, 1886-03-14
WARD BEEGHER.
HE SAYS THE ADVANCE OF CHRIS
TlANlTY IS SLOW.

Clay on the Wheel. Before We Can
Know That We VIII at the End be a
beautiful Structure.
BROOKLYN, March T.-Mr. Bcecher took
for his text Romans viii, 3jsg;
"Who shnll separate us from the love Of
Christi Shall tribulation, or distress, or per
s%ccution, or famine, or nakelness, or peril, or
swordi
"As it Is written for thy sake we art killed
nll the day long we are accounted as sheep
for the slaughter.
May, in all these things we are more than
conquerors through him that loved us.
For | am persuaded, that neither death,
nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor
powers, nor things present, nor things TO
come.
Nor height, nor depth, nor any other
creature, shall be ablo 10 separate us from
the love of God, which is in Christ Jesu, our
Lord
Not only is this a climax Of emotion and
thought, but it is "a climax growing out Of
that which Is in itself the mystery ana the
wonder OF revelation. It Is not strange that
when we are told that this whole physical
globe has an architect, and that it is wrought
out with consummate skin, and that there is
a general providence that maintains law and
through law maintains existence, and that
there are great moral lines and distinctions
by which men classify themselves as good or
bad, and thai there Is a self-executing PEN
atty and a self-executing reward attached TO
the one side or the other, obcdient or disobe-
dient-all these things seem quite rational
We have n logic that can hold them together
and appreciate their revelations. and on the
whole be satisfied; but when it is told US that
tho central flame Of the universe is love, and
especially II we have been brought up as | was
and many Of you have been, TO n conception
OF n sternly just king, who ~alternatiyely
ends himself TO love, but -governmentally
was bound to defend law and Justice, and
would mako no allowance for sin except
abandoned and repented Of; 10 NIL that had
been accustomed to think Of love as IA state Of
mind produced by something.that was lovely,
the wonder of the world, and the wonder OF
the world TO come, will be AS of this world it
is, that this declaration, made so wide,
so various, so intensive, from the very
lowest Of the earth in ascension TO
the very topmost heaven, covering time and
eternity-this declaration of the strength Of
the love Of God to man, not our love TO God,
but the love of God shown through Jesus
Christ to us, 1t is certainly necessary, that
is to say the state Of things in this world
makes it Of transcendant importance, that
we should hive this truth made known, il it
be a truth. And to n rejecting mind, while
the idea is beautiful, the difficulty is in recon
cling to ourselves the fact that there is such
a central love and that the whole march Of
the universe Is TO the tune Of love. 1t seems
well nigh impossible TO my man that thinks
and observes.
With the exception of the Jewish religion
| think that | may say without any danger
or without danger Of erring that there never
has been established a religious belief in any
nation, early on late, that had risen to any
conception of the nature of God. Nor, in the
earlier periods, do | see very well how it could
have been other than that, since mans
ideas Of God are not thrust into him as
arrows nrc shot into n mark, but they
grow out Of knowledges that he has
around about him, and he cannot know
OF God much fnster than the knowledge Of
moral relations, purity, nobility are devcl-
oped in this world. At any rate, all the gods
of antiquity, of the most refined nations, are
barbaric essentially; streaked, veined with
those selislinesses, and with pride, and with
vengefulness, that belong TO the barbaric and
savage human nature. 1 do not recall one
single one Of all the NEUROLOGICAL hosts
which represent central, DISTINGUISHED, pure
love. All the Grecian gods had their favor
ties, and to them benign and protecting; their
enemies, and to them deyilish- And the in
corporations even given to the God Of the
Christian world have not been far removed;
Influenced, indeed, l believe, by these notions
Of the NEUROLOGICAL god; We are taught
loyeliness, admire beauty, ere on the whole in
favor Of virtue once in u while, like justice,
but are after all arbitrary, imperious, des-
potic, easily irritated, requiring plaza
ton, and placation oftentimes that is 10
be made by blood itself. So that in all the
world there has grown up from nature
but one religion hat taught us at first with
comparatively feeble voice, but with grow
ing emphasis through the ages, that God the
eternal, the one universal gOvefnor-His
name is love, and that Is the teaching and
that was the mission that Christ had TO this
world; to make known the mystery Of ngps;
that the central motive element in this uni
versc was divine love.
Now this scums TO strike right against ma
trrc itself Such a conception OF God could
scarcely seem to be drawn from the operations
Of MIXTURE. When | consider what the system
is upon which life has been established in this
world, its elemental forms, its gradual unfold
ing and development, its contamination
finally in the human family, and In the
human family the primitive condition Of the
race ont of which they crept very slowly into
barharism from savage state, aud out OF tho
barbaric state slowly into tA3 nascent
civilization and GENERALIZATION. and how
tho world waited Thousands AMI thousands Of
years for the ascension Of its race, and until
we came to the present hour, when four-ffths
Of the human race still ART sitting in the ns-
gion Of the shadow Of death. Whom une con-
siders that this is the story that nature tolls
Us, and that by reason of Ignorance and I'M
tanned passions, by reason OF the want
OF any direct restraining power in govern
mcnts or in religious beliefs and faitla
the human family has scarcely BON better
than the prowling beasts OF tls forests OF The
devouring insects that ovrrcrawl zach other
so that rupinc. which is emily organized theft
and deceit, anil living, and all forms Of cxcite
mcnt Of the chase, and all war. whero man t.
the beast chased; all forms of rude violence
have been developed in the human nco, and
that Tor generations, and again for genera
tons, and still for generations, for years and
for centuries. and thousands Of centuries.
slowly still unfolding, little by little. with
tormants and bloodshcd, and prosecutions,
and sicknosses, and pes~tilencos, aud earth
quakes, and oil manner OF commissions that
had afflicted the human family. | do not
wonder that a man stands aloof and says the
idea that there is a central motive power any
where that Is governing TINS world by love X
prcpostorous The facts are all against IT,
And II il be a fact, there never was a fuct
moro necessary 10 be made known by inspira
ton than that Nor do we get much relief
when We come 10 look into human life, even
in is best estate. We know perfectly well
that goodness anil rectitude arr bet
ter tran evil and ~disoboiience Of natural law;
nevertheless, hooking over the fates Of men.
many mon go down from violation OF natural
law, bat here is d good man who has risen 10