THE RELIGION OF EMOTIONS.

Auckland Star, Volume XXII, Issue 92, 22 April 1891, Page 2

THE RELIGION OF EMOTIONS.

(By A Devout Worshipper.)

It is strange that amongsb all religions that are so profusely and diffusely written about there should be one which has been almosb lefb untouched. Ib is one which has an immense number Of votaries, most of whom are, however, almosb unconscious of its sway, though occasionally they feel its influence. Ib is a religion without a name, bub ib might be aptly christened the religion of emotions. By this ib must nob be understood that ib affects merely the ulbra - emotional and hysterical, thougli bhey are undoubtedly its chiefesb disciples ; bub also men and women of bhe utmosb stolidity and of thab peculiar unimaginativenesswho are generally described as common-sense people. Ib has as many degrees as Christians' sects, and very probably bakeß in as many human souls. Conversion bhero is none, proporly speaking, and it is free from the vulgarisms which beset SO many other religions, in many of which, however, itself is bhe chief factor. The religion of emotions has no dogmas. It is tho broadest of forms of worship, and is utterly devoid of self interest, which appears (only appears perhaps) to have such a largo place in tho faiths whoso dogmas are heaven and joy if we are good, holl and brimstone if we succumb bhrough the world, the flesh and the dovil. . .

' lbs chief morib is, perhaps, thab ib is pre cisoly the class alluded to in the lasb clause of tho previous sentence whom ib principally affecta. In bhe course of his sermon on Sunday evening, Archdeacon Dudley commented on bhe facb thab the hymns were sung in Mounb Eden Gaol with equal heartiness —or was ib earnestness ?—aß in his own church. Ib would have been pleasanb bo think thab bhe inmates felb tho words, but experience taught bhab such could hardly be the case. So said tho Archdeacon. So far as the permanent eflecb wenb he was undoubtedly right, bub it is an open question whether tho passing feeling amongst tho inmates of Mount Eden is nob equally religious with thab of the eminently respecb- j able congregations who attend the evening cervices in our countless churches. People will always sing when they can get the chance. It is an unconquerable instinct; an enjoymenb limited to no class and indulged in on every possible occasion by humans of all castes. In the church, to the accompaniment of bhe organ or harmonium, bhe thief, the forger, or the wife - beater will join in with heartiesb goodwill, firstly, as has been said, because it is singing. Public-houses, and even less menbionable places, resound wibh bhe voices of drunken brawlers, yelling in their husky voices thick wibh strong drink—ah, the shame thab music should bo bo prostituted—songs and snatches. It is—bo parody a quotation —ibis human to sing. But with regard to this singing of hymns in church, the feelings aroused are almost undoubtedly good for the time, and, ephemeral as they are, cannot be withoub some good effecb. The religion of omobion is ab work. There is surely no man or woman so base or vile over whom music has no influence. Many do nob know why they are affected, bub the feeling is there, chords are struck, and though the strings may be so rusty and mouldered wibh sin they respond, however feebly, and for thomomenb, wibbingly or not, the soul is wakened. Ib cannob be doubted eibher, thab these ephemeral, purely passing feelings,.are good., In physics we are told thab " forca " can never be wasted, and bhis musb surely be tho case with moral and. spiritual, th|pgß, as well as material. „ , ~ With regard to the felon, too, there is truth in "Gilbert's nonsense when he says thab " when the burglar is not a burgling, or developing his felonious little plans, his capacity for innocent enjoymenb is as ereab as any obher man B. No man is all base. There is some good, hidden perhaps, even from himself, and in is these, covered as they are by layers of vice and villany, thab the religion of emotions can and does reach. But, leaving the felon class, there is a far greater and very estimable body of men, whose sole religion is the one of which we are speaking. There are dozens of men who never go to church, whose ideas of the Godhead, heaven, and hell, and all the dogmas of the church are, to say the least of ib, vague ; who are, nevertheless brue worshippers, and whose feelings, when roused, are as brue, and holy, and pure, and disinterested as those of the •'congregation of bhe righteous." These worship ab the shrine of bhe beautiful. Nature" is their church, and ib is her beauties which arouse in their hearts the highest aspirations, and the noblesb feelings, amounting, bhough bhe votaries themselves know it not, to highest praise and even prayer, the best form of which is only praise in another form. Evening is probably the greatest worshippine time to the disciples of the worshippers of the beautiful. They see the creat Spirit (they would be scared to think 'of him as God) in the hush of the dying 'day, in the glories of the sunset, in the roar of the waves. Omnipotence and power is expressed to them by the resistless ocean; eternity by the vaults of heaven, sparkling with stars who seem to look down with piby on us poor morbate wibh our pebby hour of life—our trivial worries; the " peace thab passebh understanding " when they sband in clear, cold moonlighb, when the streets are absolutely eilenb. Tho water'lies a silvery mass of •brightest glory-the fir trees, casting blackest shadows, seem bo keep watch over the sleeping houses. A sense of absolute poace is in.theair, and not one man in a thousand can look upon ib without what we havo called the religion of emotion working her way with him. Aspirations are aroused, and, however vague, repentance sets in with a wish to be more worthy of such beauty. Beauty of language may and does have the same effecb. The mosb successful preachers are nob of necessiby those endowed with the most beautiful ideals, iho man who can couch his ideas m telling nervous English, whose rhythm and swing carry all before it, is bhe man who succeeds, for a time ab least, in making the sinner feel and suffer for his sinfulness. Pictures of hell and fiery lakes of brimstone have bub libble -influence on the class reached by our religion. It is the story of love and beauty; the pictures of self-sacrifice and noble bearing thab rouse their best feelings. Lofby language and noble sentences are more efficacious in convincing them than the miracles, on which they will generally be found to be sceptical. St. Paul, with his magnificenb personality, appeals moro than his great Master to the sect of which we have spoken. The Catholic Church, no douhb, owes much of ibs enormous power bo the admirable way emotional natures are appealed to The music, the beautiful vestmentß, and tho pomp and ceremonial of the Catholic service may lead some minds away from the real purpose of the functions, but they also atbracb and elevate obher minds, which obherwise mighb go free. In a lower strabum the Salvation Army does the same thing, and even in the Church of England ib is the singing that brings many and many a man, woman and child to church. And yeb these things are so often ignored and one of the greatest religions almost despised. Ib has held no celebrabion, ib has no special church, no parsons, bub ib is undoubbedly a fact that this worship of the beautiful, this religion of emotion", plays no mean parb of the spiritual welfare an! working in humanity.