, 1886-03-28

fulhll- He said Christ certainly did come
to destroy the law and the prophets-the cub
side OF them. He knew perfectly well, II Hs
had foresight, that thcy would be swept
away as they have largely been swept away,
but He said; That which these extsrnalities
include In themselves, the kernel In them,
tho heart OF them, / came 30 fulhll-the law
and the prophets; to give them their full de
velopment and to bring them TO that to
which they can come" It was not tho
morality and the spirituality hat were to
be destroyed for the sake OF which Moses and
the prophets had written. That morality and
that spirituality had become pinched and
imprisoned and inerpansibie by the main
nan OF the external forms In which they
originally came. Even a crab knows enough
once a year to get rid Of its she'll In order TO
have n bigger one; but IL Is the sectary that
does not know II. Mon think that II you
disturb beliefs in the creed, or institutions,
customs, methods. manners, that OF course
you disturb all they contain. But Christ
said no. The very wa to fulfill Is to give
them a chance to open a larger way. A bud
must be destroyed II you are going to have
a flower. The flower must be destroyed
il you are going to have a seed. The seed
must die II you are going TO have the snme
thing a hundred fold increased. You zee all
this. Paul uses that very analogy In Cor
inthiAns. Things in this world increase by
the destruction OF themselves. Paul saysi
when I was a child l thought as a child, l
spake as a child. When I became a man l
put away childish things.r The way to be
come a man IS TO stop being a chld-to grow
out OF II, to grow beyond II, TO grow larger
than it This is the keynote, the philosophy
OF all growths and developments In human
society. De Tocqueville, somewhere In his
History OF France and the Revolution, = says
that all true growth will be found to be an
unfolding Of something that went before. An
laws come from less perfect ones; all institu.
tons from partial ones All Improvement
are but a lettering, enlarging. emancipating
OF things which wers relatively smaller, and
had to be because men were smaller
and could take but Just 50 much at the times
when these laws, customs and manners were
formed. A person. when he Is a child, Il
measured for n child's clothes and Is suited,
and when he becomes a man Is measured for
a mans form and nobody ever supposes that
laying aside the measure OF a child's clothes
would make him without clothes. They are
adapted, and his measure follows his growth /;
and all laws and all customs are but the
clothes which the Internal morality or the In
ternal spirituality clothes itself with. And
as the view enlargas the clothes must enlarge,
or else there will be extinction, suffocation,
somo trouble or other.
In the times in which we live there are two
applications Of this-what Is going on in so
ciety and its organs all the world over,
and what Is going on In the religious
life, In forms and beliefs, all the
world over. And I speak OF both
OF them In the spirit OF the text, Il came
not 10 destroy. but to fulfill , Christ did
destroy, that he might fulfill, and divine
providence Is destroying, shaping the things
that are, TO bring In a state OF things that by
and by shall be permanent In the far reach
OF human existence.
All Europe to-day Is well described In the
passage OF scripture hat ] have read, the
coming Of the last day; wars and nnmors OF
wars; perils OF every kind, sudden, insidious,
undermining, overlapping. Europe may DO
said 10 be boiling like a crater or a caldron;
and II is called by some tho unmannerly rest
leasness OF the common people, and by some
spirit that despises law and order, and by
some righteousness and i~nhdelity are
given rs the causes OF IT, Wen,
that thero may be some complica-
ton given 10 these things by those
undertones or distemperatures may be very
possible, but l see IN all these things the
movement OF that divine universal provi-
denoe that is lifting the world steadily up
from Its lower forms and conditions 10 higher
ones, and as tho children OF Israel, after
escaping from Egypt, marched for forty
years through the wilderness educating
themselves in customs, laws and in
stitutions, and came TO the promised
land only after long education, 20 all peoples
must march forty years, l had almost said,
In the wilderness before they get 10 any
promised land whatever, and the march Of
the common people IA taking place every
whsro-to the sound OF the trumpet, to the
sound of the drum, with the voice OF artil-
lcry, with the roll of musketry; yes, because
war itself is emancipation, In thousands and
thousands Of instances.
II YOU look az Russia, II seems anomalous
but 1t Is not II Is a vast. inchoate empire,
made up OF nultitudex OF people, undertaking
10 live by the absolute will Of tho emperor;
and II he could keep all people at a certain
level aud take cognizance VI t. Russia might
get along very w,h But you can no more
command the Intelligence that comes from
the enlightenment OF tho CONNER people
IL drifts through the mir; il Is infectious,
bls-sedly infectious, and In Russia and all her
provinces there Il mote OF less Development
VI human c~onsciousneAs -one better idea Of
social relations; some ides about knowledge;
some correction OF virtue and Justice; It Is
fermenting. and the car undertakes
to govern by absolute and arbitrary
viii. without hitting bis peops p@rtici-
pas IN any o-xS " government