Article April 24, 1902 Issue

Religious Items

with contributions from Geo. B. Vosburgh

In the wretched divisions of Christendom it is humiliating to think how pitiably and shamefully charity has been outraged and truth forgotten. Truth, full grown into its divinest form of charity, "thinketh no evil," but what evil is there under the sun that Christian people of one church, sect, or denomination have not been ready to believe of another and openly to allege against it? In many an unchristian controversy the champions on either side have seemed to think that they would most surely prove the goodness of their own cause by charging all manner of evil against their adversaries. It is a good sign of the present epoch in the history of Christendom that this malicious and malignant disposition has become disreputable. A better spirit has appeared, a spirit of charity and candor, even in controversy, which can have been inspired by no other than the Spirit of Truth. We are a long way yet from healing the divisions of Christendom, or even the least and latest of them all. But hope is always a duty; and surely now, when Christian people of all names are learning, in spite of all divisions, to appreciate and recognize each other as Christian people, we may hope that Churches sects, and denominations may yet abandon the unwisdom of "measuring themselves by themselves and comparing themselves among themselves," until the universal Church, which, in spite of all contentions and disruptions, consists of the whole body of baptized members of Christ, shall be so filled "with the spirit of truth, unity, and concord," that they may at length be brought to dwell together in unity and godly love.—The Church Standard.

There is a sense in which every man should live in the present. It is the eventful hour, and the only period in which a man can live; but, on the other hand, no man can live well to-day who is not looking toward that which is before him. The prospect of a bright to-morrow makes to-day strong and beautiful. Hell is a man without a future. A bright future dwarfs an imperfect past and illumines an otherwise dreary present. So it was that Paul, with consummate wisdom forgetting the things that were behind, reached forth to the things that were before.

Every true man, then, must live not only in the present, but in the future as well. He must feel that his grandest day is not behind, but before him. There are unreached heights which he may gain. This feeling is the indispensable condition of all progress. The self-satisfied man is a failure. The happy, contented, dreamy, aspirationless brutes remain the same from age to age. It is the man full of dissatisfaction and unrest who knows that he has not already attained, nor is already perfect, who becomes the colonizer, the civilizer, and the saint. Only that man grows in grace who realizes his imperfections. We all need to feel that we are capable of unlimited approach to the divine. There is an enormous amount of undeveloped goodness and greatness in men. You can set no limit to the possibilities of progress in any human soul.

Send a comment to the editors

NEXT IN THIS ISSUE

Article

LITERATURE FOR DISTRIBUTION