external Clod and ompoyerlng him to determine duty and destiny for men? From exactly the same source as the other illusion. And it has been infinitely more harmful. If the freedom and development of mankind, man-kind, the establishment nf schools for the education of all instead of keening' learning as the monopoly of a small class, ami the steady transfer of all control of affairs to the hands of the people themselves them-selves was Imperative: if mankind was to become more than abject slaves; much more imperative is it that the soul-numbing Illusions of supcrstitution bo broken and mankind assert. Us prerogatives and fulfill its functions in tho rellKlons sphere, as ft has begun to do in the political-It political-It can do that only as it learns lo call a spade a spade in religion as in politics. poli-tics. In relation to tho illusions of theology as In relation to the fictions of kingcraft. We may as well understand liKht now Ihal there isn't one single notion no-tion or teaching Hint has come down to ns in the name of religion which litis a moro sacred claim on us than any other notions which we have inherited from the same ancient time. No claim can bo allowed unless it can be demonstrated to be true now and here. AVe need to know that this world wc live in and Ibis life of ours are merely part of a long process. Nothing can better describe that process than religion. re-ligion. If by thai word we understand the cfTorl of man everywhere and always to find out the meaning of the world he lives in and his own place and function in that world, fho passlnc notions, the guesses of our race's childhood and ignorance, ig-norance, the schemes men hnve hatched, are of lit tic consequence. The worlds religions schemes thus far have been built on guesses, on Imaginations, on illusions, illu-sions, and we are facing right now the toppling over of this house of cards which coward souls have deceived themselves them-selves with. We cheat ourselves, we enslave en-slave our children, we make ourselves tho mere playthings of other men, when we arc content with loss than tho whole truth. The religious faith of tho world todav lacks foundation, and the whole mass of scholars know It. The political and social faith of the world is just as baseless, and the world's thinkers know I hat. too. It isn't to be wondered at that millions of money are being expended by the masters of wealth for tho support of those who will help maintain these, outgrown forms of faith, because just as long as we men and women allow others to do our thinking, for us. wc shall permit per-mit others to do our ruling for us and to pick our pockets as they are now doing while wo with folded hands ami pious faces gaze in hypnotic stupidity at a mirage. The religion of the past was the religion re-ligion of childish nnd immature minds. Wc hnvo yet to discover and realize tho religion of grown men and women. That is our task today as never before. That task puts under tribute all thai we have and are. "Wc can't be hampered or confined con-fined by any old traditions or prejudices if we are to honor ourselves and serve the world in that task. We have got to be big and broad enough to bo able to learn something and lo open our eyes to the light whensoever ii may come. It ir. this world we are living In with which we have to do. All the sacredncss thai is anywhere is here If God is anywhere. any-where. Ho Is here, and no man that ever lived had any advantage- of us in opportunity oppor-tunity or ability to find Tlim. Tf religion re-ligion is anywhere, it is within our own reach, in our own selves. But no label can identify it for us or for any one. We shall know It without, the label, nnd we cannot know It by means of any label, To realize a religion which is synonymous synony-mous with awakened manhood and wo-I wo-I manhood ami level with the light of today to-day that is the dlvlnest call to man. |