The Dallas weekly herald. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1873-1885, 1883-10-04
TIE pAL1Aa WEEKLY HEIALp THURSDAY. OCTOBER A. 1899.

learning, of literature, of science, N afi, N
religion, Of everything. Every hing now
Ia bslhg obliged 10 serve the new order.
The. professions are oil changed by the
same Influence.
Two hundred years ago medical knowi.
edge was In the hands OF the doctors.
To-day tbs knowledge Of medicine,
hygiene, physiology 10 distributed and
taught In our schools, read In our news
The mo her that has brought up
half a dozen children knows more
OF medicine than the village doctor
did 200 years ago. Has 1t destroyed the
medical professIon2 Never. Was the
profession more honJred or more needed?
New provinces have been opened to them.
They stand on q higher range because they
have distributed their common knowledge
20 the common people.
Two hundred years ago all the law that
was known was under the judges and the
advocates wigs. Now the farmers know q
good deal OF law; the mechanic and the
merchant knows good deal of law. Men
set on juries. They hear the
laws discussed in tho papers and
from the pulpit. Have they
destroyed the profession OF law? 1t was
never SO effected, never more needed, never
more respected. Never were lawyers in
did they have such great fees. Never were
they more willing to have them. Laugh
teri Law has gained, and the people have
gained.
Has it destroyed the church Or the
ministry? The church was never 80 useful,
never so little in danger OF being disbanded.
It is as ripe in example, as active in the
practical work of education and refinement,
and the amelioration of the condition of
3 Ia M in
its purpose a wider scope on
the globe than at any period
before. And the power of the
church lies in that which is in its pews.
The pulpit has grown, but the pews have
grown good deal faster. Is the clergy
man subject to the same tn "a his
influence of the whole common eop,e2
persons who believe that the clergymen
are of different breed from common
men, thereby differing from the apostle,
who declared: Men and brethren, we are
men of like passions with you" l do not
think there is any invisible channetdown
through which has come for 200 years any
special divine grace that transforms the
minister and makes him something other
than q common man.
There never was time since the advent
when there was so little authority among
ministers as to-day. Thank Godl Laugh
ter, 4 Never q time when there was SO much
influence. Thank God! Authority is CO.
ercion. Influence is persuasion. The man
that stands in professional authority is
growing less and less powerful.
Has theology changed? Yes, changed in
the same direction; changed to nobler
view OF the divine government and of the
divine nature, changing from the barbarity
of fear. from the supreme selishness of the
old. pictured God, before whom common
people had no rights that he was bound to
respect.
Bad theology in the church should drive
every man into infdelity as over ag inst
the old theology. But the true religion,
the religion of love, that is coming upon the
earth all men will come intolt And as it
discloses itself more and more, all men will
bow down before it and worship Him whose
name is above all, and before whom every
knee shall bow ana every tongue confess to
the glory of the God of love-"
Mr.. Beecher's lecture was received with
the closest attention throughout, fire.
9uently eliciting applause and laughter.
Only an attentive following OF the argu-
ment and line of thought could enable one
to assess to it its proper value in its depth
and breadth for erudition and progressive
liberality.