What Is Religion? by Prof. E. S. Gallup

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Jun 17, 1886

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 12, No. 23.

What Is Religion?

By Prof. E. S. Gallup

It is the growth of piety in the soul; the working of the love of God shed abroad in the heart; or, as the apostle says, “Seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds, and have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him.” Along what lines is this new man developed? “Add to your faith virtue; and to virtue, knowledge; and to knowledge, temperance.” Here is the line of development. And by “virtue” is meant those large qualities of mind and heart which go to make a hero; for that is the idea which lies at the root of this word—a hero in largeness of soul and greatness of endeavor, free from debasing faults and petty weaknesses—above all, prejudice and narrowness of mind—but in all the struggle of life bearing himself manfully, heroically, and at all points a victor in the name of the Lord. Such is the Pauline virtue, which knows how to be brought low and how to abound; how to be full and to be hungry; to have plenty and to be in want; through Christ, equal to all trials and emergencies. Such is the type of a full-orbed manhood, in which greatness and littleness, sufficiency and great deficiency, do not go hand in hand, but the weakness is gone, and only the strength remains.

To virtue, knowledge. This new man is a being of intelligence; and there is a wondrous union between these qualities, virtue and knowledge, and they mutually support each other. The practice of virtue surely leads to knowledge, and knowledge, in time, will broaden and refine the virtue. It is painful to think that so much of the knowledge for which the world is eager, is really of little account in its bearing upon human character. . . . But there is a knowledge of one’s self, of the universe as a revelation of God to men, and of the way of life, which endures, which makes the wise man wiser and the strong man stronger, and lies at the foundation of that knowledge that the soul will acquire in the ages to come. And truth is one. Error is ever changing, many-hued, manifold in form, and always shifting her ground. Truth, ever the same, drops her anchor in the soul, and there abides.

To knowledge, temperance. And by this is meant the largest and fullest self-control,—master of one’s self and of the situation; no yielding to any weak indulgence, no hungering of the soul for that which is not bread; no wild, imperious lust or appetite allowed to forge its fetters and hold the man captive; but he is God’s freeman, in a world of evil, but above it,—tempted and tried, but at all points a victor by virtue of his own self-restraint. This is something quite different from that special form of temperance which legislators are importuned to force upon man with bit and curb, and the strong arm of the law. The man is taught to rise above the temptation, and master it. The outward forms of evil are not annihilated to keep men from it; but the new man, with a self-poise never disturbed, and an understanding never dimmed, puts the evil from him and tramples it under foot.

The song of the old prophet was: “When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee; when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee.” That is, the flood shall not be dried up or turned back for your relief, but you shall be strengthened to bear up against it. Let the waves rise and the floods come and beat against you, as they did against the Master—your head shall be kept above the waters; and the fires which burn and crackle shall not kindle upon you nor your good works. “Fear not.” Here is a victory, grand in its proportions, in which the man triumphs over these deadly foes which threaten him.

“I asked them whence their victory came; They, with united breath, Ascribed their conquest to the Lamb, Their triumph to his death.”

It is right along these lines, thus drawn by the apostle, that Christian life is to grow and be developed till “the fullness of the stature of a perfect man in Christ Jesus” is reached.—Prof. E. S. Gallup.