Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-08-23
ESPECIAL rrLreRAM To THE DISPATCH,

ESPECIAL TELEGRAM To THE DISPATCH,
LAKE CHAUTAUoUA, August 22.-Rain,
mud and entertainment has made up the
programme of to-day, the former predomi-
mating. Little puddles of water stood all
over the grounds, and were continually aug
menIed by pouring showers, that made the
youth with the tennis suit and racquet seek
a macintosh and an umbrella to keep the
little drops of water from his classic brow.
When it rains the name of the Chautauqua
denizen is not mud" but "stIck in the
mud" and, like everything else at the dem
ocratic assembly, each one gets his share.
This is one thing at least that the assembly
owns exclusively on which there is no per-
| centage or debate.
DR.. Fairborn pleased many of the orthodox
this morning by his lecture on Matthew
Arnold and the attitude of religion, in
which he said:
LITERATURE AND RELIGION.
"The attitude of literature to religion is
| always q most important and momentous
thing. The present is full of hope, for the
| literature of the present century is better
than that of any other. Compare the iitera-
ture of to-day with that of the Restoration.
Take the poets of the century. You find
| them conscientious and religious. Take the
last halt the present century, and you find
our song presented by such men of high
character as Tenhyson, who teaches charity
for women and virtue and purity for men,
| and Browning, with his eternal sense Of
| good. Poetic literature is but the mouth
| piece of God and religion. Newton,
whose works had none of the harshness OF
his everyday life, and Charles and John
Wesley, who gave US the finest evangelical
literature, were the poets, indeed, who kept
alive the iaith. Newman teaches us of the
life; Whittier makes us feel the kindly
speech OF poetry.
when we pass from poetry to fiction we
see great difference. In the last century
there were three great novelists-Fielding,
marvellous in genius, dealt with the un-
cleanly; Sniollet. also very unclean, was no
pure writer for pure minded men. Richard
son is the only one of the three who can be
said to represent the good and religious.
ROMANCE AND REVERENCE.
'In our century look at Scott. When
ever man lives who can follow Scott he
has still faith in men. Thackeray, using his
immense satire to make the mean despised,
and Dickens making the rich In their
parlors feel kinship with the poor in the
slums, Charles Kingley full of the faith of
God, and George Eliot alike noble in her
works-look at it. and do you not see that
the romance of this century is far better than
that of the last century? Have not BRYANT,
Longfellow and Tennyson the power to
show you the truth of Gods faith? Among
our historians Hume and Gibbon, who
never missed occasion to be scornful of a
man of any religion. In the present century
we have Arnold, who blends his religion
and history.
Between men of the last century and the
men OF this there is no comparison as to the
attitude toward religion. There has been
complete change. In science we find men
the last century impious and irreverent,
while in this century you find scientists Of
sceptical tendency.
ANIMATED ENCYCLOPEDIAS.
There are Tyndall and Huxley, the ami
mated cyclopedias of this world, who know
everything. Huxley astonished himself
with his discoveries, though mob ody else. 1t
is an invaluable thing dor theory that we
have so many men who are agnostics but
only nostcs, who, in fact, pretend to know
everything and know nothing. The most |
distinguished mathematician in the world is |
a most revereut man. In America we do |
not forget such men as Agassiz and Gray.
Look at it through and through-in poetry, |
fiction, history and science, you will find |
that authors, though men of genius, are
men of God. You find in ancient times
men like Socrates, Plato, Aristotle,
Sophacles, Empides, were ali anxious to do |
away with the old style of Greek religion,
Socrates died for his infdelity by the pois-
onous hemlock.
HT wieh n annroooh onJ ....t-
Matthew Arnold, who wished to mediate
prenaturalism and the old faith. Arnold be-
gan life as thinker purely and as an apostle
of culture, and he ended it as a man who
found that it was his duty to interpret the
faith for the people. His life was in exact
contrast with that of Strauss.
COMMON SENSE CHRISTIANITY.
GAS Arnold matured, felt the sorrow and
tasted the pain OF life he came to believe in
the eternal meaning of Christ. He who
started as an exponent of art instead of re-
lgion, ended with religion instead of
art. Matthew Arnold had great mission
to perform in this age. He came to tell US
was to get at the kernel, and that
kernel was morality. Many ministers have
forgotten Righteousness in their zeal
for souls Arnold was often q very blind
man, and q man that cannot understand
living people cannot understand the dead.
He pronounced most grave judgment when
he said that America was not interesting
If he had brought instead of an ideal OF
culture an open eve that could have seen
all the progress of your institutions he
would not have said So Then he would
have seen that everything In this county is
full of interest for man from England,
and that man man of culture. He forgot
that the most important element in religious
life is the religious or ethical element.
A BASELEsS REPRoACH.
''If ever there was profane and baseless