The Emporia news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1859-1881, 1880-03-12

In the lecture of Mr.. Vending, at
Bancroft hall last evening. the Emporia
people were RECALLED with one of the
rarest intellectual feasts which 1t has
ever been their privilege to enjey. The
audience, though not so large as had
been hoped for in view of the distin
guished reputation of the speaker and
the favorable condition of the weather,
was, nevertheless, very fair IN point of
numbers, and received the handsome
tribute at the hands of Mr. Vending of
being one possessed of large measure
Of intelligence and thorough apprecia--
ton. The object of this notice, from his
first appearance upon the stage, arrests
the attention of his audience by his fine
presence and voice whose rich quality
is unrivaled among the public speakers
of the day. This claim upon the sym
pathy of his hearers is rapidly strength
ened by his faultless enunciation, his
clear, incisive logic, and his frequent
flights of towering eloquence. The great
questions, the discussion of which IRE so
ably assumed by Mr. Vending, under
lie all the sweet and sorrowful interests
of humanity, and as it is by their truth
or falsity that all economies affecting the
bale and bliss of the nations of the earth
must stand or fall, it is not a matter of
wonder that the champion adversary of
modern infidelity sho 1ld view and dis
cuss from a secular standpoint, those is
sues which are so vitality incorporated
in all the practical business affairs of
men.
The bearing of the accepted belief
among all the highly civilized nations
of the earth, in the existence ofasupreme,
and personal God, upon their political
economies, was wildly illustrated by
the speaker in the pictured results of a
Dissertation of all churches to secular
uses; the transfer of their ministry and
others cOnsecrated to their service, from
the consuming TO the producing classes
and the humiliation of all those
restraints which have checked for ages
the lawless impulses and turbulent pas
sions of mankind. The potent influences
of the broad principles of christianity
upon all advanced methods of govern.
ment and systems of philosophy were
brought out with sharp prominence by
the speaker, in a convincing series OF
historical comparisons in which the
moral degradation of the highest types
of heather civilization was mOurnfully
portrayed; while the effect of belief in
the grand, comprehensive theology Of
the fatherhoOd of God, and the uni
versal brotherhood of man, upon the
purity of all social relationship JOY
and peace of the home circle-was 81
touchingly set forth by Mr.. Vending
that his fervid eloquence carried convic
ton to every heart.
The conservation, by Mr.. Vending, o
his superb talents to the noble work o
the defense of christianity, has supplied
one of the paramount needs of our pro
gressive times. What the advocates ant
opponents of a vigorously orthodox the
ology have failed to achieve, he has thor
oughly cOmpassed by his more liberia
methods of logic and his grande
sweeps of thought. He has risen
, in the might of a splendid intellect, grand
" beyond and above all creeds, and
realizing that much of the popular pu
pit teaching of the day is carricatur
upon divine benevolence and utterl
. fails to measure up 10 the sublime alt
tude of the infinite clemency of Goo
has come to the doubling with wide
1 evangel than the churches have yet pre-
t claimed Our christian MINISTRY HAY
: caught the higher keynote. They, too
a are going forth into bOader and richie
| fields of thought and effort. They hay
J come 10 know that not thus saith We
t ley;" thus saith Calvin" thus salt
n Luther" are the legends by which the
+ must conquer the hosts of sin; but tha
! the triumphant shibboleth of Zion, as sh
I puts on her beautiful garments an
:, marches forth TO victory must be: Thu
C saith the Lord God"