St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1888-11-19
A MINISTER'S ERROR.
Rev. w. S. Vail Pays His Re-
SpectS to a Minneapolis
Divine.
A Recent Novel Furnishes a
Theme for an Able Dis
course.
Miracles No Greater Wonder
Than the Invention Of the
Telephone.
Progress OF the Age Fore
Swallowed Hall a century
Ago.

Ago.
A scholarly, outspoken and instruct
i've sermon was delivered by Rev. w. S.
Vail yesterday morning. Mr.. Vail Is
pastor of the Universalist society which
meets in the Peoples theater. There
was large attendance to hear the dis
course announced, Robert Elsmere-
His Religious Struggles" and the great
est interest was manifested as to the
manner in which the matter would be
treated. Robert ElSmere is the book of
Mrs. Humphrey Ward which has, within
the present year, obtained a worldwide
notoriety. The book is under the ban
| of religious fanatics in England and
this country, but for all that it has had,
and is continuing to have,an enormous
sale. Mrs. Ward is the daughter of an
Oxford professor, and descendant Of
Thomas Arnold, of Rugby fame. The
character aid scope OF her book are
clearly outlined in the utterances OF
M. Vail, who prefaced his address by
stating that when Dean Stanley was in
this country several years ago he gave
& number OF lectures to Young men in
the colleges, and one Of the things he
said was: IF you desire to under
stand anything put it in its historic
connection when we come 20 look
at this book which has made SO pro-
found an impression upon our time"
remarked tls clergyman. 1--WE must
not take it into ST. Pau and the state of
Minnesota, and cut off all connection
With anything outside. Ii we do we
shall undoubtedly miss the main facts
OF its leading thoughts and embodi-
ments. When we tura our eyes to
SOME STRUGGLE OF MEN
we find it enwrapped by what dramatic
critics call the enveioping cause. SO it
is with this book. 1t is not q book to be
looked at by itself, but in connection
with its encircll1g and enveloping
actions. and he who fails to understand
these will fail to understand the true
aim and nature of the work. This book
is part OF a great movement of Almighty
God. Whitfield went out and preached
entirely from the emotional side of
mans nature. Standing in the fields
within sound of the birds sweet notes.
where the corn wreathS played beside
hin and made sweet music, he SWayed
with his single voice ten, fifteen and
twenty thousand people, and SWayed
great multitudeS as the wheat field is
SWayed by the summer wind. 1t was
movement that found quick response.
He swept all England. together with
John Wesley, as the tornado sweeps the
prairies.'' NJ. Vail, instanced other
intellectual works, and predicted that
those of Prof. Thomas II. Green
('Henry Gray'). who, until after his
death, was unknown save to a little
circle of students, would fifty years
hence raise him to Il high niche among
the worlds NEST famous men. We are
to-day in the midst of great intellect
ual movement. because God has seen fit
to make one of those epochs that are
to be
WRITTEN DOWN IN HISTORY.
About the year 1880 there began one
OF tile worlds greatest intellectual
efforts. Prof. John Coates, in eXamin-
ing this question, has pointed out most
clearly the fact that nearly all our pres
ent knowledge has been rewritten since
the year 1880. Prof. Freeman has
further pointed out that nearly all the
historians who have standing at the
present day have changed cir meth
eds of work since 1880. A new litera-
ture Of history has been written since
then. In every direction-in criticism,
philosophy, development, exposition.
everything of the kind has been changed
since that time. Prof. Huxley, with
that gigantic grasp of facts for which he
is noted. has written an elaborate re-
view Of history, science and philosophy
in the past fifty years. God chose that
year--lS30-as the beginning of this
movement. 1t is going Oh, and we feel
h. I,,A hot
commenced with the great universities,
and Oxford university was the seat Of
much of its power, and vast amount of
its radiating influence that has been
felt. more or less, to the most distant
parts of the civilized world. To read
Robert Elsmere you must have some
knowledge of this great oxford move
ment. 1t was begun and carried on in
two directions. On the one side, tradi-
tional faith, it was carried on by Cardinal
John Henry Newman and Oh the other
by Prof. Thomas Arnold. There are
several characters in the book, but
there are three in whom we are the
ologlcally interested. They are Gather
Inc, the squire and Robert Esmere.
They are not characters built out of the
imagination, but are the results of a
great movement, ideas rather than peo-
pie. Inc IrSI we Will turn our aItell-
ton to is Catherine. Her form and ner-
sonal appearance is an index to her
character. Tall and slender, as grace
full as
THE ASPEN OF THE FOREST,
imbued with great physical endur-
ance--a person who is entirely self-pos-
sessed, SO that she can go in without
tremor and tell a man that he must die
the next day and prepare himself to
meet God; person who never allowed
herself under any circumstances to lose
the complete mastery Of her feeling.
emotion and thought. She embodied
two ideas: First, the Puritan
idea of what religious per-
son should be, together with
that High church idea developed by
Cardinal Newman. She never suS-
pected that anybody else could be right :;
she never thought for moment that
she could be wrong. She held certain
opinion, and to that opinion she stood as
the slender rock stands breasting the
waves of the sea. There a great many
people who believe just that way. Last
Sunday the most popular minister in
Minneapolis said to a body of young
men: "Fer Gods sake don't read that
| book, because it will shake your faith.
Don't examine it. because it will knock
you to pieces" Oh, dear, / pity the
man who cannot read anything outside
! of what he believes. In this nineteenth
century such advice is very poor. l