Show S E alt RMON F WILLIAM T B IN 99 0 ex R R RETURN OF UNITARIAN MIN ISTER TO OGDEN eloquent sermon on the demand and needs of human life what arc are tho the things which this human life of ours imperatively demands tho the things which if our souls ever awaken wo we know to be our deepest need TWO things answer that description crip tion two things cover the supreme need of every man and woman that comes into the world and these two things which god has made us to desire which it is the confession of our divine parentage to demand and without which our life has no more vital or inspiring meaning than the clods wo we tread upon the first that this life of ours yours or mine or any ones shall mean to us something precious something divine that it shall be and seem to us of highest worth nay more that the tile world itself shall reco recognize nize in what is is and what it does the sacredness and worth of each and every human soul there is something in us all that tha t makes ier know that whatever is our world in its laws or customs in any form of civilization or social order does not treat human life as sacred does not hold the human soul indio late and supreme does not determine its policies and plans by the demands tf the soul of men Is a profanation is a brutal impious thing against every such thing the soul of man has evor ever been in rebellion and ever will be with a power and a sacrifice and a persistence that proclaims its divinity there are no pages of human history that have so much inspiration in them as those which tell of this insurrection of against that which denies its rights and profanes profaner pro fanes its sanctity and we need to know nothing so much as we need to know this that a against alast everything that stands as a barrier against the fullest unfolding and expression of tho human soul there must and will be war the e integrity of the universe Is pledged to tho the blossoming bloss oming of soul and whatever would prevent that consummation is doo doomed nied to find this human life of ours a divine tiling thing a t sacred thing a thing of noblest meaning of immortal worth kin to the infinite and eternal that is the very essence of religion wanting that there cannot be such a thing worthy to be called the church life a sacred thing not to hold it as of supreme value to hold it or have it treated as cheap and mean and worthless of less account than material wealth or prosperity is the very essence of atheism of irrell gion and brands the man nian or the civilization or the bobial order guilty of such treatment as atheistic decadent doomed to find life a sacred thing jn in all its express expression and occupation this is the fundamental need of every man and woman oman i the one need for which it is worth while to engage in any struggle tiro one need which can inspire a great struggle or create c reate a great nation or a M great civilization and with it is the kindred need that men nien and women shall hall be associated together in some task or tasks that are eternally worth while in tasks whose accomplishment means a great ana aal universal good in those two needs you have the magna charta of anything as religion not to hold ones the one purpose for which a civilization may worthily exist the tile one end crid that ju justifies just stifles lilea any human institution institute whatsoever to these needs above all others the ministry of jesus was the answer and fulfillment of his ills time that is what the christian religion in ite its flesh biesh beginnings meant that indeed waa was what made and aud marked its genuine religion it was the answer of cheso great human needs indeed that Is the one thins thing which marks the prophetic genius of israel and the peculiar service of its greatest soul above all other races above all other teachers other races have made vastly larger contributions to the material side of life none ione has made a contribution to the fundamental needs need of tho the soul comparable to that made anad by israel othor other teachers have far surpassed jesus in their contributions to the sum of human knowledge indeed he added nothing at all to the learning of the world but no other teacher approaches him illin in ministering r to the neds of the soul we say that israel was a theocracy perhaps that means little or nothing to mosi of us but it meant that tor for centuries while other kingdoms and even empires rose and fell the prophet souls of this one little nation were feeling and expressing a conception of a divine task a task which should alyc give to every citizen ol 01 that nation a sense 0 of f p performing 0 a divine service should invest the life of the humblest citizen with sacred Ine meaning aning and moral inspiration should make all the occupation and ongoing of human life ille an ennobling experience I 1 can not help feeling that our american democracy or any ally democracy that ox ex ests today must be and remain morally impotent an and sp spiritually dead in all its relation to the Individuals who make malce up its citizenship until it clearly stan stands for po policies lipics and ideala ideals w which nich give to the life of every man or woman in its borders 0 a profound worth and a sacred meaning wherever life means for an any y soul merely and only one long monotonous round one aily or weekly grind a mere hand to mouth existence exis tonce it doea doel not and cannot mean or be ble or seem a thing of infinite or sacred value it must seem cheap and I 1 low and worthless it we men and women are tha children childre n of the infinite one whose nature Is love whose soul Is 13 beauty cauty whose will Is righteousness then it is our first and highest right to bo be conscious consalo us of that tact to build our existence on that fact to be e an and d live aa as if it it were true not to be conscious of it Is to deny tt it is tho the baldest baldesi atheism and that is what Is the matter with our human life today the things we arc are doing the occupations in which we arc are eu engaged the sordid aims and purposes which absorb our strength and waste our energies and mar and malm maim our lives Is an industrial t ria I 1 civilization which does not riso rise above tho the level of a pack of wolves fighting for po possession of a carcass all arc foreign to the atmos abere of that world in which religion Is a reality yo cannot serve und mam mon nion said jesus that was and arid 13 an axiom of moral life fundamental to human nature as unerring an a tho the law of gravitation upon that foundation ti jesus besu a erected the fair structure of 0 his own character and life he made that choice and that Is his real distinction among the sons of men but our whole material civilization rests squarely upon tho the worship of 0 mammon wo live and move and havo have our being in that atmosphere we wo launch the lives of our children into that kind of a world we do all in our power to impress that belief upon their minds and we wo are entirely successful and that la Is the reason why this Is a godless civilization why religion seems the most unreal of all things and why its claims receive no serious consideration at our hands tho the common attitude of this whole commercial order which has tho moju ing of our lives today declares plainly serve mammon ve we must and wa will 11 on no other condition will we oon consider lder the proposition of fc erving god and the shame of the christian church the secret of its impotence and decay lies in the patent tact fact that it hag has repudiated the foundation principles of its founder declares that men can serve both god and mammon god one day in a week and mammon six days in the week and so surrenders its right to be the symbol and witness of the great i reality the one thing that makes it worth our while to know about je jesus kus or about the men of that long ago who shared his faith and task as they did as emerson puts it hitch their wagon to a star it was no meager puny impotent limited life they lived it was a life that knew no bonds a life full rich world embracing for them the one thing worth while was the human soul for that the universe universo existed in that fact lay jay their power theirs was wa a life in conscious kin kinship ship with the living creative good it was a life of which the lords prayer was a natural express expression ton the they r were indeed as one of them said ambassadors of christ co workers coworkers with god bearers of 0 a gospel as wide as the world in its scope and w as deep as human need in its reach to the church of that day there were heretics infidels outcasts hunted disturb ers of the peace men against whom the charge was freely made that they were trying to turn the world upside down the customary rites of established religion meant nothing to them in no sense or way espree expressed aed or could express the religion of which they were conscious and which they lived but we of this latter iatter time know that religion had departed from temple and synagogue from the whole structure and routine of the established church and bad taken up its abode in those churchless peasants and their outlawed leader that because these men had found righteousness and were wore inspired with a great love and were asserting the deepest rights of the soul they had found god and were become his messengers there is no need in all our life today so deep and large and Ins insistent latent aa as that same need to which the life and ministry of jesus wore were the answer nineteen hundred years ago atrue A true church exists or can exist tor for no loss purpose than that of perpetuating that divine incarnation of doing for men and women and children now what jesus did tor for his ills disciples disciple what israels prophets tried to have their nation do for its citizens us at such tasks inspiring our llyal with I 1 such ideals investing us with such bubb employment as must give to alfo right hero here and now a sacred worth and a meaning which shall be an intimation of immortality there never was and is not now a symbol of religion which borrows its ideals from any political expedient or materialistic arrangement of our human world nothing worthy ltd 6 be called religion ever follows in tha rear of the human march aa as the so called christian church is doing in our lay day religion ever leads that march and there in the lead must it be sought and found and this is the deeper meaning of all the struggle and c con filet met which disturb our selfish contentment of all the blundering strife sarif e of socie tys submerged clauses of all the harsh noises of our day that men and women everywhere in palace and in hovel in tho the haunts of vice aa as well aar a in the homes of virtue and demanding their birthright are groping for tho the divine reality and it Is the privilege as it Is the duty of the christian church with its masters disregard of tradition of temple and rite and custom to hear in all this strife and struggle tho the very accents of the infinite love the immediate summoning word of god and with something of its leaders faith again to put heart and hope and gladness into men mens souls by giving them the sense of a great mission and a great ideal cant look well cat well ivell or feel well with impure blood feeding your body keep the blood pure with burdock blood bitters DItter sr bat eat simply tale lake exercise keep clean and you will h havo avo long life |