Evening Republican, Volume 15, Number 303, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 December 1911 — Religion as Satisfaction [ARTICLE]

Religion as Satisfaction

By Rev. Hugh T. Ken,

Pastor of Fullerton Avenue Presbyterian Cbuich, Chicago

TEXT—One thing thou lackest.—Mark 10:21. This, la a character study in black and white. Ihe picture is drawn by a determined hand and there is no hint of hesitation. Stroke follows stroke until the complete portrait is before us. The story is as complete as it is concise. It begins in comedy and ends in tragedy. The young man, impulsive, optimistic and temperamentally enthusiastic, hurries breathlessly into the presence jit Jesus with the long hushed question of his heart upon his liim, and then when our hopes for him are highest we behold him making what Dante calls “The Great Refusal” and returns to his old life as ill at ease and with his heart as hungry as ever. • ( Let us not misunderstand this young man. He was no comedian trifling with sacred things and then casting them thoughtlessly away from Mm. He was intense, enthusiastic, a nobleman at heart, and* when Jesus looked upon him he fell in love with him. He bad climbed the ladder of lawful ambition, and while still a young matt was In the council of the elders. Honor did not spoil the humility of his heart, and in the presence of the Master he bowed in graceful reverence. Richly endowed with worj&ly wealth, he was still more richly endowed with a nature rich in the virtues that make for righteousness.. Jesus was intensely interested in this young man. We read that “He loved him.” I think he was interested In him on account of his youth. Christ and young manhood, as ha* been said, are as magnet and steel. This young man had all his life to Jive. The .years with all their possible achievements were still before him. Christ was Interested In this young man because he was rich. Riches and wealth meant power, and power Is another name for responsibility. Jesus spoke hard words about rich men and about rich men who loved money, who trusted In money, who because' of their money fSrgot about God. Jesus, however, did not despise a man because be was rich. He loved the rich young ruler. It was a rich man who begged his lifeless body as It hung unclaimed upon the cross. Two rich men took his dead body and wrapped it tenderly in the choicest of linen and laid it away in a costly sepulcher. ' Jesus knows and recognizes no class. Riches and poverty to him are but the toAls with which character circumstances. “The man’s the gowd for a’ that.” It Is written of him that “he made his grave with the .rich in hie death.” There Is pathos and tragedy In that sentence. “Must the Master wait till death to dwell In the habitations of the rich?” May he not make his abode with the rich in his life? Let the rich man open the ,door and Christ will enter in to share his lonely isolation, and will satisfy the hunger of his heart. Jesus was interested in this young man because he was moral. His life was pure and his bands clean. For him a good name was better than great riches. He followed tbe quest of the best He was one of the Knlgbta of the Round Table, who bad pledged his honor to “live sweet life of purest chastity.” To gain the love and admiration of Jesus It Is hot necessary to wander oir into forbidden paths of sin, and to ran the gauntlet of a dissipated life. For all young men who are fighting sin and" the devil and carrying a clean conscience in the midst of contaminating circumstances Jesus has a warm welcome. Jesus was Interested in this young man, who, with hiß youth, his position, his influence, his purity of life, was still dissatisfied and came with the cry of unrest “What lack I yet?” This Is a wonderful thing that he should have so much and yet pot have enough. • . *-,v Jesus answered the young man’s question by a command. ‘‘Come, follow me.” In a great book recently published there is this striking sentence, “If the gbds went their way and were satisfied, and the beasts went their way and were satisfied, the unrest of man can only mean that hetis not rightly related to his present We.” Now. Is not that just the truth? How can a man be rightly related to this present life in which he is set if be leaves out God and refuses to become related to the eternal realities that Jl* all around him, in the world of truth and beauty and goodness? v Are youth, and worldly httSor, and riches the only things that Rfe needs to he related to? Out of all these human relationships the cry is heard. “What lack I yet?” And Jesus responds promptly, “Ton lack the love and the light of the presence of the God of truth.” The human heart Is homeless until It finds the Heavenly Father.” Find God. and you find rest and peace and satisfaction. Religion is satisfaction. Religion completes life and perfects love, sad only in the presence of God le the soul satisfied. No sacrifice Is too great to gain this great treasure. “Sell all that you have and to the poor If necessary.” Let nothing hold yon back from following after Christ 111 fhe’’ life of •elf-surrender and loving service .v