Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1882-07-31

|
istic small men. Having concentrated his
energies in the work of building up this
Sunday school Institution il was bound to
60, and it has gone forward until it ranks
well with Chautauqua or any other Of the
kind IN the land.
As he is representative Sunday School
man, his views upon Sunday School work,
will be read by all interested in this sub
ject with profit. In little platform
| speech upon the subject of
sunday school Work,
he said, the recognition of two. facts make
"a new sra in Sunday School work. One OF
these is the fact that not talent merely,
but specific talent is essential to success in
teaching.
Brain work of any kind requires for its
| performance, brain talent, and specific
brain work, like that of teaching, demands
specific brain talent.
Are All Teachers:
is the emphatic question of the apostle
| Paul, implying without doubt, that some
\ are not teachers. Jesus recognized this fact
| in his choice of men TO teach his truth. If
] you want to know what kind Of teachers,
Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, James, or
Peter were, try to teach them.
The second Fact
now being recognized is that to brain talent
| must be added brain culture in order to
succeed in Sunday School work. Culture,
| the photographers tell us, is improvement
| by means of labor. Agriculture is the inn
provement of the earth's surface by means
| of labor. Brain culture means digging and
delving nevertheless. This Park Associa-
ton has afforded beautiful illustration of
culture in making this wilderness place to
blossom as the rose. And this Sunday
School Assembly affords magnificent op-
portunity to those who wish to cultivate
the talent they possess.
Rev. J. B. Young.
One of the most useful and the most used
man in the S. S. Assembly is Rev. J. b.
Young, of Altoona, Pa.
You have already published synopsis of
his illustrated lectures here, which have
been both entertaining and instructive.
Mr.. Young has also distinguished him.
self as a Sabbath-school instructor, show
ing, in his management Of normal class,
not only his familiarity with the Scrip
lures, but his exceptional readiness and
tact in such work. He is never at q loss
for a comprehensive and satisfactory reply
| to any question that may arise in the
course of a class drill.
In person he is another of your small,
energetic men. His mental activity is
seen in his every movement and expires.
sion. He is general in his manners, a
and man destined to accomplish
| a great work in the world-for it would
be impossible for him to do 9th erwise than
work incesSantly.
Rev. Lyman Abbott.
There is no man who has spoken at this
Assembly meeting who has attracted more
| attention and commanded more profound
respect for his utterances than the Rev.
Lyman Abbott, of New York.
His lectures have been the most thought
| full, clear and convincing. He is not an
| orator in the common acceptation of that
| term, but he holds an audience by the force
| of clear statement, logically and tersely ex-
| pressed.
In person he is a small man, with big
| head and highly intellectual face. His
vitality all runs to his brain. l should
| Judge that he has always been and will
| always be one OF the closest students, and
| that he is exCelled by few men for close
| ness of research and patient thinking.
Your readers have already been favored
! in these reports with a synopsis OF former
lecture delivered by him. Yesterday he
lectured upon
Modern Skepticism and How to Meet
| It,
And it was one of the best lectures of the
course, so full of thought and convincing
argument that send you quite full sy-
nopsiS. He began by saying that there was
| a form of skepticism in our age that was
not Enthusiastically made. In all ages
there had been men who desired to get rid
of belief in God and their accountability to
him, and who were ready to applaud any
| one who made joke of religion. The cause
| of this sort of skepticiSm was the desire OF
base men for license, and it could not
be met by argument and did
! not deserve to be dignified by reply.
To ADDRESS arguments to skeptics OF this
nature was almost literally to cast pearls
before swine The Enthusiastically mod
ern skepticism was of very different
type 1t was that of men of often high
moral nature, who really desired to know
itual truths. This age was questioning
age. Men would no longer take the word
OF ministers or priests for anything. They
must INQUIRE for themselves. This was
good sign Itindicated growth. The speaker
compared the growth of mankind to the
growth of the individual, and said that
the age had passed the period OF
the unquestioning credulity OF infacny;
had came into the period OF youth, which
into the period of manhood, where truth
is ascertained and believed because each
individual has inquired and ascertained for
himself its grounds. We do not object, he
said, to the spirit of honest, earnest, search
ing inquiry. But we insist that all truth
is not to be measured in the same way or
tested by the same tests. Some truths are
ascertained by slow processes OF argument;
others we have instantly, provided the MIND
is capable of comprehending them. Truths
of beauty and art are of this kind. We
know that flower is beautiful, or piece
of music, or q landscape; and If your neigh
Dor does not enjoy the music or the paint.
ing, you cannot prove to him that 1t is
beautiful by an argument. So with moral
truths. We know that honor, and truth,
and piety are good and reliable; and cow
ardice. and falsehood, and licentiousness
are evil. If nan doubts that there is such
a thing as honesty you do not agree with
him; he is dishonest il he does not be-
lieve in honesty. The speaker insisted
that the great religious truths relied
on the same foundation. We believe in
God because we are conscious OF his helpful
presence; in immortality because we feel
the immortal spirit within US; in the
divinity of Christ because His life and
character as they are portrayed in the
Gospels are more divine than anything we
can imagine The real ground of our Chris
tian faith is the divine appeal to truth
Christian truth makes to our own ex-
perience and to our own consciousness.
The speaker went on to maintain that con-
sciousneSS was, IN the last analysis, the
foundation of all our beliefs. We know
what takes place within u.s. and we con-
clude therefore what takes place without US.
We see stars and We conclude that there are
stars in the heavens above, or that we have
fallen on the ice and bumped our heads.
In either case we see stars, and in either
case We are sure of what We experience
within and form our conclusions as to
what has taken place without. Now our
religious faith depends upon what We ex-
perience within. We know that there is q
God, Just as a child knows that he has q
mother, because we have experienced His
comfort, and help, and love in time OF
need. We have an experience of power
not ourselves, that makes for righteous
ness, and we conclude that it comes from
our Father and our God, just as We have an
experience of a vision and conclude that it
is produced by some real object which We
are seeing. But our faith depends not
only on consciousness, but on that of many
witnesses. Many witnesses have had
the same experience; hundreds OF thous-
ands Of witnesses; and il is supreme self