The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1890-01-27
SOCIALISM IN RELIGION.
HERBERT D. WARDS TALK FOR
BUSY MEN AND WOMEN.

Clubs Good Work Five Great
Catholic Religions, and Their Devel-
opment-The Poor Workers are Our
Palestine Shepherds To-Day, and the
Sages and Princes Must Kneel by
Their Side.
New YoRK, Jan. 25.-The average mind
is always interested in the beginnings of
things. We are curious about the appear
ance Of the first telephone, the first phono-
graph. America is proud that she possesses
that earliest and crudest of all telegraphic
Instruments which the genius of Morse con-
trived, and which is kept on exhibition
under a glass case in the Western Union
building in the city of New York. This is
the age of historical research. Never has
the past been quarried with such persistent
intelligence and accuracy. We know more
about the languages of Greece and Rome
than Demosthenes and Cicero. The begin
nings of history are almost an open and
readable scroll. The beginnings of religion
are at last considered worthy of scientific
treatment.
There are two kinds of religions, the
0ShhlS, hhS Iue LSJ ptldu, WHICH COuIlHeS
Itself TO the interests OF a single race; and
the catholic, which overleaps racial limits,
and aims at the dominion of the world. II
is significant fact that tho five great
catholic religions are the only ones that
have been founded through vivid personal
ity. Their originators believed themselves
inspired with a new and saving truth.
These were Confucius, Buddha, Zoroaster,
Mohammed, and Christ Each of these was
born, eat, drank, married and died like
other men--with one exception.
Our lesson gives us an artistic as well as
a thrilling account of the advent of Christ.
Glance over the second chapter of Luke,
from the eighth to the twentieth verse.
There is no sweeter story in the religious
writings of all the nations of the world.
Not one of their great prophets was born so
picJuresquely and benignly.
AS far as we know, the Chinese do not
claim miraculous phenomena at the birth of
Confucius He was born 55l r. c. His
ancestors were illustrious statesmen in the
kingdom Of Loo. There IS no special in
formation to be had about his birth or ex-
treme youth except that he had the great
est bump of reverence on record, formed on
the top of his head, in consequence of which
he was named "kew."
Who was Zoroasterg This is as great a
riddle as the nature of the Trinity He has
no personal history. His infancy must have
been excessive, for he was born, saccording
to Herlnippus. b. @. $3.50, and according to
Prof Whitney of Yale, b. g. 1000. Marion
Crawford has cleverly exhaused imagina-
tive information in his exciting novel
"Zoroaster." AT best no phenomena are re-
corded, and we know absolutely nothing
about his birth.
Take Mohammed: Here we have history
and plenty OF tradition. He was born at
least Of parents, in Mecca, between 567 and
571 A. ID. Many of his biographers are well
educated up to the necessities of the case,
and insist that his birth was accompanied
by important miracles. The sacred fires of
the Parsees were extinguished. The palace
of the Persian king was shaken. Lake Sawa
dried up, and other innumerable prodigies
occur after the style, aud borrowed from
the apochryphal childhood of Christ. We
do know that, as baby, he had fits,
which increased in intensity as he grew up,
and finally became the conduit of his inpi-
rations AS Mohammedanism numbers
10000, 900 followers we must accept with
respect their miraculous pretensions
By far the most dramatic birth happened
to Buddha, the immortal comeouter of the
Brahmin faith. His followers are 200, 000, 900
strong, and his debut was certainly signih-
cant. The sacred books state that while in
the fourth heaven be determined to save
the world, and SO chose to be born the son
of king in the city of Kapilavasra. His
mother was virgin, and she, too, was a
descendant, like Mary, the mother Of Jesus,
of the kings of the land. Leaving heaven
as a white elephant, Siddartha was con-
ceived as a five-colored ray of light, and
was born in physically impossible way,
about 543 B. c., amid appropriate and re-
spectacle phenomena He had the pre-
cociuy to proclaim his mission as soon as he
arrived.
Leaving Zoroaster, the Magian mystery,
out of account what do we find2 Two
prophets were born in the purple-Con-
fucius and Buddha two in poverty, Christ
and Mohammed. All except Mohammed
traced their descent from kings, and their
b:ographers made the most Of the fact.
Miracles came with three: Buddha, Mo
bammed, and Christ. The most doubtful
miracles are the Mohammedan. BY far the
simplest and most probable demonstrations
attended the birth of Christ. That is APP
parent by easy comparison. In contrast to
the vagueness of outline, the crudity Of the
miracle, how beautiful, we may say, how
reasonable, how satisfactory to tho taste
and to the heart are the phenomena that
ushered the christian savior into the
worldl
1t is striking, fact that The child in the
rock-hewn stable was first welcomed by an
extraordinary social selection. The anti
podes of society bowed before him. The
manual laborer and the brain worker, the
rich and the poor, the shepherd and the
sage, alike received the mysterious sum-
mons and answered the call. Each recog-
nized the worlds master-spirlt imprisoned
in wide-eyed babyhood, and each FASTENED
with significant eagerness and reverence
to accept to give, and to adore.
Here are the tawny guardians of sheep,
the fighters of wolves and Of robbers; be-
side them the silken, intellectual, refined
the most cultured philosophers Of the east
eru world 1t was the first righteous law
pauper should jostle each other in the lime
stone grotto, on the same footing before the
baby king of toleration and equality. We
will venture to say that, at this first service
in the christian church, Joseph, officiating
as doorkeeper, did not shove the homely,
rough shepherd into a back haymow for
the sake Of giving the elegant Magians
full front view.
Christian worship is nothing If not demo-
cratic Many an atheist is born of eccle-
siastical aristocracy. Even the Roman
berretta is frequently known to shade the
sneer of the skeptic. Fine clothes are not
inconsistent with a devout heart, but a
pair of overalls does not necessarily
envelope the lower limbs of heather. Ad-
vanced city workers now know this. The
broad-aisle pews have to hear it--and
bear it.
Probably the new University club In
London, started by Cambridge and Oxford
graduates, situated in the very pulse-beat