The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1886-11-27
editorial 8riets.
BY REV. I. N. ATWOOD, D. D.
Canton, N. Y.

| celVlnS Iresn attentlOn, through the An
dover controversy, and is destined to be
looked into by larger public than ever
studied the problem before. 1t is among
the disclosures incident to this discus
sion, that large number of nominally
orthodox clergymen find themselves un-
mistakably heterodox. They are telling
their congregations about it now, and are
finding in the telling one of the pleas
antest sensations of their professional
lives. The public, which heretofore has
manifested only the most languid inter-
est In their opinions, now throngs their
affairs and mark the fact! = applauds
promptly every symptom of beresy.
There is food for reflection in the
public whim on this grave subject. 1t is
clear enough that great multitudes Of
people in our Christian land have out
grown the old doctrine of probation. It
is just as plain that they are in sympathy
with the ideas of "another chance" not
only for certain heather, but for all who
may stand in need of it. Yet it is alto
gether probable that these people will
lapse into the condition of indifference to
the Church and to religion out of which
this excitement has called them, as soon
as it Is over. How is such an unpleasant
fact to be explained? In this way, we
fear: The teachers of religion in almost
all the churches have been telling the
world for hundred years, that if Uni
versalism were true there would be no
occasion for any man to be interested in
religion or to maintain the Church. Are
not those who have lost faith in ortho-
doxy disposed to take its teachers at their
word?
Though the sentiments expressed by
Mr.. Lowell in his Harvard oratiop are so
exactly in accord with those we recently
presented in an address on "The College
and the Theological School," we hasten
to assure our readers that we had not in
tervlewed the orator. 1t may be of mo-
ment to the public to know, also, that
MIR. Lowell did not borrow our notes.
But, as loyal to the whole truth, we are
obliged to add, that the careless editor Of
the Leader lost those notes, after we had
solemnly enjoined him to preserve them
as the apple Of his eye; and there is
no telling but Julian Hawthorne found
them and gave them to the poet in ex-
change for chit chat about the Prince of
Wales. To such base uses may we come
at last!
The first installment of the Centuru
papers, which are to constitute the
authentic" biography of Abraham
Lincoln, is deeply interesting; but is less
so from its freshness, or from the literary
art OF the authors, than from the attrac-
tion Of the subject. Not much that is
really new about Lincoln remains to be
told. We have had nearly all, including
some things that had their origin, not in
the annals of the family, nor in the
records OF the great mans life, but in the
inventive brains of the biographers. The
authors of this Life" proclaim the pur-
pose to exclude fiction, and so far they
appear to keep faith with the public. The
letters of Mr.. Lincoln, printed in these
first chapters, tell us more of the man
and of the secrets of his greatness than
any portraiture by others can.
The severe remarks of the President
at the Harvard banquet, upon the course
OF certain newspapers" were abundant
ly justified in view of the impertipent
liberties that have been taken with him
and his family. Yet those remarks, taken
together with some other similar deliver
ances of our respected Chief Magistrate,
show that Mr.. Cleveland is deficient in
humor. He looks at such things point
blank. 1t was the great good fortune of
President Lincoln that he quickly saw
the ludicrous, and SO got the relief which
humor brings to many provoking situa-
tions. President Cleveland would be
less temptation to certain newspapers
If ne were not SO imperturbably serious.
DR.. Herrick johnson gives solid
reasons for the opinion that "High Lii
cense" IN Chicago has not diminished the
evil of drink. The saloons closed by the
operation of high license, were, he says,
the least harmful; those kept running
were and are the most mischievous in the
city. The arrests for drunkenness, which
some consider conclusive evidence of the
merits of a law, have been greater by
many thousands since high license was
inaugurated. Perhaps the most serious
objection to this unique method of pro-
noting temperance is, that the revenue
raised from it makes the saloon about the
most formidable power in politics We
have. Add to all this that it is in the
"best saloons" which high license favors
the existence Of that our noblest youths
are entrapped and led to ruin, and Won
have just cause for Withholding Your en-
thusiasm from this device.
The savagely unfair "review" of Dr
Ely's book, g. The Labor Movement in
America" in the Nation, together with
the several bitter references to him in the
editorial columns, have been great and
painful surprise to the readers of that
usually discriminating if not always eour-
teous journal. There is a manifest ami
mus in the Nation'S treatment of Prof.
Ely: set purpose apparently to cover