RELIGION AND LIFE. BY JAMES REED. NEW YORK: PUBLISHED BY THE GENERAL CONVENTION OF THE NEW JERUSALEM IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA AT ITS PUBLISHING HOUSE: No. 20 COOPER UNION. 1869. Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1868, By JOSEPH R. PUTNAM, Manager, In the Clerk's office of the District Court of the United States, for the Southern District of New York. INNES, REGAN & LEADBEATER, StereotyPERS, RELIGION AND LIFE. IT T is an undeniable fact that religion really effects nothing for a man, unless he feels it to be vital and essential, that is, something which he personally needs. There is such a thing as dogmatic theology, abstract theory independent of practice and experience. But this is not religion. A man may dabble in theology all his lifetime, and yet not have the least particle of religion in him. There is a difference between theology and religion, like that between bread-stuffs and bread. While flour, for instance, is in the hands of the merchant, it resembles any other article of commerce; it is something to buy and sell, to export and grow rich upon. Not until some one buys it for his own use, takes it home, prepares it, eats it, and digests it, does it 5 |