, 1877-04-28

"Cod hath made Of our blood
all nations of men for to dwell on all the lace
~ the earth ..... that they should
seek the Lord-f haply they may feeialtcr him
and find him though he be not lar from every
one Of lis. Acts xviii, "A, ~
This is the text for the whole course OF
Lectures, that propose to deliver upon
the various Religions of the world.
| take this text, because it is well in
the beginning to indicate the standpoint
from which our subject is to be viewed,
AS well as to show gosd authority for
taking such position. st. Paul WIS not
only Christian but he was liberal
Christian, n man who took broad and
liberal views OF things. He was in adj
vance Of the age in which he lived, and
in some things the present age is only
lust up to his position. One of his po-
sitions in which through all the Christian
centuries Paul has stood far i'll advance
Of the whole Christian world, is this in
dicated in our text-his position in re-
gard to the religions of other nations
OF peoples.
The position that he takes on this SUBJ
iect indicates mind Of the very broad
est type. For strange though it may be,
il is n fact, that religion is the very last
thing that men learn to be charitable
about. Men will be liberal and charitable
about everything else and fight about
their religion. Travellers have, from
time immemorial, praised some things
that they found in foreign Countries
praised their art, their customs, their
form OF government, their mode OF ag-
riculture, mining, or navigation, the
beauty Of their women, the strength or
bravery of their men, the beauty OF their
scenery, the richness of their sOil-many
things in foreign lands have been praised
by trayelers-never did traveller praise
foreign religion. He always brought
back the report from whatever country
he came and whatever else he praised,
that as for the religion Of these people,
it was the most wretchea superstition.
And We might say that it is only in the
present time within, we may say indeed
few years only, that any people ever
regarded the various religions of other
races or nations with any degree OF tole,
ration. And even now it is only the
people Of culture in few countries, the
men of wide reading, aud deep earnest
thinning, that have thrown of the
century. hardened prejudice and looked
fairly at the religion of other races OF
men, made them study and ack-
nowledged that there might be some
thing good in them. But Paul, that
grand old liberal Christian, about 1000
years ago, stood up in Athens, central
city of all the world for culture and re.
finement, and preached this liberal doc
trine which we take as the point OF de
parture in this course OF lecturesA"That
God hath. &C." Let us see now what is
declared and implied in this text. The
first declaration is that all men are
brothers. All are OF one blood; this i'm
pies that they have common Father in
Heaven. Then in the next clause Paul
declares his faith that they all may seek,
ieel after and find that Father, for he
adds He is not far from any of us-in
him we live aud move and have our
being He was speaking to heather
assembly. Their religion was as different
from his AS a marble statue from glow
ing, palpitating, living flesh and blood.
Yet he appealed to what their own poets
had said, that man is the offspring of the
Deity, he pointed to the altar that he
had found. raised to the great Unknown,
declared that all might feel after God
and find him. Why did not Paul preach
to them as a Missionary of our day would
preach to the same class of people? The
modern Missionary under such circum-
stances, would cry out 80 ye idolaters,
to them as u Missionary of our day would
ye ignorant. yo wicked and torsaken
worshipers of wood and stone, forsake
your affairs and your superstitious cere-
monies, turn away from the hypocricy
and lies Of your false religion, come and
embrace the true religion which am
p-eaching?n But such was not the tone