THE SIGNIFICANCE OF OUR WORK -Reverend Martin Leiseder

My personal appreciation of this church is because of the significance of the work, which it has permitted me to do. It so happens that this anniversary of our church is also the 25th anniversary of my ordination by Cardinal Fruehwirt in the archepiscopal cathedral of Munich and Freising. (June 29, 1909)

In looking back over these years I feel happy, that in this little church I found the precious freedom to work at the construction of a new spiritual edifice, on the firmer and wider foundations of modern knowledge, to house a soul, which on the one hand could no longer bear confinement within traditional Christian dogmas, and which on the other hand detested the deliberately confusing equivocations of mere liberalism.  

And I am especially happy in remembering those members of this church, who by their regular attendance of services, and lectures, gradually acquired an understanding of the significance of my work, thus becoming active co-workers with me in our cause of transforming religion into a modern Religion of Life. Were it not for the loss of so many of them by death or their removal from this vicinity, the fruits of our labors would be more conspicuous than they are today. The recent changes of population in our borough have rendered new expansions of our work exceedingly difficult. But as yet, there are still enough of us to carryon toward our goal, the creation of a new Church of Life. And there would be more of us, if more of our members would learn of the significance of our work and take pride in it. This is one church, which requires no apologies for its existence.

For eighty-five years this church has been geared to the life of our community and, in varying measure, has influenced its religious atmosphere. It started as a pioneer church, ministering to pioneer settlers of this vicinity. It has remained a pioneer church to this day, engaged in quiet efforts to blaze new trails of religious aspiration from the spiritual frontiers of modern life.

From its very beginning this church has been different from other churches. It has been founded in independence of denominational affiliation. In its administrative policy it has always been a congregational church. In its religious orientation it has always been liberal. It has never required of its ministers or members the profession of a specific creed. And it has maintained its independence and its liberalism throughout these many years, in spite of continued attacks from within and without.

Mere independence is not an ideal. Ordinarily it is very wrong to refuse coordination and cooperation with others in the discharge of great vital duties which are incumbent upon all. Independence is only justified, if it serves to achieve a new and higher purpose which will benefit all. Thus America¹s political independence from Europe was and is justified, because it served the establishment of a new nation with new ideals of life and government, which in the end will benefit all the earth. I regard our independence of church as part of our American independence.

I love America not merely as a geographical, economical and political concept, but as a racial, cultural and spiritual concept. I love American as the mother of a new and superior humanity. I love America as the womb blessed with the precious seed of a new race of men, who shall carry life far beyond the present stages of civilization and culture. I love America, because it is not merely a sequence to the history of Europe, but a new beginning in the history of human life. And I love this church because through its independence I have been able to become a part of that new beginning.

Columbus discovered America, because he possessed a type of mind which works in a manner altogether different from the old type of mind. He did not accept the universal belief, that the world is flat. He set his mind to work and by thinking acquired the certainty, that the world is round. Then he translated the work of his thought into the work of his deeds and soon bestowed on his fellowmen the gift of a new continent. Since Columbus, the new type of mind, which achieves progress by clear thinking and not by blind believing, has evolved rapidly, showering upon the world the gigantic cornucopia of modern knowledge and inventions. Can anybody doubt that America belongs to the new type of mind?

And if America, then also the future Church of America. I love this church, because through its independence I can do my work in the spirit of the future Church of America. The future Church of America will be a Church of Life and its religion will be a Religion of Life. The universal law of life is the law of evolution. In all life dwells the mysterious urge to advance toward more life. The germ became a worm, the worm became a fish, the fish became an amphibian, the amphibian became reptile, mammal and man. Man himself started as a primitive ape-man, then became a savage, then a barbarian, then, in various degrees, a man of civilization. Men who use their minds know these facts to be as indubitable as the fact that the world is round.

This law of evolution has a spiritual significance broader and deeper than all other laws combined. By this law we know, that beyond our actual life there is always a higher potential life. This higher potential life is the real meaning of the God-Life. It is as true and real a God as man ever worshiped. He lives in all of us, because in all of us there is the will to more life. I love our church, because through its independence I have been free to search after God in life. Thus the goal of our work is the love of life, the knowledge of life and the realization of a higher life through our worship of God as the infinite life-potential.

The evolution of life is an evolution of non-conscious cosmic energy into conscious living energy. We eat sunlight in our food. It reappears from our bodies in the conscious warmth of love and in the conscious light of mind and spirit. The meaning of our life is the production of spiritual energy. The measure of our happiness is in direct proportion to the powers of our spirit. Religion is the fascinating but difficult endeavor of man to move forward from his actual life toward constant realization of his higher potential life. Religion, consequently, is WORK with the purpose of creating more life. Religious work comprises two phases: First, the acquisition of knowledge concerning life, because knowledge is potential spiritual energy; secondly, the constant struggle with ourselves to make this knowledge determine our behavior, our whole way of life.

I love our church, because through its independence we are free to disavow ancient superstitions and to employ the new and greater truths of modern knowledge. Judged by its outward appearance, our church is about as insignificant a church as anyone may find anywhere between a pipe mill and a blast furnace. in its old brick dress it stands at a humble corner like a blushing Cinderella.

I embraced this plain church for the opportunities of its independence. That meant more to me than the splendors of Westminster Abbey or of St. Peter in Rome. Coming fresh from the altars of the Roman Church, I felt like Moses coming out of luxurious Egypt into the strenuous freedom of Sinai. I looked at the cloud of smoke from Spang's mill by day and at the crimson dust from the blast furnace by night, and I liked it. Liked it as the Israelites liked the cloud by day and the fire by night, which guided their way through the volcanic desert of Sinai into the freedom of life in a better land.

A mill town and the people of a mill town: A town of work and a people of work.  Men harnessing the new forces of our new age, harnessing the hissing steam and the fearful lightning to the chariot of human progress! The triumph of modern knowledge making man the conscious dictator over cosmic forces he once feared and worshiped!

And in the midst of it a little church. A church so constituted, that it might lend itself as a real workshop for the harnessing of modern thought and knowledge to the spiritual creation of life. A place, where I could go to work and clear from my (???) soul the debris of collapsed traditions and bore into life for the kind of foundation, which would bear the spiritual structure of a greater and higher faith.

For almost twenty-three years I have worked in the shelter of this independent church. And I emerge from this work happy with my faith in a simple Religion of Life and stirred by visions of a future American Church of Life. I enjoy having accomplished alone and for myself, what soon will be accomplished by many others. Some of the ideas I have sown, I am told are germinating in the minds of others. While working for myself and with myself, I never ceased to offer of the fruits of my work to the members of the church. Few ministers would do the extra work that I have done for many years in the mid-week assemblies of our Lincoln Bible Class, and in our Popular Science Club. And few realize what such work means, when the adult public is almost solidly against it or at least indifferent to it.

So much the greater is my love and admiration for those active members of the church, who are seeking to grasp the vision of my work and in support of it are giving not merely of their money, but of their living selves, by attending our Sunday services. Of these comrades of my soul I can truly use the words of the great teacher: These are my mother, brother, sister.

The significance of a church is not in the beauty and spaciousness of its buildings, as much as they are to be desired. The real significance of a church is in the kind of work it endeavors to do. It is our work to envision and enact that new religiousness of life, which most truly expresses the soul of our rising American race. We appreciate and hold sacred what lasting contributions have been made toward the spiritualization of the human race by the religions of Asia and Europe. But I maintain, that the best spiritual gifts to humanity are yet to be made and will be made by the new men and women of America who will bestow upon the world a new and universal Religion of Life.  

This at present is the significance of our work and the significance of those who share in it. Our faith in this work springs from our faith in America and in the destiny of its men and women to make brighter the light of life with new truth and diviner beauty.

Do you share my faith? If you do, then remember that a superior life does not happen to come into existence by miracles. It is not enough, that you have America on your lips. It is not even enough that you have America on your heart. You must bear America on your mind. You must work not only with your hand, but work with your mind, to enlighten yourself more and more with the knowledge of our own age. You must work to realize your own higher self. You must give of yourself to inspire others toward the same end. You must give constant testimony of your own resolve to strengthen the resolve of others.

When you come to our church do not expect to find ready at hand an American Church of Life with a pure and higher Religion of Life. That is yet to be created. Whether it can be created here I am unable to tell. It would require the patient support of many more members, than we enjoy at the present time. Meanwhile the opportunity at least is ours. The vision is ours. The faith is ours.

OUR DOORS ARE OPEN TO ALL WHO CARE TO WORSHIP WITH US THE GOD OF LIFE, THE SOUL OF AMERICA. TO BECOME PART OF OUR WORK GO TO CHURCH~