St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1888-04-12
A TIMELY DISCOURSE.
Fast Day Sermon by Rev. Edward I
Fairbanks.


The annual Fast day sermon was
this year delivered by Rev. Edward T.
Fairbanks at the South church. Those
who constituted the unusually large
audience that was present listened to a
characteristic and hence remarkably
good sermon by Mr.. Fairbanks, found
ed on the parable of the unclean spirit
returning to the swept and garnished
house, out of which he had gone,
and, finding it empty, "taketh with
himself seven other spirits more wick
ed than himself, and they enter in and
abide there: and the last state of that
man is worse than the frst," Matt. xii,
43-45. The central thought of the dis
course was that as a people we are in
danger of devoting our energies to
the casting out of evil. without exer-
cising corresponding care as to what
| comes in. After speaking of some di-
rect applications of the parable to the
times in which it was spoken, Mr.
Fairbanks said -
The point that remains over, for us,
out OF all this, is, to mark what goes
In, even more than what goes out.
Of course we have to do with both,
but of the two the casting out process
is rather more talked about and pub
licly recognized. A large amount of
righteous energy is massed against the
evil spirits of this generation to get
them out. None to much, in fact not
half enough, yet more than ever be-
fore. 1t is generally felt that eternal
vigilance is the price of liberty from
every unclean spirit. Therefore these
are times of organization and strategy,
as for long campaigns in routing out
the enemy.
If an iniguity swells to size enough
to attract attention, it is not long be-
fore some specially constructed battery
is playing on it to put it out. The
magnitude of an evil may be guessed
from the proportions of the opposing
machinery. "PrOhibition" is a big
word, big thing in conception it
must be big to front the huge demon it
proposes to dislodge. But on the other
hand the Society for the Prevention of
Cruelty to Animals, if not big, is of
size enough to have title and a true
work and a place in history, and | will
say in passing, if the cruel spirit aim
ed at is not always cast out, the ridi-
culing spirit, once in the foreground,
is already so far on its retreat from the
popular heart, that the name of Henry
Bergh is spoken now with tender ac-
cent through the world.
think it may be said that men are
growing quick to see wrongs, and anx-
iOus to be rid of them. Ten thousand
societies of every grade, complexion,
| speciality, are taking them in hand,
with intent to put them out. A char
acteristic feature this is, of our gener-
alton. A token that there is more pub
lie conscience than there was once, and
better hope of humanity. This
would easily pass for the foremost ele-
ment of social progress, if it were not
that one other is more sO,-nOt al
ways seen so. The question, viz
what is going in, after something has
gone out: this above all others is the
question for the family, the school, the
church, for every ordinary person at
tending a public service on Fast day.
The time when evils are being re-
pressed or eliminated, is at once a time
of peril and of opportunity. O Oh
peril, which lies in the very fact of inn
provement. The paradox is true, that
being better is even dangerous. When
a sick person has got considerably well
along, there is the point of danger, eat
ing too much, going out too soon, or do
! ing something which comes from the
very circumstance of feeling so we'll
The world at large regards itself bet
ter in morals than it once was, which
quite likely may be true, at any rate
it is more swept and garnished. Il
will not tolerate some things that uset
to go unchallenged, as for example, 6
Legare with slave whip, or a tippline
parsOn.
The world smooths it's front anG
thinks it is getting on finely, ever
without taking much of dose of med
icine,-religiOn for further improve
ment. Why here is just what trans
pired with the man relieved of the
devil that had been in him, and wei
satisfied to have gained that attain
ment of emptiness.
Any improved condition involves
this perilOus liability of being satisfied
too soon, or of over reckoning the
gains. 1t is not confined to the gener
al world, even the church falls unde
it's beguilement, easily satisfied tina
something has been cast out, that with
in its fold life is more swept and gar
nished than outside. This is not nev
case. For look at the early church
The tenacious spirit of Judaism, so hare
to be exercised even in apostolic days
is now at last we'll out but what ar
J these that we see cautiously edglni
their way into the sacred enclosure
These are seven fair, false spirits tina
soon sit on the seven hills, with a pom
tiff and a tiara. When, later, grea
casting out of these was effected in TIN
3 reformations of Northern Europe, u
rose two twin spirits whose reputabl
names "DEIsM, RATIoNALIsM," wer
calculated to deceive the very elect
did in fact deceive them and gai
= places at the altar. No sooner again
, was the ,Jesuistic demon gotten out c
France than the atheistic demon cam
in and with it the red ravage of revo
J. luton. When the coming of WilliaI
8 and Anne had relieved the Englis
4 church of one tyrannic spirit, then en-
tered it's opposite, the spirit of liberal
t ism to foster an irreligious religion
a The more recent purgations of church
S life, both in the old world and in our
Z have not prevented the entering of sew
, en- times as many sorts of deceiviD
l spirits so that today, while swept {
old shames and shams, of bigotries an
8 heresies, garnished with prophetic
u and fine attainments, even while bt
stirring itself to large enterprise-th
} bulk of the church of Christ neverthe
e less, from the very circumstance of il
| tyUn IPit