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Page 23
The qualities religion puts into the life.--What, then, are the things
men live by? What are the great qualities which have ruled the finest
lives the world has known? How does religion express itself in the run
of the day's experience? What are some of the objective standards by
which religion is to be measured in our own lives or in the lives of
others, in the lives of children or in the lives of adults? What are the
characterizing features in the life and personality of Jesus? What did
he put first in practice as well as in precept?
_Joyousness._ No word was oftener on the lips of Jesus than the word
"joy," and the world has never seen such another apostle of joyousness.
The life that lacks joy is flat for him who lives it, and exerts little
appeal to others.
_Good will._ The good will of Jesus embraces all manner and conditions
of people. His magnanimity and generosity under all conditions were one
of the charms of his personality and one of the chief sources of his
strength.
_Service._ Jesus's life was, if possible, more wonderful than his death,
and nothing in his life was more wonderful than his passion for serving
others. The men and women whom the world has remembered and honored in
all generations and among all peoples are the men and women who found
their greatness in service.
_Loyalty._ Steadfastness to the cause he had espoused led Jesus to the
cross. Great characters do not ask what road is easy, but what way is
right. Where duty leads, the strong do not falter nor fail, cost what it
may. They see their task through to the end, though it mean that they
die.
_Sympathy._ Jesus always understood. His heart had eyes to see another's
need. His love was as broad as the hunger of the human heart for
comradeship. We are never so much our best selves as when self is
forgotten, and we enter into the joys or the sorrows of one who needs
us.
_Purity._ Sin has its price for all it gives us. We cannot stain our
souls and find them white again. We later reap whatever now we sow.
Jesus's life of righteousness, lived amid temptations such as we all
meet, is a challenge to every man who would be the captain of his own
soul.
_Sincerity._ No man ever doubted that Jesus meant what he said. No man
ever accused him of acting a part. His enemies, even, never found him
misrepresenting or speaking other than the truth. All truly fine
characters can be trusted for utter sincerity of word, of purpose, and
of deed.
_Courage._ Jesus was never more sublime than under conditions that test
men's courage. Did he face hostile mob and servile judge? did he find
himself misunderstood and deserted by those who had been his friends?
must he bid his disciples a last farewell? did he see the shadow of the
cross over his pathway?--yet he never faltered. His courage stood all
tests.
_Vision._ A distinguishing quality of the great is their power to put
first things first. Jesus possessed a fine sense of values. He willingly
sold all he had that he might buy the pearl of great price. His
temptations to follow after lesser values left him unscathed, and he
refused to command the stones to be made bread, or to do aught else that
would turn him from his mission.
_God-Consciousness._ Those who have most left their impress upon the
world and the hearts of men have not worked through their own power
alone. They have known how to link their lives to the infinite Source of
power; the way has been open between their lives and God. Jesus never
for a moment doubted that all the resources of God were at his command,
hence he had but to reach out and they were his.
* * * * *
It is evident, as before stated, that this functional definition of
religion, this great program of living, cannot be thrust on the child
all at once--cannot be _thrust_ on him at all. But day after day and
year after year throughout the period of his training the conviction
should be taking shape in the child's mind that these are the _real_
things of life, the truest measure of successful living, the highest
goals for which men can strive. The definition of religion which he
forms from his instruction should be broad enough to include these
values and such others of similar kind as Christianity at its best
demands.
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