National Republican. (Washington City (D.C.)) 1872-1888, 1886-02-23

A Remarkable Sermon by Rev. Clay
NlacCauIey ut All Souls Church.


At All Souls Church tUnitarau), corner
Of Fourteenth and l. streets-his former
pulpit-Rev. Clay MacCauley, of st. Paul,
Mimi, delivered remarkable discourse
Sunday night upon the pessimistlc in mod
ern sceptioism. lie said that there were
among modern sceptics those who had shut
themselves up in that which Immediately
surrounds them. They believe in eating
and drinlduga and in having as good a time as
possible as long as life on earth lasts; they
believe in geography, mechanics, physics,
aud the like, IN agriculture and commerce;
they believe in social science, sanitation,
civil order, and progress; they love litora-
turo and art, If not too speculative and
ideal, but they have shut themselves up
deliberately to this world and profess to
think that the world Is not much of a world
after all, and that life in It is not much
worth the having. As for there being any
realities other than those Of physical force
and phenomena, they do not concern
themselves about IT, With them the God
idea has no definite shape; ethics are q mat
ter Of convenience; questions Of religion,
outgrown. In these people soul-conscious
ness seems to be wanting, and they have
about concluded that death Is the end-all
for every one. These people have made a
mistake under the influence Of an epoch in
the worlds development whose meaning
they do not fully understand. Those who
are ignorant of mcteorology do not under.
stand that @ day rainy in one part Of the
country may be all sunshine in many other
parts. This principle is Of far-reaching APP
plication. The age In which we are living
has character specifically its own. II is
not like other ages in human history; It Is
but the expression Of one Of the moments
Of mans development.
Our age is an age Of criticism, Of en-
phasis upon exact knowledge, of per-
sonal emancipation from the outgrOwn
forms of social organization, of each
man TO think and act for himself; our era,
in word, is one of recovery from that
which precedos It, For the past 500 years
there has been q swinging away Of mankind
from the position occupied in civil, social,
and religious matters during what are
called the middle ages. During that time
the whole Of western Europe was practl-
cally under subsection to the Roman Church
Individual freedom was lost in a great
organization. Common men were serfs,
the property Of the baron; the baron was
subject to the emperor, and the emperor, in
his turn, was the subject of the church.
Everything was subject to the church.
Even the scholastic philosopher said, ~
believe, in order that ! may understand
The church arrogated to itself more and
ing power, II decided all problems, scientific
as well as spiritual; there was no province
which II did not invade with its dlcta. But
the pendulum Of its power at last reached
the extreme limit of its path, and the re-
action gradually set in.
The fifteenth century came with the
printing press, the sixteenth with its adj
vance in science and art and discovery, and
the independence Of the human soul began
TO assert itself. Science In modern times
has busted itself with the documents ard
words Of the spiritual authority of the
church historical research has shown how
untrustworthy are traditions from remote
times, whether Hindoo, Jewish, or Chinese.
The cosmogony Of Genesis is not true (;
geology has made that certain. We can
not believe the wonderful that is developed
in the flight of the children. Israel from
Egypt, their passage through the Red sea,
and their wanderings IN the desert, and the
probabilities are against the occurrence of
any Of the multitudes of miracles recorded
in the bible. Hence the extremity of the
unbelef Of many Of the sceptic class it is
but the opposite extreme reached In the di-
rection Of unbelief over against the extreme
Of blind credulity.
The pessimistic scepticism of our day Is
attributable to the influence of the modern
swing of mans life, and thought away from
its medieval servility to one great church.
But these sceptics have been carried by the
reaction to q mistaken conclusion. The
church is after all but the outcome of hui
man need. There is Il large balance OF
probability in favor Of what Is universal
and perpetual.