OCR Text |
Show THE WEBER LITERARY JOURNAL "For the love of Jeminia, Mary, cut it out. Can't you see that it has gone far enough?" "I'm sure I have heard you say that you absolutely adored jazz." "I can't see where you got that. It is hideous in a Christmas program anyway. I'd always thought you were different, Mary, and now, this!" During the walk home, neither one said a word. At the door of Mary's home Don blurted a curt "Good night" and left. The next night found Don walking briskly and whistling a merry tune as he made his way to the Forrest home. Mary came to the door in answer to the knock. "You look charming," he said as he noticed that Mary wore a new brown dress made just the way he liked. "Let's try that folk song you were speaking of the other night." Virginia Bingham. MY GREAT GREAT GRANDFATHER They said my great great grandfather Was a captain in Washington's army. I was born in a desert, Where the wind Blew sand against the window, And rattled loose boards, And grew strong-shouldered Moving mountains of sand. I did not know my great great grandfather. I only knew the desert, The wind, His shifting piles of sand The night its distant cries And the big red star That every dusk Fell as a wounded bird falls Into the west. Anonymous. 18 THE WEBER LITERARY JOURNAL What Are the Real Evidences of a Religious Life? RELIGION is the outer act or form by which men show their recognition of a God and it includes many different doctrines, creeds, and beliefs. But in their fundamentals these different beliefs are largely the same; they all employ a supernatural power, or God, and the performance of those actions believed to be most acceptable to that God. Hence, it would seem that all actions of a charitable or honest nature are religious. However this is not always the case, for such actions may be performed for show or for personal gain. We are told that "if an evil man giveth a gift it profiteth him nothing, and it is the same as if he had kept the gift." Then if we are to have proof that a man's good acts really show a recognition of a God and constitute a religious life, we must consider more than the mere act. We must find out the motive or purpose behind the act, and therein will we find the real evidence of a religious life. A man is not necessarily religious because he obeys a few of the laws of God, such as tithe paying, honoring the Sabbath, and keeping the law of honesty. He may obey such laws for a selfish gain; while at the same time he may be unrepentant, jealous, hateful, or in many other ways live an irreligious life. On the other hand, a man may never have the privilege of paying tithing, or of attending church, or of doing any great amount of apparent good, yet he may live a very religious life. He may have no knowledge of the laws or commandments of God; but if he has a love for God, it will cause him to be worshipful, probably not with a grand form nor a great array but according to the dictates of his own conscience. He will do what is right as far as he knows what is right, because he thinks it is the will of God. Is it to be said that this man is not living a religious life? Is he to be condemned because he has not had the opportunity to attend church meetings, or because he has not been given a definite knowledge of the laws and commandments of his God? Certainly not. He has the real fundamentals of a religious life when he has a true love for God and for his fellowmen. Christ said, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it. Thou shalt love thy neighbor 19 |