The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1879-07-01
Wisdom in Simplicity.
A PROTEST AGAINST VICIOUS SEN
SATIONALISM IN LITERATURE AND
ART.
Sermon Delivered by the Rev. DR.. Hill at
the First Parish, June goth.

oefHon delivered by the Rev. Dr. Hill at
the First Parish, June GOTH
Rom xvT:19-I would have you wise unto that
| Which is good, and simple concerning evil
1t is possible that st. Paul's thought is here
| influenced by some dim remembrance of his
having heard of the charge which Christ gave
10 ms apostles, BE we wise as serpents and
| HARMLESS as doves, Or he may be indulging
IN "reminiscences of some wise Hebrew saving
| IKE that OF the Son OF Sirach, that the knowl-
| edge of wickedness is not. at anv time. wis
| dom.
| But whether either of these suppositions be
| true or not it is evident that Paul has here set
his lesson in a very clear and forcible antithe-
SIS. lie relolces in the good report of the Ro-
man church, and desires that they NAV be wise
in respect to what is good, simple in respect to
what is evil. There is no wisdom so valuable
as that which consists in the ability and skill
to do good, to further good ends, to attain true
| good for yourself, and bestow true good upon
others. This is the wisdom which Paul desires
that his Roman friends may possess mot
| theoretical knowledge of all things in heaven
and on earth,-not subtlety in making dis
| tinctions without difference, NOT an audacity
| In building castles without a foundation;-but
practical good sense, quick to see what is
| good, prompt to decide upon the wisest method
OF attaining it, ready, skillful successful in Sc
| curing its attainment This is being wise unto
that which is good.
The second clause of the Apostles wish.
land simple concerning evil" bears in the
original language a much closer paraleism to
the first clause. Paurs word, like our word
simple, primarily means unmixed or pure, I'M
defied then, secondarily, ignorant undetied
by the knowledge of sin. The word which
connects wise with good is the same in Paul's
writing with that which connects simple with
| evil; its first meaning is unto; while concern
ing IS secondary or derived meaning. Thus
as we read ST., Pauls original words land
simple unto evif' we feel a double meaning in
them, and the two meanings blend into one.
| He certainly would have the Christians at
Rome ignorant of arts by which to do evil; he
would have them simple, unskilful, absolutely
Impractical in the performance of evil. But
more than that he would have them even
simple concerning evil; not even knowing eny-
thing about evil, more than it became some
| times absolutely necessary for them to know
| in turning from it. In one of his letters he
| exhorts his readers to be men in understand
| ing; but nevertheless in malice, that is, in
wickedness in the knowledge of evil, to be
!. children.
| 1t is not many decades since some of our Gull
| tlvated people exalted culture so highly as to
sink all moral sentiments before what they
| were pleased blasphemously to call conscience
| OF ones art or mission. They justified man
in doing anything, right or wrong, provided he
dld IL with the intent OF enlarging his own eX-
| per1ence, and enabling him better to do what
! ever literary or artistic work he fancied him
! self sent into the world to do This awful idol
OF culture does not perhaps now receive such
| open homage as it once did; and no man now
would deliberately Justify poet in committing
notorious crimes for the mere sake of being the
better able to paint criminal characters in
| prose or verse. The wisdom of ST. Pauls
wish that his Christian readers should be simple
unto evil, pure from the faint of committing
| crimes IS now admitted But neither the
world nor the church appears to be vet fully
| convinced of the wisdom of his wish in the
| other meaning, that his readers might be
simple concerning evil; ignorant of ali its de-
tails, OF motive and method. There are many
| who even appear to be ashamed of ignorance
| on such matters; there are many who think
-siast- tho young cannot be guarded against the
| wDes OF the wicked exceptsby- haing fauoht ali
| the ways OF the wicked, and all the particulars
| of their ckedness Some newspapers seem
| to consider it the duty of journalist to give
| the news of crime with much more minuteness
and fullness than news of any other kind; and
even our best newspapers give far more space
| to the confessions of murderers. and to the re-
| ports OF criminal cases than think is for the
| public interest. While our eyes are accus-
toned to see columns with the heading "Crimes
and Casualties" they are rarely refreshed
with one headed Good Deeds" Why should
| this prominence be given to what is horrible
and what is criminal? All that is necessary in
the knowledge of evil is to know enough to
| avoid it; and that minimum of knowledge is
usually given by nature itself in certain shrink
ings, horrors, feelings of shame an the like
| which give pure mind sufficient warning of
the approach of evil.
| Inc doctrine of correspondence, brought
into great prominence by the New Church
| will furnish us illustrations and arguments
| In favor of this position that these native mod
| estes OF the soul are on the whole trustworthy
| lndlces of what is really good and bad In re-
| gard to food, for example, it is undeniably the
fact that not only the lower animals, but man
also, has general guide which seldom deceives
hin Artrl,a t,c,r -1NxJ1o I
| some--a general guide in the inexplicable
| attractlveness of that which is good to eat and
| repulslyenesS OF that which is unwholesome
There are exceptions, -unwholesom things
| which are OF pleasant odor and appearance
| and things OF unSghtly appearance or narlseous
| smell which prove to be edble-but these ex-
ceptioaS only make the general fact more strk-
ing, that what is nauseous or disgusting to men
is usually also dangerous and injurious: so
that the feeling of disgust and repulsion is
practically guide to be obeyed.
Another example in a widely different part of
| our nature may be drawn from the art of mu-
| sic, which was cultivated for centuries under
the guidance of instructive feelings alone, and
| brought to high degree of perfection subject
to an extensive code Of laws founded upon in
stlnctive tastes and feelings; and now these
laws have, nearly all of them, been demonstrate
ed by rigid scientific analysis, to be founded
upon the everlasting properties of space and
time; magnificent yindication of the aesthetic
side OF human Misunderstanding that by the
| heavenly inspirations of pure feeling in our
hearts we are made virtual partakers in the
Divine Wisdom which before the creation of
the world saw from eternity all these possbili-
ties OF finite and infnitesimal rhythms.
Now in like manner with these instincts of
| appetite and musical sense, all the instructive
feelings of man have some everlasting basis in
truth. An individual man may have an I'M
| balanced nature in which some blind craving
or some blind aversion, may have an undue
| strength; IN fact, no individual soul may have
a perfect balance of instincts Nevertheless
| the general instincts of the race, in regard to
every matter with which we come in contact,
furnish the first prigld fdcie evidence in regard
to what is evil. And as the mathematical in
vestigations of the present century demonstrate
not only that the musical sense leads to an i'm
pllcit recognition of arithmetical truths but
that the most highly cultivated musical people
| perceive by musical instinct the profoundest
and most general truths; so in regard to other
| departments we may infer that the most highly
cultivated and sensitive souls will be guided by
feeling, to the recognition of the highest and
| the widest truths.
We should not, for example, go to the say
ages of Alaska New Zealand, or Terra del
| Fuego, to find the keenest sense of honor and
Justice; but should look for it in highly civil
lzed and CHRISTIAN community. By parity of
| reaSon,-When we come into highly civilized
| and Christian community we may expect to
lind the keenest sensitiveness and truest feeling
| concerning morals and religion, in the most
| moral and religious families of that community.
| And the moral instincts of the refined and re-
ligious portion of civilized people, will infal-
libby lead them to a feeling of truths wider
than their intellects have yet grasped; precisely
as we are led by flavors and odors to a choice
OF food, which reason and experience afterward
prove to be wholesome; precisely as we are led
| by the sense of harmony and melody to prefer
music which science afterwards proves to us is
| in accordance with the eternal laws of number,
| and of time.
| +I,o H.,