its soldiers, for their day's march. Gone Julius Cæsar's forked stick for raising the pound of wheat. The Italian plows with a steel mole-board, but he still wants his pound of flour for his hunger. Gone also the old offerings in the temples, and the old creeds, and the old views of the Sabbath. But man still sings, and prays, and struggles with temptation, and weeps, smiting upon his breast, and is forgiven, and dies. This religious nature of man abides unshaken; the credal leaves fall off; but the tree grows on. That vital growth is called religion—the life of God in the soul of man.—N. D. Hillis.
(2666)
RELIGION VERSUS BUSINESS
The improvement of Egypt in the
control of inundation by the great Assouan
dam of the Nile has unfortunately
drowned and is destroying the magnificent
temple ruins on the island of
Philæ. That only hurts a sentiment of
antiquarian reverence and makes bread
for many poor. But if our rush of
business drowns out our family worship,
and tires us too much for a second
Sabbath service, it may cost us more
than its gains are worth. We need to
remember that our life is sacred, for
we are the temple of God. (Text.)—Franklin
Noble, "Sermons in Illustration."
(2667)
RELIGIONS CONTRASTED
Seventeen hundred years ago a Christian
teacher gave a description of an Egyptian
temple, with its porticoes and vestibules and
groves and sacred fields adjoining, the walls
gleaming with precious stones and artistic
paintings, and its shrines veiled with gold-embroidered
hangings. "But," he says, "if
you enter the penetralia of the enclosure and
ask the officiating priest to unveil the god of
this sanctuary, you will find a cat, or a crocodile,
or a serpent—a beast—rolling on a
purple couch." And a modern writer asks
us to contrast this with the temple of Jehovah
at Jerusalem. Here, too, you would
find a gorgeous building, a priesthood, altars,
and a shrine hidden by a veil. Within the
veil stands the Ark of the Covenant, covered
by the mercy seat, sprinkled with the blood
of atonement, and shadowed by the golden
cherubim. Let that covering be lifted, and
within that ark, in the very core and center
of Israel's religion, in its most sacred place,
you find, what? The two tables of the
moral law. There, in a word, you have the
contrast of the two religions. The moral
law, enforced by the belief in the one true
God—that is the religion of Israel—and that
religion was interpreted, fulfilled, and consummated
by the revelation of the Christ.—Thomas
F. Gailor, "Student Volunteer
Movement," 1906.
(2668)
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RELIGIOUS CONDITIONS OF THE WORLD
This chart indicates the magnitude of the
task before the Christian forces of the
world in bringing humanity up to Christian
standards. The significance of Christian missionary
and evangelizing work may be represented
as an attempt of one-third of
mankind constituting the Protestant, Roman
Catholic and Greek Christian countries
through a small band of picked workers,
to change the religious habits, opinions and
faith of the other two-thirds. But God has
provided that this great task shall be accomplished.
(2669)
RELIGIOUS EDUCATION
A friend tells me that one of her earliest
childhood memories is of being awakened by
her mother before daybreak on a June morning.
"Come, child," she said, "come with me
over to the pines, to hear the thrushes sing."
