The Ascent of the SoulBradford, Amory H. (Amory Howe)
Religion
The Ascent of the Soul
Bradford, Amory H. (Amory Howe)
Ascension of the soul; Soul
Jesus furnishes the light which the soul needs on the nature of man.
Wonderfully has Holman Hunt elaborated this truth in his picture "The
Light of the World." The ideal humanity never had more beautiful
expression than in that great sermon in color. The poise of the figure
of Jesus indicates strength and self-control; the thorns on the brow
tell their story of sorrow and pain; the hand at the door shows that one
man at least is mindful of the welfare of His brother; the radiance on
the face and the inspiration in the eyes are the outshining of the
goodness which dwells within; while the light from the whole person,
which reaches far into the gloom, shows that the more nearly perfect the
being the more beneficent and beautiful his influence must be. Is Jesus
Christ the brightness of the Father's glory? He reveals also the beauty
and helpfulness, the love and the service of the ideal man. He is the
pattern of our common humanity. Are we in the midst of a process of
evolution? And is the man that is to be still far in the distance? When
he shall walk this earth he will be the spiritual reproduction of Jesus,
changed only to meet the requirements of other times and new conditions.
The revelation of the ideal humanity was hardly less revolutionary than
that of the enlarged universe. Formerly men were regarded as things,
commodities to be bought and sold, creatures without souls, objects to
be used. But Jesus taught that all men are children of God; therefore
that they have the very life of God; therefore that they are created for
His eternity, and will forever approach His perfection. This vision of
the perfected race has been at work changing national boundaries,
destroying hoary institutions, undermining thrones, and making a new
world. A glance shows the revolutionary quality of His teaching. Slavery
was the curse of every land. With force on the one side and weakness on
the other oppression was inevitable. Jesus taught that even weakness may
be divine, and lo! from every civilized land slavery has already gone,
and from the world it is fast disappearing.
According to the orthodox economic doctrine, supply and demand was the
law that should govern the relation between employer and employee. The
largest profit and the smallest wages was the watchword. As the teaching
of Jesus has penetrated further into the dealings of man with man
employers are beginning to realize that labor has to do with human
beings; that manhood is enduring and that conditions are ephemeral; and
that whosoever oppresses his brother, even in the name of economic law,
at last will have to reckon with the Almighty. Thus a new and more
beneficent social order is slowly but surely emerging.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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