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Show $ A Narrow Judgment J i a DISTINGUISHED English clergyman re- J-J cently, in a sermon or lecture, declared, - that much of the teachings of the Savior would not answer as tenets of religion, that they r were mere sentimentalisms, which could not be k ' followed, and cited the Messiah's admonitions tor I peace. Illustrating or emphasizing this he de- I -clared that many of the popes at the head of the mother church had made war, and made it i in the name of the cross. Perhaps this Is not a I theme which a man of the world ought to try to discuss, but reading this clergyman's words, the first conclusion which the ordinary man would reach, would naturally be that it is a misfortune t when an absolutely practical and mathematical mind essays to preach the gospel, or even, in r public attempt to rightly construe the .New Testa- f ment. There must be behind the exactness and ? the scholarship a broad and high gift of imagination. imagina-tion. L When the disciples first began to preach the gospel, the world, as it was then constituted, I turned from it and said that what was put forth outlined an impossibility; that to rule the world by peaceful means, was contrary to all history, . v and contrary to common sense, and common safe- f ty to try It. So many of the early Christians, even when praising the new creeu that taught I peace, wore their swords and kept their javelins I where they could easily reach them. Moreover, i L they always held themselves In readiness to de- . I fend the cross with their lives. They had in their souls only the first impressions of what real I I Christianity meant. ! I Their faith was of the same nature as the Mo- ' hammedans, which assumes that there Is but one I I true" faith and no sympathy is in order for those who do not accept it. But with increasing Intel 1 ligence and through much suffering, as the cen- l turies have worn away, men's hearts have much softened, until in the past few years we have seen the nations agree to the organization of a Peace congress, and in the past few days our President has proposed to the world, the organization of a I peace tribunal, in which to put the differences I among nations on trial, to be decided by wise and W disinterested judges, whose verdict the nations I must accept as final. W This did not come from the teachings of Mo- m hammed; it is a result from the teachings of Jesus , Christ. ill John Muir In his "Mountains of California," '. t tells how in ages long past those mountains stood K up a mighty rocky reef. But they were freighted . , 'with all that would be needed by an intelligent V ' ! race of beings, when the time should be ripe for ub: suk a race t0 aPPear Bu now cou-d those ele- K ments be secured? j! The sunbeams were sent to do the first work. P They pumped the waters from the adjacent ocean, W loaded them on clouds, then the winds were EL called upon to waft them shoreward; as they en- W. veloped the crags the cold condensed the moist v urp into snowy crystals and precipitated them up- fcjV on the barren mountains. This work continued for m perhaps 10,000 years until intelligent beings look- ing upon our plannet world would have pointed l out the spot and in their geographies would have Ph described it as a region of perpetual snow. That pV was the glacial age. But when enough Jiad fallen, fefrt then the breaking up began; then the glaciers be- WAf ' S1- -help flow; they began to make channels for wlfc'r ' the rivers, they crushed and ground- the rocks in ?'" ? other places to make Boil; in other places they brought down the sands which held in their grasp the placer gold; in other places they piled up boulders out of which great trees were to grow; meanwhile the flow as it reached the coast went crashing into the sea, as if proclaiming: "Our work is finished," when here and there the earth began to appear from beneath the winding sheet of ice that had so long held it in its icy folds, the birds began to appear and to sing in the wake of the disappearing ice, and after this had gone on, likewise for uncounted centuries, at last the beautiful region stood forth clothed with verdure, filled with the music of rippling waters, the songs . of birds, and the incense of flowers, ready for the coming race. After witnessing and understanding this, men should be cautious how they undertake to interpret inter-pret what the Messiah-meant when he pronounced His edicts; for He meant them for all time, and as the Infinite measures times, it is but a brief period since He lived and died. Some ui tne great Calevarus trees were fifteen hundred years old when He walked the earth. The Christian world has already accepted some of His teachings, which were rejected as both chimerical and impossible im-possible for a long time after he lived. Men accept them now because they have tried their " own ways, they have deluged the earth with blood and have done it in His name, only to realize that their work was vain. How then can a common mortal in his little room, with his narrow vision and limited experience, experi-ence, and steeped, moreover, with generations of prejudice, presume to give his interpretation of the heights and depths of the thoughts of the Lord of Lords in the words He gave to an embruted world? |