Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1888-06-29


today has to meet are more complicated
than those which lay before the primitive
church This Is readily seen III the theOl-
ogv of the two periods. What we call
modern Christian civilization,
presents tothe thoughtful student of hu-
man we'll being more serious and wide
reaching problems, more possibilities OF
grand achievement on the one hand, and
more dangers on the other, than were
within the possible compass of human
life had that life not been enlarged and
re-impowered by Christianity.
Now our Lords promise anticipates
these future needs and provides for them.
The Spirit shall guide you in all truth and
show you things to come. The church,
humanity, is t to be left Christless and
comfortless to meet these greater and still
greater problems, which will be ever arts
ing. The Spirit abdeth with men for
ever, giving them new light for new emer-
gencies, guiding into larger and larger
truth as the activities and enterprises of
the church are enlarged, and always going
before them and making them ready to
meet the things that are to come. The
later truths may not be intrins cally MS
important as the earlier. Indeed, we must
believe that the substance and heart OF
Gods revelation in the gospel was made
known at the outset But these great
truths are not formulas, not fXltles, but
are endowed with power of indefinite eX
EAnSlOn
great truth for any hour is the truth that
is needed for that hour. And when the
hour comes, and the need presses, and the
old truth, or the old form of the truth,
adequate to the old needs and emergen-
ces, is inadequate to the new occasion,
then, if ever, is the need OF the divine in
SEPARATION and guidance then the church
in its stress and peril cries for contempt.
raneous inspiration and present guidance ;
then the heart, which is often the better
theologian than the head overrules all dog
matte objections to present revelation,
and boldly and believingy asks Gods
Spirit to communicate to it the truth
which is the great need of the hour aud
then is our Lords promise fulfilled, and
the Spirit guides the waiting soul, or
the waiting church, into the whole truth
which is its deliverance and its triumph.
But let it also be noted that the Chris
tan revelation by the Spirit involves an
advance, not only in the truths revealed
hut also in the process of revelation.
More and more Gods Spirit uses human
agencies for the discovery of truth. In
whatever way God in olden time commu-
nicated with men, by dream, or vision, or
inner voice, he now causes men to reach
the truth largely by means of their own
faculties.
Surely, with this faith and this hope
within us, we can turn and face the prob
lens of our day with good heart. Here
are, first, the problems of thought and be-
lief This is trying age for weak faith,
and even for strong faith. Everything is
being disturbed. No belief, no institu-
ton an live in our day simply because it
has lived. 1t must Justify its right to live,
and that in the face of criticism often hos
tile and always searching. Now what is
the proper Christian attitude in such a
crisis 1t is, first of all, to have the
Christian temper-that is, to desire above
all things to know the truth. There is
nothing in the condition of the thinking
world to-day to put the Christian mind
into a panic The Holy Spirit is still in
the world. Christs promise is now in the
hearts of his true disciples. We are being
guided into the truth. The things that
are to come are coming, to us also.
Consider next the social problems which
confront us. Christian society is con
structed on a wholly different system from
that of the ancient Jews. The New Tes-
lament dogs not furnish a social and pc it.
ical code. The consequence is that the
task of constructing Christian social
system is one of the heaviest duties and
one of the most trying responsibilities
laid upon the intellect and heart and will
of Chrstendom. That they have not
wholly failed in their task, and therefore
that they have, presumably, had guidance
therein, is evidenced by the fact that tn e
Christian nations have grown rich and
powerful beyond all nations of former
times, and beyond the non Christian ma
tious of the present. Indeed, many of
the greatest problems of the present arise
out of this uueXampled prosperity. Hav-
ing got beyond the medieval idea that
Christianity is a foe to wealth, we have
not fully learned as yet how to encourage
wealth without encouraging its abuses
how To direct it into the most fertllizing
channels, how TO adjust wealth to The
commonwealth. The Christian doctrine
-
leg the class system which prevailed in
the ancient societies, has brought new and
untrled social factors into the problem
That lowest class. which formerly had its
nam- from it, assigned office OF Degettlng
progeny TO I'LL the armies and perform
mental services for other classes, has been
lifted out Of its legl adatlon, and is now
in the dan gerous condition of knowing its
power without feeling its responsibilities
And, be it remembered that not only
mans material interests bat his higher
concerns, even the highest of all, his
hopes and aims, are bound up with the in
terests we are now considering. Three
great institutions embrace all the coudl-
tons of the highest human ite-the Fam
lily, the State, the Church. And if these
Interests reach their elimination in the
last of the three, the church, its highest
we'll being is conditioned on the relative
well being of the other two. DR. John
son wrote, 100 years ago,
How small of ills that human hearts endure
The part which laws or kings can GAYS: or
cure.
In primitive condition of society this
m ~ be- true. But is 1t true to-day Take
up volume of the compiled statistics of
he nation, or of any of the States and
run over the titles and see in what Il net
work OF relations we are bound with all
our tellOw-citizenS at how many points
our life becomes common with the lives of
others, aud is affected for good or evil by
public codes and institutions how dsas-
trous in its wde-reaching effects is mis-
take in this region, a bad law, or II bad ad-
mlnistration of law, and how narrow
sometimes is the margin between wisdom
and error. And large as is the field of
written law, 1t is next TO nothing com
pared with the unwritten but stringent
and coercive code which makes our social
life what 1t is.
1t thus becomes mOmentOus question
whether we have right to LOOK for divine
guidance in these difficulties. Christ, HIS
we believe, caves for the church, for the
religious life of men. Shall we hesitate
TO say that he is also interested in their
social and political life To deny it would
be TO put a fatal divorce between religion
ana one OF the most important depart
ments of human lite. If God has been in
past history. AS surely be mas, he Will also
I Il. 4.