Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1875-07-23

REV. DIR. HEDGES ADDRESS BEFORE THE
AMERICAN UNITARIAN ASSOCIATIONS.

Mr.. PRESIDENT: The fiftieth annivers-
ary of this association suggests, per force,
a comparison of the ecclesiastical outlook
of to-day with the aspects and auspices of
fily years ago. And here the thing which
first strikes me is a change in the topics
and points of view which occupy the lead
ing minds not only Of our own but of other
communities. The questions which inter-
ested our fathers in 1925 have lost, In
great measure, their interest for us. The
topics thon debated with so much heart and
heat, Trinity of the Godhead, vicarious
atonement, Original sin, eternal damnation,
have almost dropped out of sight. The
lines of theological separation between
ourselves and other Protestant sects, once
so rigidly maintained, are getting lax-are
wavering, fading, vanishing. The Protest.
ant sects are less concerned TO define their
position, one toward another, than to vim
dictate their common Christian heritage
against a common enemy. Protestant
Christendom finds itself wedged between
two hostile powers of which our fathers
made little account, but which in our day
have acquired n portentous significance,
the Church of Rome on the one hand and
scientific skepticism on the other. The
most pressing question between us and the
Church of Rome is not theological one,
but question of liberty or bondage, of
progress or stagnation, of intellectual life
or death. The question between us and
science is one of religion or no religion; of
possible commerce with the unseen, or con-
a -s.t- 4 .1,a
perience spiritual life or death. The lit
tie l have to say connects itself with the
latt ter question, the relation between faith
and science.
The half century whose expiration we
commemorate has been, as you all know,
a period of unexampled progress in scien-
titic discoveries and inventions. Four of
the most memorable of these are compris-
ed in lis limits-communcation by electric
telegraph, photography, anmsthetic surg
cry, and spectral alysis-assuring the
physical unity of creation. In consequence,
partly, of these splendid achievements,
and partly from other causes, science in
our day has assumed toward theology a
tone Of conscious superiority, as if she
the mainstay of civilization, and theology
an anachronism, ghost OF other days, at
best an ofI-interest, belonging, as Mr.. Tyn-
dali says, to the region of the emotions,
outside Of the domain Of knowledge, and
entitled TO no voice in the forum of the un-
derstanding. Well, it must be conceded
that theology no longer occupies the place
she did in ages past, when she gave the
law to secular beliefs as well as spiritual.
Science has overruled her dictum on many
questions Of space and time. Astronomy
has opened world above, and geology a
world below, before whose revelations Bib
lical statements Of cosmogOny and chron-
ology have 1ed like dreams of the night.
But tie realm Of theology, although re-
slricted 10y science in certain directions, is
not dissolved. Within her own realm she
is still supreme; and when science invades
that realm with ertheories she proves her
self as incompetent, as much out OF place,
rs theology does whel she dosmatizes
about the order of creation, and the gene
sis of brute aud man.
What, on The whole, are the grounds on
which science vauntS, as against theology,
her superior claim2 Mainly, think, these
two: Greater certainty and greater utility.
Will they stand the test of ultimate reason
Science boasts in comparison with theolo-
~ the advantage of greater certainty as
dealing with realities; while theology, in
her judgment, gropes in the dark, and is
knowing about in worlds not realized"
Now the truth OF that claim must depend
on our definition of certainty" Consult
your dictionaries, and you will find that
''Celtainty" means for one thing, "freedom
from doubt" If we accept that definition
the claim is void for, not TO speak OF the
uncertainties, the notorious uncertain
ties of science the moment she ventures
beyond the region of sight and touch, not
to speak Of the vavering views of scien-
tific men on grave questions, such as the
nebulur hypothesis, the atomic theory, the
origin of species, not 10 speak Of these, the
assurance Of faith in the relsionsts is just
as strong as the assurance of demonstra-
ton in the scientist. The devout Roman
Catholic whom l met in Cologne was just
az sue that certain bones preserved in the
"DOm" of that city were the bones of the
three wise men of East, Cdspar, Melchor,
and Balthasar, as the chemist is that water
is composed of two parts hydrogen to one
part oxygen. My friend, the ghost-seer, is
lust as sure that he has interviewed the
shade of his deceased wife as the mathema-
tician is that a body acted upon by two
forces at right angles with each other will
describe diagonal between the two. Now
il avails not 10 say that in the one case we
have facts, established facts, and in the 9TH
er only beliefs. To the common man, the
unlearned, who cannot verify the facts,
they are but beliefs aiter all, received on
authority, resting on human testimony /;
while TO the believer, on the other hand,
his beliefs are facts. The certainty in Ell
lher case is the same. do do not say
there is no difference in the kind of cer-
tainty, but do say there is no difference
in the degree; and say, moreover, that
the faith Of the religionist furnishes as sure
a ground TO build upon in spiritual things
as the knowledge of the scientist does in
material things. Science no more than re-
| ligion can claim TO build on reality. For
what is realityP Who will detine il7 Who
will prove itH Do not all proofs refer us
at least to subjective tests?
Sensible experience is no more proof OF
reality than spiritual experience. The sci
enlist builds on sensible experience. He
claims for that experience an answering
reality; he supposes world external TO
himself, corresponding 10 his sensations.
But the existence of such world is a mere
hypothesis. Profoundest thinkers have
called it a vulgar preiudice-a prejudice
with which l confess / am somewhat in
| fecied Rnt when we come TO demonstra.