Morning journal and courier., 1882-01-14
Lyman Beecher Lectures.

l Second Lecture tn the Course by P' esi- dent Robinson of Brown University. { President Robinson, of Brown University, l the Lyman Beecher course at Marquand chapel yesterday afternoon at two o'clock. The chapel was we'll filled with students of the seminary and clergymen. But few ladies were present, owing to the bad weather. The distinguished gentleman, in opening, said that there was in the human heart the universe over an idea of a supreme being, feeling of dependence on a higher power. So every nation had some kind of religion through ali the worlds history. Some religion was bet ter than no religion. There was @ close con- nection between Christianity and civilization. The speaker defined civilization. When the race had once begun experiencing and supply
 ing wants it was starting for civilization. So religion becomes necessary when Christian ity has made some degree of progress towards civilization, for a civilization without a relig- ion was phenomenon yet unknown. Man everywhere seeks to recognize his obligation to an invisible force There are three types, the types of obligation. of worship and of conduct. All the religions are furnished with these three types. Christianity has purified, widened, beautified our civilization. The speaker brilliantly compared the civih- zation of Christianity with that of preceding times True, it sprang out of Judaism, which was it's formation. Christianity built upon it a rounded, symmetrical completed whole The influence of the prophets on Judaism, from Samuel onward, was the next feature of the lecture. Under the prophets Judaism began to move forward with prodigious strides. The speaker next dwelt on the effect of preaching in the Christian ages from Chrysostom onward, his glowing thought enriched with historical deductions Moslemism felt the power of preaching in the assemblies at Mecca. How much more had Christianity felt it. Christianity at the very outset individualizes man, plucks him from society and places him alone with God It teaches alike that each should bear the oth- CTS burden, and that each shall bear bis own burden Christianity sets man to thinking. It demands inquisitiveness. There is no place in the scriptures which demands the surrender-of the right of private Judgment to an authority. It says: Come and let us reason; try the spirits, etc. Christianity plants fire in mems bones. 1t leaves no man to sluggishness. It never leaves him in quiet while anything in his moral nature needs correction. So much on the subject of matter Now for the methods. In- quiry is better than abject sub mission, life on the battlefield is better than death. The speaker now fol- lowed out the train of thought regarding the value and importance of preaching, which he illustrated by the fiery discourses of Peter the Hermit, who, despite Guizot's view, he held to have moved people to the first cru
 sade to the preaching of the Waldenses, which caused the institution of the Dominican friars by the Romish Church, who spread the Romish doctrine all over Europe; to the establishment of the Franciscan order from similar cause to the preaching of Calvin, which moved the higher grades of people, followed by that of Luther, which stirred the masses; to the preaching of Knox, which made the heart of many quiver and filled the hearts of the common people. The next branch of the subject was the influence of Puritan preaching in molding and shaping the England of to-day, which was an i'm measurably greater power than the repeal of the corn laws or the measures which poured the wealth of the Indies into England's lap. The lecture was heard with profound atten-