St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1888-09-10
THE FUTURE RELIGION.
1t Will Furnish Us With New Con
ceptions of God and Man.

CCDttOuS Vi OoN ettEu 4fA
Rev. d. j. Burrell, at Westminster
church yesterday morning. preached an
interesting sermon from l. Thes., ", 81.
He said:
These are progressive days. The
world is moving Oh, and it behOoves us
to move with it. .Old things are pass
ing away; behold, all things are be-
coming new. The scythe, the spinning
wheel, the numbering stage coach have
given way to better things. New in
Ventions and discoveries are the order
of the day. We have new chemistry,
a new political economy-imprOvements
in all provinces of thought and industry.
tine old, ring in the new" We are fire.
uuently reminded that the doctrines of
the old-fashiOned gospel are obsolete
and superannuated; that the church
is losing its hold on the masses,
and that the moral convictions
of the race are taking new
departure. Our ''free-thinking" and
s'liberal'' friends, infdels and unde-
vOut noviceS in science, are particularly
fond of saying these things. We are on
the verge of moral breakup, and our
friends the enemy have ready-made
religion for the occasion when it shall
occur. Let US project ourselves into
the future and see what this improved
order of things will be.
The religion of the future will furnish
us with new conceptions of God, man
and Gods relations with man.
FIrst-God. 1t will not deny Cod
for the world has had enough of bald
atheism but it will depersonaliZe Him.
Its god will be law, force, all-pervading
soul, or 1.-THE something not ourselves
that maketh for righteousness" In
this theology there will be no room for
retributive justice, providence or
prayer, for its god is without arms, eyes
or heart
IAN immense, solitary speeter stands;
Its name is Nothingness."
Second-Man. We have been accus-
toned to think of man as created in
Gods likeness. This is mistake, says
the new religion; man is evolved from
the pOlyp via the anthropoid ape, by
series of marvellous laws, such as
heredity, natural selection and survival
of the tittest. He is creature of cir
cumstances, the product of his environ
ment. His moral, as well as his physi-
cal nature, is developed. Mind is phos-
phorus; thought is the result of atomic
friction; soul is as material as flesh.
What follows? Man is neither respon-
sible nor immortal; and as responsible
ity and immortality are the two pillars
of character, we have no longer an in
spiratiOn in life.
aThird-The relation of God with man
This is religion; from re-ligare, the
binding back of the soul to God. But
the religion of the future fails to meet
the demands of this definition, and is
really no religion at all, for it leaves
| out all that men have found spiritually
| helpful. 1t leaves out the old story of
| Bethlehem and the cross. 1t leaves out
the apostles creed and all other definite
statements of belief. 1t dispenses with
the Bible land offers nothingin its stead.
But this will never come to pass.
The hopes of liberalism will never be
fulfilled. Everything is going right.
The world grows better every day, and
the spirit in the wheels of progress is
the spirit of God. The gospel of to-day
has constituency of 100000, 900 of
souls, embracing every civilized nation
on earth. And every day adds new
recruits to the great army of the cross.
God works in all things; all obey His
| first propulsion from the night. Wake
thou and watch! The world is gray
with morning light.