Jesus and Lame Humanity A re the Churches Centers of His Essential Power? Can Gold Supplant Grace? BY REV. A. D.
BELDEN, B. D. ism was not without it. In one sense this is a compliment to religion since it means that humanity in its need finds the shadow of religion, on the whole, more kindly than that of the world. But it is much more a testimony to the sad failure of all faiths as yet to wipe away the curse and reproach of human pov erty. When we see gorgeous and wealthy cathedrals rising from the midst of miserable rack-rented hovels; when we see a sight such as used to be common in Russia, crowds of hungry, ill-governed, hard-pressed peasantry, always living on the border-line of pov erty, worshipping in churches lavishly decorated with gold and precious stones of all kinds, the scene before their eyes being literally ablaze with the wealth that would mean for them free dom and opportunity really to live; when we mark the Beautiful Gate, and the neglected humanity, we cannot but wonder whether God can be pleased that the religion which professes to ex alt His Name should so far forget His nature as' to esteem His living human temples of less value -than temples of stone! ' Humanity First It does our hearts good therefore, and corrects our perspective, to read of those first disciples of the Lord going up to the temple to pray and halting upon its alluring threshold to take heed of crippled humanity. Doubtless the beg gar had often looked wistfully through the Beautiful Gate at the holy inner courts of the temple, but the cruel ne cessity of his livelihood, as well as his lameness, kept him outside. What a picture he presents of the multitude of our own day! They, too, are before a
HE Gate Beautiful was worthy of its name. It was the east ern gate of the Inner Court of the Temple. Composed of Corinthian brass, a very re splendent metal, it towered to a height of nearly fifty feet,
its breadth being about twenty. A score of men were needed for its open ing and closing. It was not the most beautiful gate of the temple, for each gate, as you penetrated the sacred pre- cints, became more beautiful still. The inmost gates were overlaid with silver and'gold, and upon the door of the Holy of Holies there hung a glorious vine wrought in the finest gold—symbol of the infinite^ wealth of God for human need. But lame Humanity was outside thé Beautiful Gate. There it was, crippled and begging, fawning pitifully upon its fellows for a paltry pittance, bereft of dignity, beauty and power; a poor mean broken and battered thing, outside God’s Temple. What a contrast! Infin ite beauty and colossal wealth in stone and metal, ugliness and privation in life! God’s Living Temples It is a contrast all too typical .of ev ery organized religion..- It may be less typical of Christianity than of other re ligions and of its essential Spirit it is no't typical at all, but of Christendom"it is sufficiently true to touch all honest hearts with shame. Mendicancy is pro fessional in Buddhism and in Moham medanism it is flagrant. Every mosque, however beautiful, has its living avenue of approach in beggars, loathsome with dirt, disease and depravity. Confucian ism has its professional beggary, Juda-
Made with FlippingBook - Online catalogs