Putting the Most Into Life

by Booker T. Washington

Making Religion a Vital Part of Living

EDUCATED men and women, especially those who are in college or other institutions of learning, very often get the idea that religion is fit only for the common people and beneath the interest and sympathy of the educated man. In too many cases they are disposed to think that religion is for the weak, and that to express doubts concerning religion and the future life is an indication of a vigorous, independent mind. No young man or woman can make a greater error than this.

Some years ago, when I was in New York City, I went down to Wall Street to consult a friend as to methods of arranging for a large meeting. I wanted in this meeting to get interest centred in the work we are trying to do at Tuskegee. My friend said: “If you can secure the coöperation of four men in New York City, the success of your meeting will be assured.” I went to the four men whose names had been given me and secured their interest and coöperation. Some weeks later there was a large meeting held in New York in the interest of the Young Men’s Christian Association movement. In looking over the list of persons who were sponsors for this meeting I found the names of the four men whom my Wall Street friend had mentioned. He gave me these names, however, with no thought that they were leaders in the religious activity of New York City. He named them chiefly because he knew their standing in the commercial and business life of the city was secure, and that anything they said would attract the attention of the public and would secure the confidence of the people whose interest and aid we were seeking. And so it appears that the four men who at that time represented the commercial and business interest of New York were men who were closely identified with the religious life of the city, and were active in Sunday-school and church work, and connected with many other agencies which had to do with the uplifting of the masses. My observation has taught me that the people who stand for the most in the educational and commercial world and in the uplifting of the people are in some real way connected with the religious life of the people among whom they reside.

This being true we ought to make the most of our religious life and to avail ourselves of certain outward helps, helps which are not ends but aids to higher spiritual living. First the habit of regular attendance at some religious service should be cultivated. This is one of the outward helps toward inward grace. Nothing is ever lost by this habit of systematic devotion. But one says, “What good is accomplished by attending church?” Another says, “I stay away from religious service and I am just as good as those who go.” To put the question another way, Was any one ever injured by regular attendance upon religious services? The man who allows himself to grow careless about sacred things yields to a temptation which is sure to drag him down. As you value your spiritual life, see to it that you do not lose the spirit of reverence for the Most High as revealed in your own life and experience, reverence for the Most High as revealed in the men and women about you, in the opening flower, the setting sun, and the song of the bird. Do not mistake denominationalism for reverence and religion. Religion is life, denominationalism is an aid to life.

Systematic reading and prayerful study of the Bible is the second outward help which I would commend to those whom I wish to see make the most of their spiritual life. Many people regard the Bible as a wonderful piece of literature only. The reading of the Bible as literature only brings its reward in that it throws new light on secular history and gives acquaintance with men and women and ideals which have been the inspiration of the noblest things that have ever been spoken or written. Nowhere in all literature can be found a finer bit of oratory than St. Paul’s defence before King Agrippa. But praiseworthy as this kind of study is, I do not believe it is sufficient. The Bible should be read as a daily guide to right living and as a daily incentive to positive Christian service.

I think that no man who lives a merely negative religious life can ever know real spiritual joy. There are many people who pride themselves on the things they do not do. The negative Christian always suggests a lamp-post to me. The negative Christian says he is going to heaven because he does not lie. Neither does the lamp-post. The negative Christian does not steal. Neither does the lamp-post steal. He does not cheat, he does nothing of which he is ashamed: he is therefore blameless. The lamp-post has never done any one of these things. I do not want the Tuskegee students to be lamp-posts in their religious life, but I want them to turn their beliefs into energy that shall work into every detail of their lives.

Not less repulsive to me than the negative Christian is the one who is always using his religion as a means of escape from something, from hell fire or brimstone or some less remote punishment. This class of Christians use religion as people use the conjurer’s bag or a disinfectant to ward off evil. They are not drawn to any vital thing in religion; they simply use it as a cloak to shield them from harm.

To live the real religious life is in some measure to share the character of God. The word “atonement,” which occurs in the Bible again and again, means literally at-one-ment. To be at one with God is to be like God. Our real religious striving, then, should be to become one with God, sharing with Him in our poor human way His qualities and attributes. To do this, we must get the inner life, the heart right, and we shall then become strong where we have been weak, wise where we have been foolish. We are often criticised as a race because people say that our religion is not real. They say that our religion is superficial, that in spite of our attendance at religious services and protestations of faith we are guilty of petty pilfering, stealing, lying and of walking crookedly in many directions. Whenever this criticism is true it means that we have not learned what the religious life really means. We must learn to incorporate God’s laws into our thoughts and words and acts. Frequent reference is made in the Bible to the freedom that comes from being a Christian. A man is free just in proportion as he learns to live within God’s laws, and he makes grievous mistakes and serious blunders the minute he departs from these laws.

As a race we are inclined, I fear, to make too much of the day of judgment. We have the idea that in some far-off period there is going to be a great and final day of judgment, when every individual will be called up, and all his bad deeds will be read out before him and all his good deeds made known. I believe that every day is a day of judgment, that we reap our rewards daily, and that whenever we sin we are punished by mental and physical anxiety and by a weakened character that separates us from God. Every day is, I take it, a day of judgment, and as we learn God’s laws and grow into His likeness we shall find our reward in this world in a life of usefulness and honor. To do this is to have found the kingdom of God, which is the kingdom of character and righteousness and peace.