New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1882-11-19
RELIGIOUS INTELLIGENCE.

CHRISTIANITY AND MODERN THOUGHT. -
Professor Swing, of Chicago, spoke last Sunday
of the way in which Christianity in every
age is colored by the thought OF the day. This
is all important truth which the theologians
are seldom willing TO admit. IL one reads care
fully any old creed of the Roman Catholic or
Protestant churches he will learn from 1t what
doctrlnal wars were then raging and what
dogma was the favorite or the horror OF the
times. As the old coats-of- mail assure us that
bullets had not come, that the weapon must
have been sword and spear and arrow, so the
creeds of early epochs tell us that it was the
delight of kings and popes and priests 10 have
their enemies well punished, and that God OF
vengeance was more desirable than Cod or
forgiveness and love. Had Dante written IN
our age lie would have cut down and sottened
the Inferno and have carried his grand rhet-
ORIG and flowers and picture over into the
purgatory and paradise, for the hell of our age
is rapidly Tetreating into the purgatOry OF the
past. We all may well long TO see the figure
of theology rise up like one of the Graces from
the chisel of Phidas or ThOrwaldsen, and not
longer to stand forth as mOnster-a Cyclops
with one eye in the forehead, or like the Great
ure of Milton that
Seemed n woman to the waist and fair,
But ended foul in many scaly fold.
NOlulnnous and vast, SERPENT armed
With mortal sting.
There should be rising up from amid all the
tOilng artists to day in the church.. and in the
multitude, some form CT Christianity which
might egeal the lines of eternal beauty
and be to the realm of religious
truth what the Apollo Belyedere Is to
the world of human forms. The generation
now living asks for Heavenly Father whose
power and goodness, whose justice and mercy,
shall find some expression In the thoughts ana
language of earth. 1t seems evident that the
wrath and mercy of God are vast facts, ana
from those facts must emerge two OTHER facts
heel heaven where
preme equity that shall tell us III what form
we shall depict an angry Creator, or WIN WIlat
cOlOrs we shall paint the world OF punishment
and the world OF happiness! The last hundred
years have been as busy in the theory and
practice of love as were the dark ages IN the
invention and practice Ct cruelty. what MIL
itary fame was to the Romans, Oh VIVA. phFs-
zeal beauty was 10 the Greeks, tins sympathy
fOI tie common people Is 10 our generatlOn-a
great dominant sentiment. And much nohler
is 1t than any feeling which ever swept across
the classic lands for the wave OF poetry or art
or eloQucnce does not sparkle and smile Ike
the bright waters OF charity. onward mas come
this sentiment like n spTlngtime hurryng up
from the South. But suddenly the coins and
food east to beggars have To BE- withheld, Tor the
charity which was supposed to save the POOR
only creates 4 new army OF appicahts. DehcN,, ,
o!ence has become creator OF ldIeneSs anu
wretchedness, and back we are all driven
again with our work Of art, and are requested
to make the arm harmonic with the bOdy ana
the eye with the forehead, and to come back to
the gallery with our work when we shall nave
gotten ont of apprenticeship and can tell
an angel from monster. All would have re-
manned rs ii was had not the same age which
has evolved the doctrine OF charity wrought
out at the same time new IDEAS and estimates
OF personal labor and independence. An age
may find peace by knowing only little, or
else by knowing a vast number OF Things.
When our times began TO ponder over the Tact
that Franklin was poor and yet needed no git
pennies. that DR.. HOgg was c0al-heayef,
that Winckelmann was the son OF shoemaker,
that George Stephenson began his career Dig
ging in tire coal pit and expressed his Joy when
his pay was advanced 10 twelve shilinS5
week. that Herschel played music for dancers
and in the intervals studied astronomy, that
Burns plouched, that Lincoln split rails, they
began to md their charity to he affected Ivy
the rising glory of seit-help. lt has now come
to this, that we all stand between two large
truths-that We must be kind to oar nclSdD0r.
and that that is the wisest charity Which
teaches the mind to help itself.