New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1871-01-31
FREE RELIGION.
SUNDAY AFTERNOON LECTURES AT HoRTiCuL'
TURAL HALL, BOsTON-CoL' 4. w. ni""iN'"'
ON THE RELIGION OF THE HEART.

ON THE RELIGION OF THE hbAhI'
BosroN. Jan. 29.-The horticultural nan
Course holds steadily and successfully Oh i'S way %
ouits 40 large an audience assembled to hear the milo
ofMss Mary Grew as the which gathered
Together on the opening Sunday when Dit rockingham
strewed flowers Of rhetoric over the graves OIL 'no
infdels or on tho third afternoon 10 nseen W ' p
nounced heresies Of John Weiss. "Tney only na'o
erandly believed" said Mr. Frothinghsin' VINO nave
greatly doubted" and by this token John "os'
must believe very grandly indeed sinco Ms "noo
discourse was a resoute negatioh OF tno thinBs
In which the world has used to put Its tst Tor cen
turies Col T. W. Higgnson, in his turn attracted tnis
aferpoon crowd OF eager listeners. lie, 700, ISL Dos
tonian of the Bostonans though since the war Dis rS
dence has In Newport His father was an ocer .,
Harvard College, where he himself was graduateo' "nu
he ia as much notion II he had never peeh OUT
OF sight of the dome OF the State House. lie con-
.eryatiye radical or q radical consorvative-whcheVer
srln most ftly expresses man whose beliefs arc all
radical and whose and morals are 10 tho last
degreo conservative From him people are won't 70 OK
pet other things than denial Tho largo hospitality OF
his faith opcnded ltsdoors to Mohammendan and Budd
hist to heather Chnee, and the old, Grecian glory In
one sense he Is the sturdiest of combatants He has
natural affinity struggling peoples and Causes and
therefore manages be found most often In tho select
ranks Of the mlnorybut when he comes into the realms
OF religion II is not usually an invader FATHER no
conseryes tho good IN all faiths which are or have been
and finds good where other people question Its existence
He Is master OF Englsh uDdenled. and therefore, his
rhetoric commands attention to his ideas. whether tho
latter are pagan not His thoughts are expressed 30
persuasyey their benignity oonstrains your as
sent that hascarried you further on than you
meant or knew. IT, therefore. were an ORTHODOX cir
veyor Of Streets know no other over whose Sate-h
spite OF benignity and grace liberation or perhaps
because OF them-I should think It more necessary 10
nail up tho warning, Private Way Dangerous PASSING
COL. HrGGINsON's LECTURE.
Tho Rey Henry Ward Beecher said that his father,
after reading the life Of the good English Bishop Hebe
remarked that he doubted whether Heber WAS CHRIS
tsn but thought he probably had las Dr. Beecher pro-
nounccd it, material vrtoos" We Will oonsider to-day
these natural virtues they the only ones, ~
1t seems All that Is not natural virtue must DO ar
tiicial Understanding got up assumed or eiss
honestly misconceiyed and called by tho wrong name
But there DO virtue is s natural virtue no matter
how highly cultivated. The choicest roso or geranium
the eonsummate flower OF years OF culture
il still natural flower, 90 much "a the
chickweed that tmidly opens, even on winter
mornings in sunny hooks. Tho sublimestEvrtuol OF
created being Is still essentially natural virtue as the
stunted blossoms In city streets arc natural MOVERS
But 10 talk OF natural TO many persons IKE
talking OF nature In disease. Formerly people Thought
It was not nature which cured disease but medicine
Those are to have been the days OF an gnor
ance of which the healing has got he better while
In his old age have been CHARACTERIZATION virtue by
come other means than virtue itself" To suppose that
tho source Of virtue lies outside the SOUL In book or
teacher like supposg that the source OF health les
in tho medicine chest.
The soil IN which natural virtues grow is the heart As
the intellect deals with theology the heart deals Wild
religion TO feel ones heart in unison with the spls Oh
the universe with the living beings which I'LL that
s the religion Of tho heart 1t is called by Jesus-oving
God with all ones heart, and soul, and strength ana
ones neighbor ones SELF 1t called by Epictotns-
beng worthy member of that great city, the universe
full OF blessed ones divine and human. by nature On
deared another This the principle OF health In
the heart No child is born morally diseased that It
does not seek something love- For Its diseases 1t may
need q whole medicine chest OF examples and OF pre-
cepts, but you must assume the native principle
OF health the foundation. Tho religion OF
the heaTt is o vital thing. lady entered friends
parlor day and stood In half enyios wonder before
q most perfect and beautiful ivy which festOoned the
walls with such luxurance Of verdure she could never
coax from her plants by kindliest fostering "bH
not perfect answered the lady OF the house to her eI
clamation Of delight 1T all the way from Paris
1t was ARTIFICIAL and the humbes ivy sprg, thrusting
up its green endcayor from the broken tumbler III an
Irish shanty would DO worth than that Standing
in superb churches listening 70 creed ana catechism
one sometimes fances voice to be saying rs 10 not
perfecti 1t came ell the way from Jerusalem" Re
gion must grow from within; and the poorest religion
cotage-door, lie better than the best religion that
was ever imported like artificial flower
must live his own life, and work out hs own sal
walton. Each has his problem, aud IN us details
none can help him Neither Paul nor Luther was ever
placed In precisely this mans position Christ himself
was tested by the duties Of husband OF father OF
engineer Of merchant, of soldier. OF OF voter When
these duties perplex you His direct guidance will no
more take place o. your conscience than you can
help daisy by saying to il, "There is rose; be like
that" The work will no change hands.
The religion OF the heart Is the only positive religion.
The heart ia positive whatever else 10 Is not Time and
experience have proved that most Of the things which
supposed to be taught us from without are really
stance that tho law OF reasoning was FIRST taught
by Lord Bacon. and ut was called Induction
Huxley well says only TRAINED and organized common
sense Just it used to be supposed that Jesus taught
another wherea, il turns out that God has sponta-
neously put into the heart Of every parent and child
dren TO INTO him. and said Of such Ia the King
dom OF Heaven he traced back his to It's source
How singular 1t is 10 hear people Oh opposite sdea pity
pIted what il seemed to them must be the oo
OF Evangelical Christians and appears Sat the evan
their Good Professor Porter in his sensible but
certainly not very vvacious Course OF Readings
the heretics. sadnessl Remember Emerson, with the
smile which takes twenty years from his age;
Thoreau with his gratitude for the gift
OF lfo;" Parker, and the wondrous hymn OF thanks.
giving that rolled up to Heaven in his prayers-and
think Of the gloom which ought to oyershadow the soul
OF every living who believes IN the eternal punish
mont OF singe human being: and choose between
them.
The religion OF the heart gives strength. Grsndly does
the wise old heologan Cudworth say There is weak
and impotency in all evil, but masculine strength
and vigor IN all goodness and therefore doubtless the
highest good Is the strongest thing in the world" The
young minister of Park ST. complains OF free religion
"a cold, sprtless and tame affair."" that "has mo- VI
tay." 1.-THE religion preached in Horticultural Hall
went pieces" he said, down In Northst. There
converting power in such religion; there was no
muscle In It," one wonders hearing ,such words, what