St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1890-09-15
FROM SECULAR TO SACRED.


ed Into a Church for Universal
lists.
The Grand opera house was filled yes
terday morning, even the galleries con-
tanning fair congregation, assembled
as the First Unlversaiist church, with
Rev. w. S. Vail in the pulpit, The
music was especially fine, the features
being the voluntary of Brooke's cornet
quartette and Mrs. Ash's solo, with
violin obligate by Van Goetzen. Rev.
Vail preached on the theme Il Ought,
and What 1t Implies" taking his text
from Numbers: Every Obligation of
Theirs Snail Be Most Holy"
Nothing, said a celebrated phIloso-
pher, SO fills me with awe as view of
the starry heavens and the sense of
mans moral responsibility. And be-
lieve there is no subject more fruitful
in suggestion than this; and while l
shall not attempt to analyZe it, l shall
try TO explain some of its implications
as we make practical survey of its
Outworking i'll the history of the world.
And if L may take you to the home of
primitive man and enter into his strug
giles just at that point where he sees the
first faint promise of his higher life,
where we hear just as we do in the
faint peepiDgs of the unfiedged lark the
prophecy of the higher nature; then
and there we shall find that his first
revelation was sense of obligation to
some power outside himself, unseen,
active, enduring; and for that reason
l suppose primitive man to have used
such frequent reference to the sun and
light in connection with his idea of
the legendary north, or with the hiSto-
Ran to early Britain, and in either case
watch the "wassail bowl" go round and
see the results, we see man falling
back to his animal instinct and trying
to get on all tours again: but when we
see him confronted by his conscience at
this stage. and his sense of obligation
calling to him to stand erect in the po-
sition he is intended to occupy, then we
see that already the first revelation has
been made, that he knows good and
evil, that he can never go down in the
mire again without the feeling of degra-
dation, that he is in his poor way new
creature because he has been born into
world of progress, hope and struggle,
though it be world of pain. Our first
CATION endowS man with knowledge,
and an indefinite sense of God.
And then you are prepared to hear me
preach practical gospel. The influ-
ence of that gospel has nowhere been
| set forth with more vigor than in the
recent essay in the Forum by Prof. Tyn-
| dali. recommend it not only for the
| vigor of its rhetoric, but because in il
| you have man whose life has been
| based on conviction. DR.. Tyndall was
| first of all an admirer of Carlyle and
Emerson. The recollection of two
| Scotch lads on the steps of the Edin-
burgh university hall, both very awk.
ward, both very poor, but the one full
of conviction, saying to the other: 81
| tell thee, Jock, two lads from Amman.
dale will yet show the blood of the Car
| IyleS," was to him strong tonic. And
the teaching of these masters he re-
vered with the enthusiasm of saint
1.-The Alpha and Omega of their teach
ing was loyalty to duty. Higher knowl
edge and greater strength were within
| reach of the man who unflinchingly en-
acted his best insight" Go with this MAI
to the mountains on his long walks thai
health may aid him in his work; see
| him curb his appetite that he may moi
| clog his brain by sleepinesS; watch hin
as he trains himself to see what course
| is best to preserve him for sixteen hours
work at a stretch; follow him in the
Alps as he resists cold that steals upor
| him like a thief in the night, while a
the same time he studies the open booI
of nature. And you, young man, wheI
you see his sacrifice of self to the worl
he has in hand, and then compare you
hours of the last week and the way yol
spent them with what you read of hin
and his devotion, will you tell me if you
find anything in it to explain to you hoy