The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1875-05-27

Beecher ON Religion and Science.
rromh last Sundays sermOa.
lu his sermOnOu Sunday, Mr.. Beecher
had this to say abOutihe scientific tend
rncies Of the age; - 60
The scientific Investigations Of our time
are going 70 be a. the grasshOppers'are to
the trees Of the West1they will eat OF
the leaves Of ten thousand archaeological
inquiries, and II these essential truths
are developed more perfectly, Il the phil.
osophy Of the mind goes on, you may be
sure that great many customs, a great
many ecclesiastical laws and orders will
lose their prestige aud authority for be-
ing divine, great many things that men
have been taught to reverence and to hold
as being revealed Of God will be thrown
oil, and there will b alsubstitutiOn Of
new things for the old, a substitution 81
new organizations, new liberties; butthsre
will be nothing changed BY any Prog Sss
OF science that will toueh the foundation,
and all those fears Of men those conscien-
ttOns, amiable fears, all that dread which
is driving men into churches a. into cit
adels and towers, where they may be be-
sieged, all those tendencies are useless; the
foundations aresuro. Religion h. not gOT |
ing 10 be changed by science; its out |
ward forms may BE- changed, but the |
fundamental elements will remain. The
fundamental elements Of Christianity
are those necessary TO the formation Of |
the individual character, for the trans
formation OF men from the animal to the
spiritual, Those are fundamental truths,
and they stand connected with the exis-
lcncc and government and power OF God
in the world, and with the organization
and development OF human nature. No
doctrines are fundamental except those
that touch the divine government and ex-
stcnce and touch the formation Of human
reconstruction, Its reor-
ganiLation into Christian manhood. Isitl
likely that these will be changed by the
progress Of science, or by the advance Of
mankind in civilization, or by the institu.
tons OF civilization? Early, probably
earliest Of everything, was the great truth
recognized OF the difference between right
and wrong, II Is original and certainly
fundamental and clear up till you reach
the plane Of human life, there Is no such
thing as right or wrong, There Is no
right or wrong to dog, or horse, or an
eagle; there Is impulse, necessity, but
there is no sense Of right and wrong in
the animal. The men that recognize this
element Of right grow richer sndhappier,
and those that do not-they grow diHiinu-
tive and perish.
All through the history OF the world
people have been divided upon the most
trivial things. The whole Christian world
at one time was divided about Easter Day.
oh, miserable man that I am | was
thirty years old bCiOreI knew anything
about Easter, and even now don't know {
what Easter means. What divides Rome {
and Brooklyn2 How do differ from my /
dear and venerable brother, Plus *, and I
stand apart over against one another ? ,
lie does not fear me, and | certainly don't 1
fear him. On grounds Of morality we
are the same; on the constituent elements ,
Of human character, the great questions 1
Of right and wrong, on the questions Of
the siniulness Of men and Of the formation .
Of Christian character In Christ Jesus.
Are we divided on these? Not at ALL
and II the Pope DO orthodox on these then
| am a Papist, and II ! am orthodox on
them then IL the Pope Protestant. The
points on which we differ are secondary;
We agree In all the essential elements. SO
with my brethrenOi other denominations.
| differ from them on minor points; in all I
the great fundamental elements we agree.
| do not say that these points Of difference |
are unimportant, but they are not impor.
tant enough to separate Christians from {
each other, and now, when there IL 40 ,
much dread Of inhlelity, why should not ;
Christian men stand together on these
great questions? For our own part, we
should see to II that COngregationaliSm /
does not grow to be sectarian; It has done
its work hitherto more by leayeniHg than
by any other form; to attempt 10 eccle.
siasticise Congregationalism fsto go back
1t Is to violate the spirit Of our fathers, to
take from Christianity one Of the most
sublime of itE elenientR.