RELIGIOUS PRINCIPLE by J. K. McLean

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Jun 12, 1901

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 27, No. 24.

RELIGIOUS PRINCIPLE.

By J. K. McLean

[J. K. McLean, D. D., in Baccalaureate Sermon at Mills College, Oakland.]

My subject may be called the supreme personal equipment, which I take to be religious principle, in contrast with mere religious sentiment or even religious conviction. Religious sentiment is apt to be a thing of the lips only; religious conviction, a thing of the mind. Religious principle holds in vital control the man’s whole being. Religious sentiment is the law of God upon one’s tongue; religious conviction is the law of God in one’s head. Religious principle is the law of God made vitally regnant over his whole being.

Religious sentiments are good, but insufficient. They are like cut flowers; they beautify and adorn, but are no part of the structure. They decorate, like potted plants, but they do not constitute the reality.

Convictions go deeper. They constitute the rock principle in human nature; they are more solid, and far less fragile than mere sentiment. They constitute largely the holding power in character. But convictions, like rocks, are not imperishable. They may be rent by great convulsions, melted under excessive heat of passion, suffer erosion under pressure, or disintegrate thru exposure to the elements.

Religious principle, in contrast with both these, is possessed of vitality. It has a self-renewing, self-propagating power. It draws up into itself all the great forces and processes of life, and so is imperishable.

The three things are not antagonistic to one another, but are supplementary. It is the purpose of true education to secure and develop them all. The one gives beauty of character, the other stability, the third vitality. Taken all together, they constitute the complete life; they reproduce the life of God in man.