Article October 7, 1911 Issue

THE RELIGIOUS MAN

CLARENCE W. CHADWICK.

Religion is independent of time, space, or locality. True religion is communion with God. It is the natural and normal outcropping of universal good in the lives of men. It is the sanity of every-day living. It is the inspiration of the supersensible dominationg human thought and actions,—the word of God made practical in daily experience. It is the overcoming of all that does not bear the hall-mark of spirituality. It is the unceasing exemplification of man's sonship with God.

Christian Science is rapidly dissipating the common notion that religion unfits men for the practical furtherance of worth-while human affairs. It is strongly emphasizing the fact that it is the lack of religion which renders a man incapable of assuming his rightful place in society. A lack of religion is a lack of the true knowledge or understanding of God. The too common admission that one is not religiously incliend is only another way of confessing ignorance of God and of His Christ, and ignorance does not and cannot commune with God or manifest His nature. To experience religion is to do away with ignorance and to become attuned to the dominating power and affluence of God, infinite Mind, and this conscious legacy of spiritual wealth can alone vitalize and dignify religion. Without it one's religion will fall short of being religion.

There is but one real religion, the one that takes hold of God's right hand and brings into action His goodness, mercy, and power in the manner prescribed by Christ Jesus, healing the sick and uncovering and destroying the hidden things of darkness which have so long allured and deceived the children of men. One's religion is tested alone by what he does, not by what he professes. Blind faith is faith without doing, and is not religion. Religion makes one a doer of the word, and not a self-satisfied hearer. Man's religious nature is his true nature, and the going out of ignorance is the coming in or manifestation of this true nature. Whenever it is manifest, some God-given quality is brought into action, and some un-Christian, and therefore undesirable, mortal trait is extirpated. It therefore follows that the truly religious man is the only man who can be trusted to carry out the will of God,—to obey the golden rule and to love his neighbor unselfishly. Instead of stifling one's higher nature, religion can always be replied upon to appeal to the very best that is in humanity and to develop latent capacities of being that are ever ready to spring into action the moment self is silenced and God understood and adored.

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