Morning journal and courier., 1881-06-27


 posed?
 Has man ceased to be responsible and free because he finds himself non-dependent on social appliances for the spheres of his activ- ity and the instruments of his action, or does l the enlargement of these spheres of action elevate and enforce his sense of freedom and | of duty? Is sense of manhood to be l crushed out of us by the appalling discovery l that our manhood is made for us and not by | us? Is personality with it's hopes and it's | possibilities to be abandoned. and with it the only inspiration to our goodness and the only comfort that is left in our wickedness? Is | individual responsibility with it's rapturous l joys and it's wholesome terrors are mans | earthly sympathies and affections-with his | heavenly aspirations and hopes-is prayer
 with it's trust, it's cry and it's praise before | the living God, are patient imitation and humble confidence in Christ-are all those to vanish at the touch of the new analysis, or l shall this analysis cause mans personality | and freedom only to leap forth into more | striking contrast as against law and nature l Again as we look out upon the heavings of | modern society, are we quite satisfied with | the aspect of the forces which are raging be- l meath, if there is no beneficent God whose l laundering is louder than the roaring of | these waves and whose gentle whisper can | soothe the hearts of the most violent. Are we not sometimes appalled, at the thought of 1 what may happen in the gigantic movements l of modern society should the old faith of
 men in the living God be practically aban- 1 doned and the new faith in some abstract fig
 ment be set up into its place. Whether the I figment should be capital or labor or mon- | opoly or freedom whether it be some old or new despotism or some old or new nihilism, | is it not more safe to trust the future of the | nations, under the stress and agitation of l modern society, to the shepherd of Israel who | guides his flock in answer to their trust rath- CT than to the stumbling Polyphemus of modern negations, who bhndly feels his way along the solitary shores of eternal vacancy upon which the wild waves of chaos are ever sounding their vail of despair. Every new social agency that is discovered and every | law that is fixed reveals society as more com plicated and as requiring more imperatively | the guidance of the living God. Mans high CT development opens wider arena for the ampler exemplifcation and the larger pro- gross of the kingdom of God.
 | In the light of these conclusions we en- force the obligation that rests upon educated men to seek first the kingdom in it's applica- | tion to social relations. Duties of this sort cannot be discharged without knowledge. | Hence, knowledge in every case, and in some cases scientific knowledge, becomes religious duty The devotion of a seraph to the first 1 interests of man cannot insure the social ele- vation of community, either in the State, | the schoolor, the family, unless the conditions of such elevation well understood. In
 
 | life our instructed common sense may be sufficient, but for the more complicated questions concerning ordinary matters am- pler and exact knowledge is needed. | This is emphatically true when we are brought face to face with the more complicated relations of modern life. As questions of property become more refined, as the adjustments of rights is more difficult, as political parties rise and fall as the rela- l tions of the community to pauperlsm, to crime, to education, to capital and labor open ! new inquiries, they cannot be answered with out intelligence and thought. Intelligence and thought are but other names for science I Science thus rightfully conceived science in it's freedom, science in it's independence, science in it's toleration, science in it's adven- | lures and science in its triumphs-is as much I 0 necessity in the kingdom of God as Is the | so-called Christian church. It is a necessity
 to the church itself-giving it the history to ! which it appeals, the intimation by which it 1 interprets the physics that declare the glory | of God, the knowledge of man that indicates | his dignity and unfolds his destiny, the nor 1 als and the jurisprudence by which actions are regulated and the literature by which the ! ideals of the present and future life are en- nobled and beautiied.
 The kingdom of God thus conceived and l enforced, which provides on the one hand
 for all these conditions of human welfare, | which inspires knowledge as 8 religious duty l and stimulates culture act of worship. No aims in life possibly be so elevated nor inspiring as those which it proposes. No enthusiasm can possibly be so rational and so ardent. No motives so grand as the mo- ! tives which itsapplies. No reward so satis- | flying as those with which it crowns the hum | blest and the most exalted of its followers l The least of human beings in intellect and | culture have found place in this kingdom | for forgiveness and hope-the greatest have I f. | their loftiest ambition, their most varied &C., tiyities and their purest satisfaction.
 | The kingdom of God is destined to con- tinued conflict and for this reason; it requires | that it's friends should make it the supreme object of their love and service. Its very l existence implies struggle with evil. Its progress consists in 8 series of conquests. We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but ! against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places There is no need to speculate about | the existence of personal devils as long as sin is so abundantly incarnated in man we need not question whether he has horns and hoofs so long as the most dangerous and ma ignant of evil spirits may be those most &C., complished in human insight and attractive in human graces-so long as he stands at our street corners and opens our grog shops and brothels-so long as he deals bribes in our politics and breaches atheism in our pulpits.
 
 it's own battles to fight and it's own victories
 to win. The age in which we live displays it's
 own boding signals along the sky. Specula-
 tive unbelief in some quarters is fast gaining
 ground. Scientific and materialistic atheism
 was never so confident, never so fair spoken
 and so bland. Literary and critical anti
 supernaturalism was never so well assured
 and never cautiously contemptuous of
 faith in God and Christ. Popular God
 lessness was never so extreme and never so
 little dreaded. The fervor and faith of many
 profe ssed believers was never more fitful and
 feeble: avowedly to themselves and mani
 festly to others.
 On the other hand there is more seeming
 love for man if less conscious love of God,
 greater enthusiasm for human welfare in
 this life if less zeal for mans salvation in the
 life to come. The reasonableness of conse-
 cration to God in love and worship is more
 generally consented to if it could only be
 proved that Christ can show the Father and God can really be known and loved by men. The person and the name of Christ, it may be and we have reason to believe re- ceives fervent homage from many hearts who inquire with critical questioning, WhO is
 Christ and ac]tence did He come
 In these avowals and these concessions, on either side there are the clements of definite crisis which sooner or later must come, and may break upon very soon. If men de not contend with another as of old their faiths and misgivings, their aspirations and their hopes are soon to meet in the shock of some great battle of opinion, or in the com plicated evolutions of protracted strife that | shall reach every thoughtful man and woman. l Men everywhere feel in the air the ominous l Hull which precedes the earthquake. The great | questions which occupy the thoughts | of men will not always be whispered | in secret; sooner or later men will l cry out for an audible answer | of Yes or No. Thinking men will ask their | teachers and one another; tell us is there | living God who hears the prayers of men and | guides their lives and comforts their sorrows | and forgives their sins? Has he been revealed | in Christ. whose kingdom cannot fail, or is | Christ only a symbol formula? | These questions every believer in the kingdom of God answers best as he attests his faith bya life of su- preme devotion to his Master. The pressure of this crisis and conflict enforces on every scholar the command, s'Seek first the kingdom of God" This demand will be l more intelligent than ever before, because men have never understood so we'll as now what this kingdom is and what it imports. It will be more uncompromising than ever because it will be tried by severe test, the est of Christian civilization without Christ II, .s,kso