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Show LIFE Of RELIGION Vitality Essential in Any Religious Sys- tern Which Would Guide Humanity on , j Paths of Progress. Lifeless Religion j Indicative of Decay. Must Retain Youthfulness With Age. Organization . Necessary. Creedless Religions Can- ; ! not Be Progressive for Lack of Unity. ; ;. The first condition requisite in the religion or in the religions system that claims to guide humanity human-ity along the path of progress is the possession of ' vitality, says the Pittsburg Observer. I.f it be ; ,. wanting in vitality, no matter what other qualirica- V tions it may possess, it will be a flat failire so far as promoting human progress is concerned. The vitality of religian is recognized in its spontn- -neous action, in its unimpaired youth, and in its ! inexhaustible fecundity. A lifeless njigion con- ' , v dermis its members either to immobility or to retro-gradation. retro-gradation. Vital religion acts from its own i.nner forces. ' It does not require that its movements be im- pelled by an official or by a government. At the same time that we seek spontaneity of action in; . religion, we also require that it sho'n itself to bo1 possessed of an imperishable youtfhf illness; for-) youthfulness is necessarily associated with any-thing any-thing that very closely approaches the infinite and the divine. Only a religion that ts perpetual iuj " '' : youthfulness can impart to men thesecret of a lifo ,! that is truly progressive. What would be man's fate if be beheld his re- , . ligion grow old and decay and make place for another an-other destined in turn to pass away? He would be like an infant that would haye had a successioti of nurses whose breasts would become dry before ;- V the little one would have passed flu; stage of milk-diet; milk-diet; it would only remain a famished, frail, emar- t, iated creature. What mankind needs in an ever-young ever-young mother with an exhaustks bosom. ( But. in order that, the religTpn which is to up-lift up-lift and to guide us in the pal lis of progress may maintain its vitality, it should be organized, and ; ' organized under a social form. The nature of ' things, the effective working of religion, and the i ". expectations of humanity, accord in this exigency. If we investigate the various ranks of living crea- ' ' 't- tures we shall discover that life, in every ease, in joined to an organism. From the lowest manifes- tation of life up to man. organjsm is seen becoming fc more and more complex as it ascends and propor-tionately propor-tionately increasing in harmonv, beauty and perfection. perfec-tion. In man, who is the most organized of all -'"''.'". creatures, we find that each part of his organism V becomes more and more perfect in proportion a ? it serves his highest functions of life. That is why man is termed a cosmos. If, then, a man and outside man. life is always ' v seen to be connected with an organism which grow in perfection with growth of body and of mind, can we imagine that religious life, which domi- 5 nates even man's intellectual life, can be maintained main-tained and can perfect itself without an organism in keeping with its high standard and its destiny ? i ; By what right could we claim that this higher life, which puts man in direct communication with God, '. does not come under the universal law that rules : the whole realm of living beings, without a single. ' ' exception? Religious life should, therefore, have y an organism that is, a hierarchy of functions the purpose of which is to enable It to breathe its ; ,. native and congenial air. and to lift it higher and still higher to its infinite center. God. In other Avords, the religion that is to be the ; leader of humanity should be a. society. In order ' , . to fulfill its vocation religious life needs a mighty impelling power. But where will you find this - , sweet yet forceful power, if it is not ii a social organization which multiplies its general religious -efficiency by the efficiency of each religious force , ' at its command ? ; . Nature itself demands that religion should have an organized form. Religion places men in efficacious effica-cious communication with God. If we are brought into relations Avith God Ave ought to be equally ; brought into fraternal relations with our fellow-men. fellow-men. The more Ave are united in religion the better are we able to realize the union of all men with, God; for when we meet in a church to make com- . mon supplication, to offer common worship, or to sing the same hymns, we feel that we are nearer to God, and that God hears us. Religious sen- , timents and fervor are neA-er so profoundly impressive as when a multitude, as if one man, chants the praises of the Divine Father. The social form, or organization, of religious life has been the desire of humanity in the past, and is the desire, especially, of humanity in our oavii days. The religious history of the past six ' ; thousand years always and everywhere evidences -that religion was embodied in systems more or les perfect.' Even noAv Ave feel, the need of organizing '. everything, whether religious or non-religious. There, is not a single avocation in life that is not . embodied in a social form, whether it be industry. economics, commerce, politics, the press, or educa- V i tion. ; There has never been a founder of religion. , whether in ancient or in modern times, who did not establish a social body to incarnate it, to live it. i and to propagate it. Even the creedless "religion of the future," which is Dr. Eliot's dream, would haAre to be socialized. This proA-es to us that the necessity of things and the very instincts of the human soul are radically onposed to individualism: and that a strictly individualistic religion exelud- ing community in doctrines, in rites and in gov-eminent, gov-eminent, can not be the religion of progress. For ' individualism here, as elsewhere, is. a source of t division, of ruin, and of retrogression. ! M .. ... ..Mil I-" |