Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1882-07-12
The Religious Outlook.

1t is an interesting evidence OF tne grown
in our days of the spirit of courtesy, toler-
ance, and brotherly love that an Episcopa.
liam minister, Rev. Phillips Brooks, should
have been invited to speak at the annual
meeting of the Congregational Club, and
that his speech should have been heartily
applauded. Even more significant than the
circumstances under which it was delivered
was the speech itself. 1t was the voice of a
Waterman on the tower trying to indicate
the special religious characteristics of our
time, and we are constrained TO reproduce
from the CongregatiOndlist report its tone
and overtone. Said Mr.. Brooks 1.-THE
great religious characteristic of our age is
self.consciousness AS look around upon
the garden of the Lord, it seems to me there
never was a time when so many OF the
saints were pulling up their sainthoods, and
so many of the theologians were pulling up
their doctrines, to see whether there was any
life in them. But, surely, the largest re-
ligion will always be prominently uncon'
scious; it will live in the simple use Of i'm
pulses with whose source it is so familiar
that it never thinks of questioning it, and it
will live in the constant use of truths which
it so thoroughly believes that it will not Of
ten re-examine them to see their source.
Therefore, it seems to me that we are in a
condition of things, both of religious and
theological life, which may well excite our
deepest interest But what 1 wanted to say
with regard to it is that it seems to me to be
condition of things which ought to excite
our greatest hope and largest expectation.
| believe that we need more spirituality,
but | believe there never has been time III
New England when there has been more
spirituality than there is in the religious
e a.. Ln1,
there is no time to which we can look back
as religious men, men caring for our God
and for our felow-men and for the Saviour
who brings the two together, with more
thankfulness and rejoicing than this day in
which we are living now. This very dispo-
sition of men to test and try everything,
and see what there is left of the thought OF
the last generation, seems to me to have a
very deep significance and a very great
hopefulness. 1t seems to me that
in these days of ours, out of this great tur-
mol and distress of faith there has come a
sincere love for truth and truthfulness, a
simple, earnest inter tion-nay, a passionate
determination--to get at the truth with re-
gard to things, to get at the deepest truth
with regard to the most sacred things, and
to be all the more thorough in our investiga-
ton of those things which have been re-
vered and sacred just in proportion to their
sacredness. This is something in which We
may deeply rejoice. If you who have been
in the Christian ministry for the last twenty
or thirty years, as l have been, feel to-day
that our Christian people are asking more
hard questions with regard to Christian
truth if you feel that you are free to preach
and think, and your people are free to listen,
as was not the case twenty years ago. il
you feel that many bond has been broken,
and that to-day there is no bond upon the
conscience of the Christian man except the
obligation to seek for truth in the fear and
love of Goo, there, it seems to me, is some
thing which has come forth distinctly, not
by mere accident and coincidence, but as
the consequence of the turmoil and confu.
sion through which we have been passing in
these days. The great beauty OF
religious thought in these days, it seems t.
me, is that men have been so deeply in earn.
est that they have taken their most precious
things the most precious forms and state
ments, the most precious dogmas in which
their fathers have rejoiced and cast them
into the fiery furnace of deep, earnest con.
viction and faithful thought, and allowed
them to enter into new combinations, believ
ing that they are certain to come out in
forms more precious and useful for the days
to come" In view of recent discussions con
corning the value of theological statements
Mr.. Brooks closing words are significant
Il dread with all my heart to be the first
man who turns away from any old state
ment of truth, simply out of mere willful
ness, simply because it has become monoto
nous, if it still expresses the truth of oul
time. But dread great deal more to bt
the last man who stands by an old statemen,
of truth, simply because of its familiarity
if it has ceased to express the real religious
life and thoughtfulness of the days in which
God has placed US"