Wichita eagle., 1888-05-01
INTELLECTUAL HOSPITALITY.

ILLS was Cne singular UueIle UPON WAiSA
Dean Adams discoursed Sunday evening
| at St Johns church. This theme was
evidently not selected by the Dean because
of its singularity but becauseit is perfect
verbal embodiment of the germ thought
of his lecture. He began by showing the
difference between the Nation Or the
| Church and party. The tree must be
more than any limb, OF flower, or leaf
| it. So the Nation or the Church must be
greater than the party which it contains,
which is composed of the citizens, the sub
| jects, or the communicates. One Is apt to
| think his party very important, but 1t
really never amounts to very much. The
| partizan is always narrow of very neces-
sity, for the part is and must be based
upon one phase of the truth.
The partizan cannot be intellectually
hospitable. He must admit into his mind
only one-half, or one portion, more or less
than half of the truth. This may seem a
| singular use of the word hospitable. The
common thought of hospitality is upon
the physical plan. A man invites fire.
| quently to his table. He gives of his wine
and his cigars freely. He welcomes with a
smile and entertains with a laugh We
think and speak of him as hospitable. SO
he is. But in another sense he may be in
| hospitable He may have no patience
with those who do not agree with him, he
entertain no opinions save those one-sded
ones of his own particular party. The
truly hospitable man welcomes not only
any and everyone to his home, but every
opinion and shade of opinion to his mind
He says to all theories and to all facts
OF Of ha 1at+ t+ara nd
what is true of the former.
In this way there may be a service-not
to the sect-not to the party-but to the
church and to the nation. Had Yancey,
Figfalls Hunter. Davis, from the
south, and Phillips, Ganetrou, and
Smith, from the north, met-could
| they have met and under the wings
of perfect hospitality talked matters over
our terrible civil war might have been
averted-unless God designed that the
great republic should suffer for the great
wrong done the black man. We can only
look at this matter from the human point,
of course, but looking back one shudders
at the blood and the groans shed by the
passing generation, (which is but frag-
ment," and shuddering he asks could
they uot have been spared the nation?
Certainly intellectual hospitality might
save blood, and groans, and treasure in
the future. Take the socialists, the an
archists-are they all dishonest men2 |
can not believe it! They are feeling
around blindly for relief. They see in
their half blindness truth as man that
stumbles. Though they are so wrong con-
cretely, in their actions, there is an ab
struth ia their position. DO not /, if l
have been fortunate, owe something to my
unfortunate brother who knocks at
my door? Might not great good come of
the great Republican or great Democratic
party's giving hosptable attention to the
notions of the socialists, whose members
constantly increase in our land? Might
not this be better than hanging thom?
Understand me; my mind is full of con-
demnation for their violent methods, but
might not the republic be saved from
these methods by little hospitality of at
tention? The individual anarchist might
rounded thought.
There is death in that selfishness which
lies at the heart or the party 1t lay at
the heart of the nation of Rome and she
passed away 1t lies at the heart, of very
Necessity, Oh every IuulNluudl man, anu
he must pass away. There is life only in
love. 1t is not because God loves himself
that the universe stands. but because he
in love is giving himself constantly. The
nation las history shows) can live only SO
long becouse seltishness is necessary to her
national life. Is there no hope.
Where can this hope be found save in
church at whose altar beats the heart of
Christ? l say it with a charity that |
would like to have know no bounds, but
this hope is not in sectarianism-not, for
instance, in Presbyterianism or Methodism,
for in these bodies they try for heresy, as
they did in so-called liberal Christianity.
Who can remain an Unitarian or an Uni |
versalist without subscribing to the creed
written or unwritten? A sect must stand
for portion of truth. The church stands |
for the truth. These things l say not to |
find fault with the denominations of
which l have spoken-that is not my
mission-but that the church may appear |
in the fullness of her glory of love and |
intellectual hospitality.