Is there a faith for the practically minded man and woman? Or is
religion exclusively for the dreamers and those who are contented with
sentiment and feeling? These people of action, who measure by results,
who have no life to waste on things not evidently useful; these who
feel so intensely the needs of humanity that they have no time to waste
in anything other than work--is there a religion for them?
But religion is not a form of life nor a point of view for one kind of
people alone; it is the spirit of higher things coming into the lives
of all kinds of people. Its expression will depend on the temperament
of the individual. It may lead some to sing hymns, but it will
certainly compel others to build houses and to care for the sick and
needy.
In a world of men and affairs no man is actually religious unless his
faith is finding some practical expression, and the greatest need of
our day is that our hard-headed men and women who do things shall
become inspired with the spirit and ideas of religion and shall do
those things which religion's spirit of love and service would indicate
as needing to be done.
Pious people are deluding themselves if they think that they are
cultivating the religious life and meriting the rewards of faith by
simply sitting in church and feeding themselves on beautiful sentiments
and thrilling visions, or even by vigorously attacking all those who
dare to differ from them in matters of religious philosophy.
Nor can religion find full expression in harking back over the
centuries and elucidating the mysteries of ancient miracles or tracing
the history of ancient peoples.
If as much brain and energy had been given to solving the problem of
society and leading men into the way of right living to-day as have
been given to digging into the historical and philological problems of
Scripture this world would be a better world by far. We must let the
dead past bury its dead. Stay not weeping by the tomb of yesterday; do
the work of to-day.
There will be much more real religion in the intelligence, care, and
sacrifice applied to the problem presented by the millions coming in at
the gates of our country than in the most pains-taking study of the
emigration of a horde of Israelites millenniums ago. This is what the
practical man feels; there is so much to be done, why waste time in
dreaming of how things once were done or in wishing for a world where
no need or sorrow exists? Therefore, he is apt to say, in the business
of bringing things to pass religion has no place; it is only for the
dreamers.
Yet no one needs religion more than the man who would do any worthy and
lasting work in the world. Indeed, the possibility of such a work will
not dawn upon him unless some of the spirit of religion and the
possession of desire to do great and worth while things is evidence of
the heavenly flame within. Any work for the sake of humanity needs a
wider vision than that of its own field. Courage fails and hope dies
if we see only the dismal problem; if we have only the practical
outlook. Some vision of the ideal must enter into all great work; one
must learn to see humanity in the light of divinity.
It is a good thing to be able to see the Divine in the commonplace, the
hand of Providence in American history, the work of the Most High as
recorded in the daily papers, as well as in the Gospels; to do our work
whether it be laying railroad track, selling dry goods, making or
teaching or trading, as part of the service necessary to bring in the
better day.
Here is the religion of the practical mind, to express by the service
of heart and brain and hand the belief that he has in the possibilities
humanity, the hope that he has of a fairer, sweeter, nobler age than
this, to make real the world's best ideals. So, seeking to bring to
earth the best that heaven has dreamed, men have found themselves
lifted into the light of infinite truth and love.