Sacramento daily record-union., 1890-04-11
THE POSITION OF THE CHRISTIAN
CHURCH TODAY.
Science and Theology-The Demand for
Scholarship Need for the People
to do Their Own Thinking.


Your editorial is an expression of the same
sentiment. This might not prove so vicious
in its results were not journalism bust.
ness profession and the newspaper bust.
ness enterprise dependent for success upon
public patronage. To be profitable a news.
paper must be read; to be read it must be
popular; to be popular it must find out
what the people want and give it to them.
A journal cannot fix literary standard
very far above the literary standard of its
readers; if it do this it throws its subscrip.
ton list into the hands of its less scrupu.
lous and popular rivals. This is seen in
the fact tina. few, if any, of our institutions
OF the highest learning are self-supporting;
all of them must be heavily endowed ii
they are to employ the best talent upon
their staff of professors. The desire for the
highest education is not general enough to
bring our colleges and universities under
the head of business enterprise.
1t is possible, however, for our newspa.
pers to do much to cultivate a higher
standard by encouraging true thought
wherever it is found and by holding stead
lily before its patrons a high standard OF
reading and amusement. But so long as
newspapers write up the ninetenths of
'AiSheiASci pei iOl WulCu are GlIQ6I
positively vicious or utterly worthless. with
quite as much emphasis as they report the
one truth which is morally and intellectu.
ally eleyating; 50 long as the great blanket
sheets that now appeal to the spirit of SEN
sationalism that is abroad sedulously cul-
tivating that spirit as business enterprise.
the task of few journals of higher taste is
almost hopeless.
Moreover this tendency to superficial
thought is not manifest in journalism
alone; it is becoming alarmingly prevalent
in what have been known always as the
Learned professions" How many people
to-day ever inquire of physician if he
possess degree from college or univer-
slty? l believe the time is not far distant
when our medical societies will be COM
PEELED to admit to fellowship no practi-
toner who has not behind his medical
course thorough collegiate and academic
education. And may | be pardoned if |
remind thinking public that to-day the
only profession which is making a strenu-
Gus demand in this direction is the pro.
fession of the ministry? May say that
there are men who stlgmatize the preacher
as Ignorant and superstitious who could
not secure degree from one of the larger
theological semlnaries of the land because
the ground condition of entrance there is
a degree from some reputable college?
Andover and New Haven, and | doubt not
Union, Princeton and others receive no ap-
pllcants who have not had thorough
academic or collegiate training. This de-
mand is due, no doubt, somewhat to the
fact that theological studies are largely
metaphysical and can be grasped only by
a mind trained in the principle of psychol-
ogy as taught in our colleges and UNIVERSE
/ nd Drnfaee1r
before the young men of Cooper Medical
College that the only thing which can save
physicians from materialism is a solid
basis OF thought in the great principles Of
philosophy.
trust that shall not be accused of ma
ilcious criticism if hint that our lawyers
would have infinitely less temptation to
resort to trickery in the pursuit of their
noble calling were the shysters and petit
foggers weeded out of their ranks by the
demand that no man is worthy admission
to the bar in this age of learning who has
not prefaced his study of law by thorough
collegiate and academic work. The study
of science and philosophy, which so largely
pervades the curriculum of the college to-
day, can alone develop the mind to take
high rank In the learned professions when
ever there shall come the inevitable reac-
edge SO broad that it cannot be deep. That
reaction will surely come. Half-educated
ministers, doctors, lawyers. scientists and
all, will have their day. This age of ego
tlsm which affects to find satisfaction
in few isolated facts, which they can
neither analyze nor systematic, will pass,
and men will demand the credentials of
every dogmatist in theology, law or med
cine.
1t is the glory of the ministry to-day that
its institutions demand the highest instruc-
ton to be obtained in the world. 1t de-
mands investigation and pursues it. Science
discovers the great facts of nature, but it is
the metaphysician who brings them into
philosophical systems and discovers in them
the relations they bear to theology and
religion. And in the extracts from a recent
sermon which you were pleased to publish
Saturday morning l am not in any wise
attacking faith, nor am l in the least de-
preciating the popular intelligence of the
day. / am simply mbatting tue spirit
that would cater to the superficial egotism
now abroad, which seeks to dis
credit Christianity upon assertions un-
supported by indisputable facts. Iwould
not for much give the impression that /
favor an establishment in religion which
shall tell its adherents what they shall
believe and what they shall eschew. l
simply claim that the educated thought
of the pulpit is worthy of a hear
ing; that educated pulpit thought to-day
does not advocate one fact which has not
basis in accord with the data of reason;
that so long as the authors of some of our
greatest textbooks in geology and biology
are humble Christian men, who accept the
facts of revealed religion and the correct
ness and authority of Scripture, it is not
the part of honesty for men to encourage
the popular idea that few facts, or sup
posed facts, of science, gathered from our
newspapers, are as useful as a thorough
knowledge of the principles and relation
ship involved.
1t is not wisdom that will endure for men
to claim that these great questions of re-
vealed religion are settled on the side of
naturalism, when they know, or ought to
know, that they are the most living ques-
tons of debate between the great scholars
of Germany to-day. and that they are be-
ing fought out upon moderately liberal and
not on the former radical grounds. 1t is
not the part of intelligence to befog the
minds of the populace with books like
Robert Elsmere," when the great question
OF German study to-day lies far back of
that as touching the primal question "Is
God personal Being or an impersonal
force?" And so long as liberal Christianity
is Christian, stands by the scholarship OF
the day, announces facts that are no longer
disputed by the worlds great scholars. does
not proclaim an individual wish as uni
versslly conceded fact, remains true to its
mission 10 discriminate fairly between the
human and the divine in Scripture and in
life, II will find no foe in conservative
faith. If it insists upon defining miracle
as contrary to nature, and persists in de-
claring that Christianity depends on the
miracles as proof OF the divinity of Christ,
1t will not be considered as occupying its
legitimate field.
God fmmdnent is a term long in use in
modern theology; God in all things is
surely the meaning of omnipresent. The
great stress that was once laid upon
miracles was due TO the emphasis of the
conception that God is more an objective
power, who once upon time created this