St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1890-04-21
Rev. w. S. Vail Delivers a Tell
ing Sermon Before the
Universalists.
Religious Experience = An
Idea Studied in the Light
Of It's Evolution.
Be Sure That We Have a Real
Inspiration; Not a Nerv-
Gus Spasm.
Two Religious Experiences
From the Life Of the Elo-
quent Preacher.

Rev. W. S. Vail, of the First Uni
versaliSt church, yesterday delivered
very eloquent discourse on "The Re-
| ligiOus Experiences Common Idea
| Studied in the Light of Its Evolution
A carefully condensed report of his
sermon reads:
| Religion, says Max Muller, is an APP
prehenSiOn of the Infinite in such way
| as to influence moral character. There
are at least two elements in the defini-
ton. There must be some power, not
ourselves, that makes for righteousness.
| Differ as we may in regard to theory, in
regard to location, the method,
the relation of God to man. and
| hundred other important and unim-
| portant details, we must come at last
! in religion to believe that there is an
| active, intelligent First One, still as
near man as ever, still as active as ever,
| still as able to speak as in any past age,
! and that man by the very constitution
of his being is able to respond. We
| may not look for the great white throne,
| the angelic choir, the very man-like
god we hear of so many times. Indeed,
! the whole matter may we'll be
| left in the mystery that must ever
/ SIllOulll 1t. VIC SilOulu HUI Ut dSlldulGu
| to say, have never seen nor dol eX-
| pect to see His form, but | have within
me an endowment by which men have
learned and known truth, the divine
may inflow so that | shall receive it, and
l shall thus know from experience the
meaning of the apprehension of the
Infinite in such way as to influence
conduct"
Is not the subject one of perennial in
terest? The philosopher walking III the
shadows OF academic groves, or in the
market place, with barred head, gather
ing around him the young, the be-
reaved, the seeker after truth; the
monk walking the length of his dark
cloister and telling off his beads, or the
| tender mother sitting in the cleaning,
| looking at the broken hat and haIf-Worn
| shoe she has just brought out
| from some secret place unseen by
! curious eyes, have not all these in all
| the years of long experience cOgitated
| with alternate CLEANS of light and
| hours of darkness, the deep, perpexing
| problems of mans hope and doubt?
And as prominent senator said but
| few days ago, is it not significant that
men must needs have this conclusion?
| And does not modern agnosticiSm stop
at point where it is perfectly willing
for man to find in hope present in
splration. solace in trouble, stay in
time of agitation?
l believe with Max Muller, too, that
| you can only appreciate the present by
| getting an idea of the past, that no idea
| is what it is without some influence
| from the remote ages. and that all
| preachers should remember this.
Dr.. Vail referred to the sun worship
ers and Drudism, proceeding: "But
next above these conditions we find that
which undertakes to approach the in
finite directly. 1t is full of truth and
full of the most dangerous falSehocd.
And the serious trouble is that we find
it very hard to tell where the truth
begins and where the talseh0od
ends. When we see Joan OF
Arc, leaving the forests of Domremy
to find home in the military camp,
wearing away the armor of the soldier,
and inspiring men to the rashest deeds
of daring, VINO can tell where the ex-
perience was hallucination and where it
was real genuine inspiration? Peter
the Hermit called men to the crusadeS.
They gathered with the cross for an
emblem, and, listening to the claim that
he had been inspired to this work, they
marched away to die under the
burning suns in distant land.
Who to-day thinks that this experience
was more than a mental delusiOn? Many
of you have read the meditations of st.
Theresa. They have been lauded to
the skies. They have been recon-
mended to the young and the old as
method of prayer that distracted men
from sense; she infinitely described the
feelings engendered, told how one rose
as Oh the wings of power until at last
one was in condition that could
be fitlv embiemed by diamond palace,
filled with beauty and light But we
feel somehow that this was an abnormal
condition. We know now that by eX-
pecting given condition. we are very
apt. if we have strong belief, to find it.
DR.. Carpenter tells of men once lost
from ship; how at evening some one
called out in twilight that he was COM
ing, walking on the water; how the
most careful of the party, surprised
and expecting to see that apparition.
was rewarded by seeing what seemed to
all at first the person. but proved to be,
when somebody recovered far enough
to recognize it, floating board. These
inner experiences should be most care
fully watched, They may dec eive us
without leading us to God. There may
be more true religious service in the
long hours of work that Mr..
Edison spends in maturing a
plan to give us cheap light
and heat than in all the visions ever re-
corded. And great peace convention
gathered for the purpose of carrying
out the ideas of an industrial age, and
staying the current of blood that red
war has kept flowing for so many cent
uries is certainly more full of God and
ADLER to show us how to come into that
relation with the Father than all the
visions of all the saints, Knowing that
the senses are deluded. and that we do
in so many cases go aStray from truth,
we must have strong buttreSs here.
And to the study of the needed knowl-
edge we may address ourselves.
AT this point the preacher turned to
the still higher manifestation of the idea
of experience. We are to find our truth
right along this line so full or danger.
We must directly apprehend the Infinite
character. But we must be sure that
we have a real inspiration and not a
mere nervous spasm. The speaker said
he had received two experiences that
were of a character that might be called
real religious convictions. When he
| read Lecky he was assured that man
was endowed with an undylng impulse
| to higher life: that il the world had
been subject to decay, it would have de-
caved during the worst days Of Rome;
that surviving all the evil of those
times it can, and ia the end must go
right, and therefore the only true hap
piness is in following our highest ideal.
The other experience came when he
| read 'sLes Miserables." 1t came with
the reading of the passage called "a
Tempest in Brain" and he was as
sured by all his observation that the
man was so constituted that he might
receive direct influence from the Inf
mite; but we must be cautioned here,
for we must measure our impulse by
the ideal life of Christ, and we must
ever keep before US the experience of
the human race, for Carlyle has we'll
said, ''Fhe history of man is Bible,
plenarily inspired to him who can UNI
derstand it,