The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1883-04-19
THE DRIFT or THE AGES.
Mr.. BeecheT on the Law of Love as
Guiding the Struggle for
Existence.
IFrom the New YORK Worlt

Every sitting in Plymouth church
had its occupant yesterday morning,
and at each door there were standing
as many people as could be crammed
into the space. The text of the ser
mon was the first nine verses of the
eleventh chapter of Isaiah. This
subject" said Mr. Beecher, "may he
called substantially the drift of the
ages. 1t is prediction of the great
coming final age. 1t first delineates
the tendency represented by Jesus
Christ, a striking delineation, which
may be said in some respects to be a
portraiture. Its administration shall
be characterized by sympa-
thy with the poor and
helpless, reversing the his
tory of the world. 1t had overcome
all evil proceedings from the passions
of men, and the result shall be that
this world and the race of men shall
attain to the glorious proportion to-
wards which slowly, but surely,
things are evolving. 1t is a gre It
thing to believe that. There seems to
have been in this great turbulent
world no more order of procedure
than there is when two whirlwinds
meet on the ocean; yet even in the
most turbulent storms there are in
eXorable laws as fixed as any in the
universe; but to those who look at
this universal strife and disorder it
almost seems as though there was no
Providence and no directing power,
and to all such it is a great comfort
to believe that slowly as it is I'M
foldfolding there is this great
btendencY to growth, and that
the termination of it shall
surely he the blossom and the fruit
There is to be a day when that which
represents violence and cruelty will
mingle with that which represents
| innocence and love. The question,
therefore, is not the coming man, but
the coming age. Is there to be one?
The coming age is that in which the
law of force is to give way to the law
of influence, when the law of hatred
will give way to the law of love; for
| affirm that the central force of the
universe is the law of love, and it is
that which is slowly, but surely, leav-
ening the world. The history of the
world has been history of struggle.
There has been one perpetual labor
palma vast struggle of extri-
cation and ascent; but there
has been one continuous ten
dency upward and the early develop
ments have been the slowest;
the blossom and the fruit are yet to
come. But the tendency has all been
one way. Not that there have not
been back-Sets, rebounds-but the
tendency is away from violence and
cruelty and toward sympathy and
kindness and love. Even war has
lost half its horrors. 1t was first war
and determination; then war and
slavery; then war for power and do
minion; then war for wealth and
commerce, and then war for liberty
and for principle, and public senti-
ment condemns any war that does
not represent justice to the rest of
the world. The buccaneers could
once raVage islands and no one con-
denim it. but now France cannot Cross
the Mozambique channel and invade
Madagascar without arOusing an
indignant protest from the other ma
lions of the world. Great Britain
could not now invade and deSpoil In
dia, though she is permitted to retain
what she Wrongfully obtained, and
war in Zululand has been abandoned;
the public sentiment OF England her.
self has been against it, and has COM
PEELED its abandonment. And if this
is SO in war, it is of course very much
more apparent in other things. La
Dor is undergoing a great struggle,
and to-day the rich are about to learn
that they can't separate themselves
from the common mass. Men are
not be crowned for their riches, but
for their use of them. The man that
stands to-day on the pedestal will
stand in the pillory tomorrow If he
does not give his sympathy to his fell
low man.
There has gone at last-dust to
dust-through the grave-the spirit
of man honest, industrious, simple
of habits and tastes; loving his fellow
men; gathering wealth, that, like the
sower, he might SOW it to bring up a
harvest in every field, and all the city
bows down to him. He had never
been a king, prince or president;
he had never shown great philosoph-
ical acumen, nor was he dlScoverer.
He has been a manly man, that lived
for his fellow-men, and for this the
whole population of the city pours
out and asks permission TO look
upon the dead, uncovering their
heads in reverence and honor for
the man whose heart was
in sympathy with his kind, and
who devoted the energies Of his life
to the service OF his fellowmen. May
God, in his bounty. give us many such.
Just now, only here and there, you
shall see the crosuses peeping out
but by these few you know that their
numbers will fill the air with per
fume; and so, when you see here and
there man like this, you may know
that the summer is advancing, that
summer is not far away. The age is
beginning to recognize the fact that
power will not separate man from
man, that riches are designed to
carry man down to the very bot
tom and root him in his sym
pathies where the great mass
of men have lived, do live
and for a generation have lived
and this is real christianity. To
ninety-nine men in every hundred
christianity is lying in the tomb.
do not know of anybody who is a
; christian. There does not live in my
house any who is christian accord
ing to the ideal of Christ. am not
l don't know how to take my life and
lay it down absolutely for others as
Christ did. | do a great many chris
tian things, but whoever yet has i'm
itated our Lord, who for our Sakes
became poor, that we through his op.
preston might become rich? That
ideal of Christ yet SlumberS. Before
this world becomes a better world we
have got to give men a more equal
chance in life by better breeding
Don't you suppose that men that have
learned to breed horses for better
speed, sheep for better wool and bull
locks for better beef will learn some
day to breed better men ?for DIS goods
well bought are already half sold, sc
child well born is already half con.
verted. There has got to be reor.
ganization of society, a regeneration
of government, and there must needs
be also a regeneration of business
Men must come into life better
! through better families, and under
better government and institutions
; All this is slow work and
gradual work. There are few pulpits
that teach it and very few competent
to teach it, but it has got to come
and it is a glorious work. think il
is glorious to be in such a campaign
and it is. OF course in the brooding
hours one takes a Responding view
when one sees in the great field OF
conflict how little stamina there is
one feels almost discouraged and one
almost feels that men are white.
washed with christianity; but when