Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1882-01-02
For the New Years RECORD. UsIoS
THE PRESENT CONDITION OF RE
LIGIOUS OPINION.
BIZ REV. HoRATIo srEBBINs.


balance, and see how we stand Although
the new year may have nothing particularly
| rev in it, and its first and last days are like
all other days, it furnishes date, a landing
ia the spiral stairway of time and experience,
at which we may conveniently stop, rest, and
take an observation.
There is an account not represented In the
ledger, or its stock.in-trade, an account OF
thoughts, opinions. and feelings as they are
in the common mind. They are subject to
change, to loss ard gain. They move for
ward, they go backward, they take positions
and surrender them, and retake them, as
eontending hosts strive for fortress on some
commanding hill. Opinions, creeds. and
PHILOSOPHERS change; they change their
position and they change their char
acter; they change by revolution ;
and what is better, they change by growth
aud development. There have been great
changes in the past, there are great changes
in the present, and there are to be great
changes in the future. The truth concerning
things or men is not fixed quantity only,
but perpetual process.
Our attention is particularly attracted by
the col quests Of intelligence over the material
world, and by the application of new-feund
powers and methods to the arts of life. The
great discoveries and inventions, as they are
called, have changed the face Of the earth
and the condition of men and nations. The
distinguished and conspicuous powers of the
present sge, those which attract the common
attention in the field of mans enterprise, are
those powers which he has applied to over
come the obstacles OF space and time-steam
and electricity. The great changes which
these powers have wrought by the increase of
human communication cannot be overesti-
mated. They are so conspicuous, SO grand,
SO patent to the eye, that there is some danger
that their profound social, intellectual and
moral influence will be often missed. An army
Of 0,GG0 men can now be transferred across
the continent from Washington to San Fran
cisco in as shcrt time as the news of the
battle of Lexington was borne by swift
riders, with quick relays, from Boston TO
Philadelpbia. The price OF corn in Liver
pool is known day by day by every farmer as
if the bulletin CT the Exchange were emblsz
oned upon the sky above his fields. The ap-
pearances of the atmosphere, the signs of
the sky" the trend of clouds and mood of
winds and breeding storms. the weather of
the world from the fervid equator to the
pitiess shores of Labrador these are all
passed along the longitudes by messengers
swift as the rays of the sun. Events, where
ever they happen, are no longer local, but,
according to their human interest and import,
are known through all the centess Of intelli-
gencs as the brain responds to the beat of the
heart. Ships of matchless beauty and power
atone the gulf of the sea, and the shores of
nations are bathed by the world-waters
of common interest and common good.
The increase OF communication among
men and nations is the striking feature of the
present but its irhlence has been hardly
greater over the material world than it has
been upon the mind of man. 1t has not revo-
lutionized the world 50 much as it has gradu-
| ally changed it to an intellectual empire, and
shown that the outward universe is imbedded
in mind, and responds to the touch of maj
superior powers. The application Of science
and skill to communication, to enable men to
know the same things, think the same
thoughts, and to be here or there, has had a
vast indirect influence in modifying the
opinions of the world. As general fact the
more men seq each other the better they
liks each other; and while common and
mutual interests create common and mutual
respect, they also create that good fe. ling
that is essential to good understanding,
which does so much to supplement the
deficiencies of isolated individuals and
communities. How many men there are
who would know more il they knew
each other? And now many there are
who, if they knew each other, would be
| friends and "think better of it" all around. II
the country had been threaded with railroads
thirty years ago, and communication had
been free and flowing like the winds, it may
be questioned Whether civil war could have
been possible. The vast abysses of thought
and feeling are also overcome, when valleys
are exalted and mountains are brought low,
and ocean depths are spanned-
mountains interposd
Make enemies OF nations who had else,
Like kindred drops, mingled into one "
These great changes that have been &C
complished by the conquest over time and
space are so attractive, so brilliant and oper
as the day. that, like the day, they concealmany
things by very brilliancy. The changes in
thought, in the sense Of ways of thinking
have been as great as the changes Ia com
munication. The contrast of the Roman trirems
with the ocean steamer of to-day is not more
striking than the contrast of the philosophy
of Thales Of Miletus with the philosophy
OF Sir William Hamilton, and the mail.coact
| is not So far behind the railroad train as the
opinions of Edwards are behind the opinions
of Charming. Every thoughtful observer
must notice the progress, cr-if he cannot
call it progress-these movements of opinion
in matters pertaining to religion and religious
philosophy. To get an idea of the meaning
of this progress er movement, its genera
drift and tendency, and where the common
mind is now, is always interesting, instructive
ard encouraging.
There has always been, and there always
will be, great Importance attached to what
men think of themselves, their own being
experience and destiny. Every man asks
what his own existence means, and the an
swer he finds or gives, the surmises, the sus
picions. the hopes that consciously or uncon'
sciously influence him in giving tendency
of thought aud feeling concer aing his rela.
tions to the world arould him, are his
religion.
The great fountain from which the religion;
opinions of Protestant Christendom have
been drawn, is the Bible. The Roman
Catholic Church clothes herself in the robei
of infallibility. This Protestant Church, be
lieying that infallibility must be somewhere
but not in the Church, with humble self
remuneration transferred it to the Bible. Tn,
| Book, instead of being considered the auto
biography Of Mans religious nature, was heit
to be the repository of accurate, logical di
vine sayings and commands. The study of j
,,J ;pfa